The Case of the Baited Hook

Rating:
Summary: Gardner rules!
Review: A masked woman, a third-part of a ten thousand bill, a dubious deal and a nice murder (of course!): these are the elements in yet another great case in which Perry Mason displays his astonishing abilities to unveil the truth. Alibi analysis is fundamental in this one!

Rating:
Summary: Top-Notch Page-Turner in the Perry Mason series
Review: Background: The stylistic heritage of the Perry Mason mysteries is the American pulp magazines of the 1920s. In the early Mason mysteries, Perry - a good-looking, broad-shouldered, two-fisted, man of action - is constantly stiff-arming sultry beauties on his way to an explosive encounter that precipitates the book's climactic action sequence. In the opening chapters of these stories, Gardner subjects the reader to assertive passages that Mason is a crusader for justice, a man so action-oriented he is constitutionally incapable of sitting in his office and waiting for a case to come to him or to develop on its own once it has - he has to be out on the street, in the midst of the action, making things happen, always on the offensive, never standing pat or accepting being put on the defensive. These narrative passages - naïve, embarrassingly crude "character" development - pop up throughout the early books, stopping the narrative dead in its tracks, and putting on full display a non-writer's worst characteristic: telling the reader a character's traits instead of showing them through action, dialogue, and use of other of the writer's tools.

Rating "Ground Rules": These flaws, and others so staggeringly obvious that enumerating them is akin to using cannons to take out a flea, occur throughout the Gardner books, and can easily be used (with justification) to trash his work. But for this reader they are a "given", part of the literary terrain, and are not relevant to my assessment of the Gardner books. In other words, my assessments of the Perry Mason mysteries turn a blind eye to Erle Stanley Gardner's wooden, style-less writing, inept descriptive passages, unrealistic dialogue, and weak characterizations. As I've just noted, as examples of literary style all of Gardner's books, including the Perry Mason series, are all pretty bad. Nonetheless, the Mason stories are a lot of fun, offering intriguing puzzles, nifty legal gymnastics, courtroom pyrotechnics, and lots of action and close calls for Perry and crew. Basically, you have to turn off the literary sensibilities and enjoy the "guilty" pleasure of a fun read of bad writing. So, my 1-5 star ratings (A, B, C, D, and F) are relative to other books in the Gardner canon, not to other mysteries, and certainly not to literature or general fiction.

"The Case of the Perjured Parrot": A

This is one of the strongest entries in the Perry Mason series. Written in 1939, when Gardner was at the height of his limited creative powers, this well-constructed mystery is full of baffling clues that set the reader to thinking and speculating. The story is fast-paced, founded in authentic human behavior, and - best of all - the characters remain true to themselves. The mystery is quite mystifying, and the solution quite satisfying - the sort that brings to your lips a smile combining approval and acknowledgement of being outwitted.

Multimillionaire Fremont Sabin is murdered in his mountain retreat. His recent financial activities have made him the center of a storm of personal vendettas and backroom business dealings. Confused identities, an unacknowledged romantic liaison, a parrot that witnessed the crime - Gardner mixes these and other interesting bits in a tantalizing concoction guaranteed to keep the reader guessing - and eagerly turning pages to get to the next twist in the tale.

The story also provides Gardner with an opportunity to use a favorite detective device: the forensic "expert" who provides a definitive interpretation of the clues at the murder scene, an interpretation which invariably leaves the authorities with no alternative but to push Perry's client into a cell and oil the old electric chair switch. Gardner can't suppress a genuine pleasure in deflating the experts with alternative interpretations. A pleasure that was no doubt rooted in his personal interest in justice and fairness that led him in the 1950s to found the "Court of Last Resort", whereby he continued to try to rectify "misinterpretations" of physical evidence on a grander social stage.

Rating:
Summary: Top-Notch Page-Turner in the Perry Mason series
Review: Background: The stylistic heritage of the Perry Mason mysteries is the American pulp magazines of the 1920s. In the early Mason mysteries, Perry - a good-looking, broad-shouldered, two-fisted, man of action - is constantly stiff-arming sultry beauties on his way to an explosive encounter that precipitates the book's climactic action sequence. In the opening chapters of these stories, Gardner subjects the reader to assertive passages that Mason is a crusader for justice, a man so action-oriented he is constitutionally incapable of sitting in his office and waiting for a case to come to him or to develop on its own once it has - he has to be out on the street, in the midst of the action, making things happen, always on the offensive, never standing pat or accepting being put on the defensive. These narrative passages - naïve, embarrassingly crude "character" development - pop up throughout the early books, stopping the narrative dead in its tracks, and putting on full display a non-writer's worst characteristic: telling the reader a character's traits instead of showing them through action, dialogue, and use of other of the writer's tools.

