The Case of the Velvet Claws (A Perry Mason Mystery)

Rating:
Summary: Intial entry in the Perry Mason series is weak, clawless
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 Velvet Claws": C

In this inaugural story in the Perry Mason series, Gardner spends a lot of time defining the by now all-too-well-known characteristics of the series - the characters (Della Street, faithful, adoring secretary and Paul Drake, beleaguered, efficient, somewhat dense private detective and Watson to Mason's Holmes), the urban setting, the typical client (in this case, as in so many others, an obstreperous, self-destructive, double-crossing female whose appearance was de rigueur in the pulps and the film noir classics of the forties) and of course our intrepid lawyer-hero - the impatient, no-nonsense, man-of-action who will stop at nothing to honor his client's right to be represented by the best legal mind possible. If all of this sounds a bit comic-bookish, well, it is, since its true ancestors - the pulps of that era - were only marginally removed from that form themselves.

In this outing the mystery is weak, the cast of suspects too small, and the situation and characters stock - lifted straight out of the pulp magazines where Gardner developed his style and his early following. There is none of the courtroom daring-do that earmarks the best of the Perry Mason series. The writing displays more of the dark-alley, rainy-night elements of the hard-boiled pulp style than the later entries in the series, and so has some interest for the reader who wants to trace Gardner's evolution to a new style, one that melds the elements of pulp with his unique blend of convoluted plot, legal intricacies, fast-paced action, and courtroom melodramatics.

Rating:
Summary: A reader's introduction to Perry Mason and Gang.
Review: Gardner introduced readers to Perry Mason and his gang--Della Street and Paul Drake in this interesting mystery. Mason does anything and everything for a client, but in this novel, his client tries to set him up as the killer. In order to save himself, Mason has to turn the tables on his client. Della begged Mason not to take the case, and once he did, started to lose faith in him. All works out in the end, and when you are sure you know who the killer is, Gardner twists the plot, and takes you by surprise.

Rating:
Summary: A reader's introduction to Perry Mason and Gang.
Review: Gardner introduced readers to Perry Mason and his gang--Della Street and Paul Drake in this interesting mystery. Mason does anything and everything for a client, but in this novel, his client tries to set him up as the killer. In order to save himself, Mason has to turn the tables on his client. Della begged Mason not to take the case, and once he did, started to lose faith in him. All works out in the end, and when you are sure you know who the killer is, Gardner twists the plot, and takes you by surprise.

Rating:
Summary: Good, not Great, but still well worth a read
Review: I agree with the earlier reviewers that there is a notable shift between the earlier Perry Masons and the ones he wrote starting in about 1939/1940 or so. The earlier ones are definitely a straight continuation of Gardner's pulp books (Paul Pry, etc) and belong firmly in the Sam Spade category. The Perry here is very different from the Perry of the TV show and the later Perry of the books. Since Gardner kept tight control over the TV scripts, I imagine that the later book Perry resembles the TV Perry very closely for a reason....

In any case, the first few Perry Mason mysteries are very much in the Chinatownish genre--police corruption, decadent rich folks, and some surprise plot twists. To appreciate the earlier (1930s) Perry Masons, one must realize that the simple truth of the matter was that the DA's office was virtually the law enforcement division of the movie industry and the gambling syndicates and the LAPD was willing to frame any convenient sap it could lay its hands on. This explains the incredibly dark view of the establisment in the earlier books. Gardner, who was one of the few white lawyers willing to take Chinese clients in cases against the white establishment, had more than his share of run-ins against the 'Establishment' and more-often-than-not usually won because he was almost as good a lawyer as his creation, Perry Mason. In fact, once or twice he reworked some of his cases into the Perry Mason plots (e.g., the "Twice in Jeopardy" defense for an accused hit and run driver). When the LAPD was cleaned up and became more professional, Gardner retired Seargent Holcomb and brought in Lt. Tragg to update his books.

