Her desperate plight sends Perry Mason ice-fishing in dangerous waters--for a catch that includes a silk scarf curiously decorated with monkeys, a pristine tea kettle, a bodyguard who takes care of his clients permanently, and a viscious bottom feeder hungry for prey. While enjoying a leisurely ocean cruise in the company of secretary Della Street, Perry Mason is approached by a passenger who is worried about the well-being of her husband. Not long afterward, her husband is seen jumping off the ship, an apparent suicide-but when the body is recovered, it turns out that he was shot.
Accused of murder, the wife puts her fate in the hands of Perry, who in the course of piecing things together unearths the fact that the husband had once accepted a huge bribe while serving on a jury.
The case takes many shocking twists and turns before revealing its surprising conclusion. With the reissue of this iconic series--many titles of which have not been in print for years--it is our hope at Ankerwycke to introduce a whole new generation of reasers to the investigative brilliance of Perry Mason and the masterful storytelling of Erle Stanley Gardner, drawing together a new and connected family of fans throughout the world.
When the beautiful girlfriend of a notorious gangster vanishes, the last man to be seen with her needs an alibi — and fast. Donald tracks down the two women with whom his client claims to have spent the night and the client declares the case closed. Marilyn Marlow has inherited a good deal of money from her mother. When one of the two prominent men competing for the affections of Maxine, a blonde model, turns up dead, and Maxine disappears, Perry Mason investigates. A caretaker's missing cat becomes the clue to double dealings over the million-dollar estate of a deceased tycoon, bringing expert lawyer Perry Mason to the scene.
Skip to content. The Case of the Velvet Claws. The Case of the Velvet Claws Etc. The Case of the Sulky Girl. The Case of the Terrified Typist. The Case of the Curious Bride. The Case of the Lazy Lover. The Case of the Mythical Monkeys. The Case of the Substitute Face. Top of the Heap. Top of the Heap Book Review:. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3.
Rating details. More filters. Sort order. I decided to go to the source to try and figure out what the real skinny is on this Perry Mason guy, and I checked out the book that started it all way back in It seems like Mason was a lot closer to the HBO version.
Even though the lady is lying about who she is, Perry takes the case, but when he starts digging and finds out who really owns the paper things get messy in a hurry. His opening move is to try and bribe and bully the editor of the paper into silence, but then he shifts tactics immediately to using the opportunity to track down the owner of the paper. Along the way he does things like bribe hotel phone operators and a cop, he pretty much extorts extra cash out of the male companion who was with the woman to keep his name out of it, he hides from the police at one point, he coaches a person at a crime scene on what part of their story to lie about, and he pretends to be somebody else so that he can accept a legally executed subpoena to that person in order to get information.
The amusing part is that Mason comes across as a real sonofabitch. View all 5 comments. Apr 16, Evgeny rated it really liked it Shelves: crime-and-mystery , perry-mason , favorites. This is the first book of the series featuring criminal defense attorney Perry Mason and his gang: his secretary Della Street and a private detective Paul Drake whose services Mason uses quite often.
For those unfamiliar with the series and the TV show based on it, Perry Mason is a guy you really want on your side if you ever have legal problems. Mason always fights for his clients to the end no matter what, but his fees are not cheap in this book his total was well into thousands and we are ta This is the first book of the series featuring criminal defense attorney Perry Mason and his gang: his secretary Della Street and a private detective Paul Drake whose services Mason uses quite often.
Mason always fights for his clients to the end no matter what, but his fees are not cheap in this book his total was well into thousands and we are talking about the year Usually there is no more than one dead body in a book, but the plot is always complicated - enough to make Agatha Christie proud. In this novel a young woman asked Mason to protect her from the blackmail. Della Street instantly takes a dislike of Mason's new client claiming she is a typical gold-digger I am using a modern term for this and not to be trusted.
It turned out she was right as the woman in question did everything she could to personally involve Mason in her problems hoping he would be better motivated to help himself and by extension her.