Rating "Ground Rules": These flaws, and others so staggeringly obvious that enumerating them is akin to using cannons to take out a flea, occur throughout the Gardner books, and can easily be used (with justification) to trash his work. But for this reader they are a "given", part of the literary terrain, and are not relevant to my assessment of the Gardner books. In other words, my assessments of the Perry Mason mysteries turn a blind eye to Erle Stanley Gardner's wooden, style-less writing, inept descriptive passages, unrealistic dialogue, and weak characterizations. As I've just noted, as examples of literary style all of Gardner's books, including the Perry Mason series, are all pretty bad. Nonetheless, the Mason stories are a lot of fun, offering intriguing puzzles, nifty legal gymnastics, courtroom pyrotechnics, and lots of action and close calls for Perry and crew. Basically, you have to turn off the literary sensibilities and enjoy the "guilty" pleasure of a fun read of bad writing. So, my 1-5 star ratings (A, B, C, D, and F) are relative to other books in the Gardner canon, not to other mysteries, and certainly not to literature or general fiction.

"The Case of the Perjured Parrot": A

This is one of the strongest entries in the Perry Mason series. Written in 1939, when Gardner was at the height of his limited creative powers, this well-constructed mystery is full of baffling clues that set the reader to thinking and speculating. The story is fast-paced, founded in authentic human behavior, and - best of all - the characters remain true to themselves. The mystery is quite mystifying, and the solution quite satisfying - the sort that brings to your lips a smile combining approval and acknowledgement of being outwitted.

Multimillionaire Fremont Sabin is murdered in his mountain retreat. His recent financial activities have made him the center of a storm of personal vendettas and backroom business dealings. Confused identities, an unacknowledged romantic liaison, a parrot that witnessed the crime - Gardner mixes these and other interesting bits in a tantalizing concoction guaranteed to keep the reader guessing - and eagerly turning pages to get to the next twist in the tale.

The story also provides Gardner with an opportunity to use a favorite detective device: the forensic "expert" who provides a definitive interpretation of the clues at the murder scene, an interpretation which invariably leaves the authorities with no alternative but to push Perry's client into a cell and oil the old electric chair switch. Gardner can't suppress a genuine pleasure in deflating the experts with alternative interpretations. A pleasure that was no doubt rooted in his personal interest in justice and fairness that led him in the 1950s to found the "Court of Last Resort", whereby he continued to try to rectify "misinterpretations" of physical evidence on a grander social stage.

Rating:
Summary: forget Raymond Burr
Review: Erle Stanley Gardner, himself an attorney, helped create the hard-boiled genre in the 20's & 30's, when, along with Dashiell Hammett and Carroll John Daly, he published his stories in the pulp magazine Black Mask. Then in 1933 he created Perry Mason for The Case of the Velvet Claws. Some 80 further Perry Mason adventures followed, most serialized in the Saturday Evening Post. With about 200 million copies sold in thirty languages, popular radio serials and the long running TV Series beginning in 1957, Perry Mason is one of the most popular mystery series of all time. Gardner was made a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America in 1962.

Gardner followed a simple, but surefire formula. Perry's clients, mostly women, were wrongly accused, but DA Hamilton Berger was out to get them. Perry, along with his loyal secretary Della Street and private Detective Paul Drake, was forced to cut corners to solve the cases before his clients could have a murder rap pinned on them. Despite his willingness to play fast and loose, Perry is essentially honest, as he tells Della in the Baited Hook:

Lots of lawyers go into court with a case founded on false testimony. Sometimes they make it stick. Sometimes they don't. Personally, I've never dared to take the risk. Truth is the most powerful weapon a man can use, and if you practice law the way we do, it's the only weapon powerful enough to use.

If you've never read on of the Perry Masons they are well worth your time. You can always find old copies of them at local book sales and it appears that many of them are still in print.

