The case of the crying swallow: A Perry Mason novelette and other stories (A Nightingale mystery in large print)

Rating:
Summary: The stories are not the caliber of the typical Gardner tale
Review: These stories are not the caliber of the typical Gardner tale. The Perry Mason story lacks the dynamic courtroom climax; in fact it was so low-key that I didn't even realize I had reached the conclusion until I was three pages into the next story. In the second story, Lester Leith, who is a very subtle crime boss, outwits the police, although the way they are portrayed, it is not hard. The police believe that he is crooked, but they ineptly try to manufacture evidence in order to frame him. This involves trying to hide jewels in chocolate by partially melting it. Of course, it doesn't work and Leith is enriched at the end. The only good aspect of the story is that you do not know that he is a crook until the very end.
In the third story, the main character Sidney Zoom is a private citizen who assists the police. Once again, the police are slow afoot and of head, and it is Zoom that puts the pieces together to solve the murder. The plot lines are a little absurd, as it involves a dummy that is taken for a corpse and a woman who poses as a man. A Japanese servant is also heavily stereotyped in behavior and in speech patterns.
The fourth and final story involves a spendthrift man with a trust fund who is trying to obtain additional money from the trustee. The spendthrift manages to manipulate the trustee into thinking he is accepting stolen goods and getting away with it. The plot involves a criminal stealing some jewelry and fleeing into a small store. While in the store, the criminal hides the jewels in a can of dog food, a plot device that is not well delivered.
This book was published after Gardner's death, in reading the stories; I got the impression that these were stories that Gardner didn't consider to be his best. They lack the style and tension that is a signature trait of Gardner stories.