As I mentioned already this is the first book of the series and as such the main characters are not as developed as in the later books and some of the regulars are not mentioned at all. For this reason I almost gave 3 stars to the book, but the plot twists were good and plentiful enough for me to warrant 1 extra star. One more note: for the love of all that is holy do not read the blurb for this book.
It gives away something which while revealed early still was unexpected surprise for me. You have been warned. View all 8 comments. A good solid mystery, but the formula used in later books with the big courtroom finale is not here. I can't believe I missed reading this one when I was on my Perry Mason binge back in the s and s.
Aug 17, Shobhit Sharad rated it really liked it Shelves: mystery-and-thriller , classics. Perry Mason is a gruff, unafraid, confident and cunning man, with a few principles of his own. I was able to decipher this because he was the protagonist of the book. But for all the other characters except for maybe Della Street, the assistant , I couldn't figure out what kind of people they were, because the focus was on the story, and minimal character development. In a way this was good too, because we want to enjoy the mystery and who gives two figs about how the characters were.
But in th Perry Mason is a gruff, unafraid, confident and cunning man, with a few principles of his own. But in the long run, when you look at the characters and they look more 'people' than 'characters' , it helps attaching to the story. I think this is the difference between other crime writers and Agatha Christie. On the other hand, the plot was too good, the writing was good enough, and finally the protagonist was not a detective professional or amateur , but a lawyer, which was a change for the good.
Jun 07, Harold rated it really liked it Shelves: crime-fiction-mystery , revisited. The first Perry Mason and this Perry is a tough guy. It predated this book by a short time. The hero was an attorney named Ken Corning and he had a female secretary whose name I can't recall right now,but both are the characters that reappear in Velvet Claws renamed Perry Mason and Della Street. The book was highly entertaining. There are several clever plot twists and I didn't guess the guilty party before the mystery w The first Perry Mason and this Perry is a tough guy.
There are several clever plot twists and I didn't guess the guilty party before the mystery was revealed. This book differs from later Mason in that there is no courtroom scene where Perry's cross examination provides the revelations necessary to solve the case, although Perry in effect cross exams a few people in the course of investigating the case.
One wonders why someone would allow themselves to be cross examined voluntarily while not in court and perhaps that is one of the reasons ESG later made the courtroom the scene of much of the dialogue.
I'll continue with this series, in chronological order when availabilty allows. Years ago I read many Perry Mason novels and still have 6 or 7 paperbacks laying around in a cardboard box that I will raid now and again.
View 2 comments. Jan 06, Readbooks rated it liked it Shelves: mysteries-non-sherlockian. This is definitely the first of Gardner's Perry Mason novels, since at the end it refers to his next client as a "sulky girl" see my review of "The Case Of The Sulky Girl" , and his writing is that of a beginning novelist.
The story was good although readers under 35 may be puzzled by phrases such as "nix on that hooey" or actions like starting a car by stepping on the starter this book was written in and is set in that period. At this beginning point of the series we are told that Della This is definitely the first of Gardner's Perry Mason novels, since at the end it refers to his next client as a "sulky girl" see my review of "The Case Of The Sulky Girl" , and his writing is that of a beginning novelist.
At this beginning point of the series we are told that Della Street, Mason's secretary, has been working for him for five years so he has been in practice as a lawyer at least that long.
And evidently Gardner develops the character of Mason more fully as a good guy as the series progressed because in this one Mason does the following: breaks traffic laws, basically blackmails a potential client for a fee, tells a person to lie to the police, hits and knocks down a bad guy on a public sidewalk in front of witnesses, mind you , and pays a police investigator for information, and that's all in just the first pages!
Not to mention he smokes like a locomotive. All in all, a good mystery with an ending I had not figured out in advance. View 1 comment. Looking for something good to read? Well look no further. If you know of any really good books be sure to check stuvera. Very much Film Noir. He is more like an old time Dick or P.
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