GRADE: B+

Rating:
Summary: forget Raymond Burr
Review: Erle Stanley Gardner, himself an attorney, helped create the hard-boiled genre in the 20's & 30's, when, along with Dashiell Hammett and Carroll John Daly, he published his stories in the pulp magazine Black Mask. Then in 1933 he created Perry Mason for The Case of the Velvet Claws. Some 80 further Perry Mason adventures followed, most serialized in the Saturday Evening Post. With about 200 million copies sold in thirty languages, popular radio serials and the long running TV Series beginning in 1957, Perry Mason is one of the most popular mystery series of all time. Gardner was made a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America in 1962.

Gardner followed a simple, but surefire formula. Perry's clients, mostly women, were wrongly accused, but DA Hamilton Berger was out to get them. Perry, along with his loyal secretary Della Street and private Detective Paul Drake, was forced to cut corners to solve the cases before his clients could have a murder rap pinned on them. Despite his willingness to play fast and loose, Perry is essentially honest, as he tells Della in the Baited Hook:

Lots of lawyers go into court with a case founded on false testimony. Sometimes they make it stick. Sometimes they don't. Personally, I've never dared to take the risk. Truth is the most powerful weapon a man can use, and if you practice law the way we do, it's the only weapon powerful enough to use.

If you've never read on of the Perry Masons they are well worth your time. You can always find old copies of them at local book sales and it appears that many of them are still in print.

GRADE: B+

Rating:
Summary: A parrot can be a witness?
Review: Multimillionaire Fremont Sabin was murdered and his pet parrot was squawking by him. His son and his second wife begin disputing over the inheritance. That is an ordinary scene. One thing that is not ordinary at all; the parrot that was found nearby the body is NOT Sabin's parrot. Mason soon locates the REAL Sabin's parrot...But a parrot can be a witness? Well, it depends on how you interpret its talking. This story is the shortest of all Mason mysteries and not so spectacular, but I like it very much. The story is very well-plotted. The mystery of the parrot(s) is especially impressive. The time element is also excellent.

Rating:
Summary: A parrot can be a witness?
Review: Multimillionaire Fremont Sabin was murdered and his pet parrot was squawking by him. His son and his second wife begin disputing over the inheritance. That is an ordinary scene. One thing that is not ordinary at all; the parrot that was found nearby the body is NOT Sabin's parrot. Mason soon locates the REAL Sabin's parrot...But a parrot can be a witness? Well, it depends on how you interpret its talking. This story is the shortest of all Mason mysteries and not so spectacular, but I like it very much. The story is very well-plotted. The mystery of the parrot(s) is especially impressive. The time element is also excellent.

Rating:
Summary: $10,000 Worth of Trouble
Review: The hook was baited. Mason was summoned from the dead of night to his office, where he received $2,000 in cash, and the small end of a $10,000 bill. The client was a masked woman, and he had no way of knowing who she was, and how to prepare her defense.

Mason stumbles around trying to figure out how to protect his mystery client. Then even after he unmasks his client, he finds himself the victim of a frame-up by a suspect who tells a story which the district attorney is happy to believe.

Rating:
Summary: $10,000 Worth of Trouble
Review: The hook was baited. Mason was summoned from the dead of night to his office, where he received $2,000 in cash, and the small end of a $10,000 bill. The client was a masked woman, and he had no way of knowing who she was, and how to prepare her defense.

Mason stumbles around trying to figure out how to protect his mystery client. Then even after he unmasks his client, he finds himself the victim of a frame-up by a suspect who tells a story which the district attorney is happy to believe.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Mystery I've Read
Review: This is the 30th Perry Mason novel I've read (the 14th in the series), and it's the best one so far! A spinster librarian finds love. He's a bit older than her and unemployed, but he's such a wonderful man that she marries him and enjoys the happiest months of her life. But alas, when he is found murdered in their honeymoon cabin, she discovers his real identity--that he was actually a multimillionaire who was married to another woman. Such betrayal! and all the evidence points to her as the murderer, including a parrot who repeats the murder dialog over and over again. And everyone but her has an ironclad alibi for the time of the murder. I won't give away the solution, except to say that it's so good that you'll want to study cinema just to bring it to the screen.