I have to agree with the earlier characterization and writing style critiques--as great writers go, Gardner would have to rank somewhere below me. However, as great mystery authors go, Gardner's ONLY competition is (the pre-1960s) Agatha Christie. The rest are all also rans but with some honorable mentions. I never pass up a chance to read a Perry Mason mystery because the court scenes are always a delight, there are NEVER any holes in the plot and I can almost never figure out who dunnit and why.

Rating:
Summary: Good, not Great, but still well worth a read
Review: I agree with the earlier reviewers that there is a notable shift between the earlier Perry Masons and the ones he wrote starting in about 1939/1940 or so. The earlier ones are definitely a straight continuation of Gardner's pulp books (Paul Pry, etc) and belong firmly in the Sam Spade category. The Perry here is very different from the Perry of the TV show and the later Perry of the books. Since Gardner kept tight control over the TV scripts, I imagine that the later book Perry resembles the TV Perry very closely for a reason....

In any case, the first few Perry Mason mysteries are very much in the Chinatownish genre--police corruption, decadent rich folks, and some surprise plot twists. To appreciate the earlier (1930s) Perry Masons, one must realize that the simple truth of the matter was that the DA's office was virtually the law enforcement division of the movie industry and the gambling syndicates and the LAPD was willing to frame any convenient sap it could lay its hands on. This explains the incredibly dark view of the establisment in the earlier books. Gardner, who was one of the few white lawyers willing to take Chinese clients in cases against the white establishment, had more than his share of run-ins against the 'Establishment' and more-often-than-not usually won because he was almost as good a lawyer as his creation, Perry Mason. In fact, once or twice he reworked some of his cases into the Perry Mason plots (e.g., the "Twice in Jeopardy" defense for an accused hit and run driver). When the LAPD was cleaned up and became more professional, Gardner retired Seargent Holcomb and brought in Lt. Tragg to update his books.

I have to agree with the earlier characterization and writing style critiques--as great writers go, Gardner would have to rank somewhere below me. However, as great mystery authors go, Gardner's ONLY competition is (the pre-1960s) Agatha Christie. The rest are all also rans but with some honorable mentions. I never pass up a chance to read a Perry Mason mystery because the court scenes are always a delight, there are NEVER any holes in the plot and I can almost never figure out who dunnit and why.

Rating:
Summary: The First Book of Perry Mason Mysteries
Review: This is the first Perry Mason mystery written in 1933. Nobody will call it a masterpiece. No thrilling battle at the courtroom. Not so well-plotted as a whodunit. And Mason does not display his ingenuity of outwitting the authorities (the police and the prosecution) and/or trapping the real murderer.

Still this book describes Mason's unchanged attitude throughout the whole series most clearly; even if his client betrays him, he never betrays his client and does everything he can to protect his client. And the wild character of early Mason is vividly described. I don't recommend this book if you've never read Mason mysteries, but I bet this is a must-read for Mason fans.

The title means the client, a young beautiful married woman who seems to hide her claws under velvet. She is definitely the nastiest client of all the Mason mysteries.

Rating:
Summary: The First Book of Perry Mason Mysteries
Review: This is the first Perry Mason mystery written in 1933. Nobody will call it a masterpiece. No thrilling battle at the courtroom. Not so well-plotted as a whodunit. And Mason does not display his ingenuity of outwitting the authorities (the police and the prosecution) and/or trapping the real murderer.

Still this book describes Mason's unchanged attitude throughout the whole series most clearly; even if his client betrays him, he never betrays his client and does everything he can to protect his client. And the wild character of early Mason is vividly described. I don't recommend this book if you've never read Mason mysteries, but I bet this is a must-read for Mason fans.

The title means the client, a young beautiful married woman who seems to hide her claws under velvet. She is definitely the nastiest client of all the Mason mysteries.

Rating:
Summary: "The Case Of The Velvet Claws" by Erle Stanley Gardner
Review: This is the very first Perry Mason book, and our hero is more akin to Philip Marlowe or Sam Spade than to the character brought to life on TV by Raymond Burr. It's a splendid rattle though a murky 1930's Los Angeles, with a convoluted plot, a femme fatale, and a Della Street who just may have lost faith in her boss.

Great stuff!