A fight over a rich man’s will turns deadly in this murder mystery by the “kingpin among the mystery writers” from the series that inspired the HBO show (The New York Times). Marilyn Marlow has inherited a good deal of money from her mother. But the money originated with another will—that of her mother’s wealthy employer. Now his relatives are contesting the will, and it’s Rose Keeling, the key … it’s Rose Keeling, the key witness to its signing, whose mind they’ll need to sway.
When Rose is murdered, sleuthing lawyer Perry Mason must navigate a twisted case involving a personal ad that casts a cloud of suspicion over his client, Miss Marlow, in this mystery in Edgar Award–winning author Erle Stanley Gardner’s classic, long-running series, which has sold three hundred million copies and serves as the inspiration for the HBO show starring Matthew Rhys and Tatiana Maslany.
DON’T MISS THE NEW HBO ORIGINAL SERIES PERRY MASON, BASED ON CHARACTERS FROM ERLE STANLEY GARDNER’S NOVELS, STARRING EMMY AWARD WINNER MATTHEW RHYS
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Perry Mason gets pulled into a potential fraud case in which to prove there is no fraud he has to locate an heiress who has posted a lonely-hearts ad. Doing so proves to be child’s play, but that doesn’t make Mason’s life easier. A jealous wife, a conniving husband, a battle over a will, questionable testimony, and, of course, a murder, quickly add up to make Mason’s life more difficult. Add to that that his client keeps failing to follow his advice and to tell him everything he needs to know to properly defend her. It starts to feel as if Mason is going into this courtroom battle with both hands tied behind him. But that’s what makes these Perry Mason cases so interesting.
Thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
In this book, Della Street plays a much greater role than in othe Perry Mason novels I’ve read. Robert Caddo and his wife Elizabeth are the perfect red herrings. While they are unscrupulous, unethical, and unlikeable, they are not murderers. Caddo publishes a newsletter for lonely hearts to help them find romantic partners. Marilyn Marlow, a recent heiress who is involved in a fight of a contested will, advertises in Caddo’s paper, and that results in Perry Mason getting involved and in Marilyn being charged with murder.. As usual, the writing is crisp and dialogues erudite, making the book more enjoyable. There’s a particularly funny scene in which Perry and Della are confined in the back of a police squad car. The police driver has a cauliflower ear and mashed nose, so they assume he’s uneducated. They conduct a conversation in multisyllabic legalese in order to hide their meaning, only to find a note from the driver thanking them for the tip! Delightful.
Much More Complex and Nuanced Than I Expected
This is the first Earle Stanley Gardner novel that I have read. I chose to read a Perry Mason novel because I recently completed watching the first five seasons of the TV Perry Mason series from the 60s. This review is written for someone like me who has watched some or all of the TV series and is thinking of reading one of the novels.
This novel starts with Robert Caddo, the publisher of a cheaply printed “Lonely Hearts Are Calling” magazine. He is being threatened by authorities for false advertising if he can’t produce the identity of the person behind one classified ad that is reportedly from an heiress. After much skepticism, Mason accepts Caddo as a client and asks to an excessive fee which Caddo pays. Perry writes a few responses to the ad, and the heiress responds to one. Paul Drake sends one of his men as the author of the response. Her identity is discovered. Case closed. Fortunately for reader, the heiress calls Mason because she discovered a dead body, and it sure looks like she was the murderer. The novel continues, and Mason goes into high gear at this point.
As Mason works to uncover the truth behind the murder to defend his client, there are plenty of twists, turns, and misdirections. My attention was captured from page 1. There are so many things that I really enjoyed in reading this novel. Here are some:
* three of Mason’s schemes backfire spectacularly so he does make mistakes and pays for them;
* Della Street’s character is much more complex and interesting character than she is in the TV series, and she provide a critical point to bolster the defense;
* There is a real blowup between Mason and LT Trag, and not the pillow fight tiffs in the TV series;
* LT Trag smokes a cigar;
* Street regularly calls Mason chief; and
* the dead woman was nude—this was not prurient as she lived alone and was attacked after taking a bath, which is a critical point in the case.
As to what some readers may object, the worst examples of vulgar language were “For the love of Mike” and “You get the hell out of here.” There were not any intimate scenes but there were some references to first and second base. All of the violence is described after the fact. The vast majority of reads should not find anything objectionable while reading this novel.
This is 32nd Perry Mason novel. I found absolutely nothing that appeared to depend upon a previous novel, so you should be able to read this book first without any issues.
I did find some editing issues, but as such I did not give them any weight in my rating of this novel. There were one misspelling, two hyphens where not needed, a shift in margin, a bolded word for no reason, and two periods instead of a space between words in the middle of sentences. This is a reprint. Due to the pandemic, the libraries are closed so I could not confirm if these existed in the original publication. Still, this is sloppy editing.
I had only one question. The heiress is described as a beautiful blonde and whose name is Marilyn Marlow. This novel was published in 1948. The best I can find is that Marilyn Monroe first bleached her hair around 1946 and started modeling and bit parts in movies. I wonder if the name of the heiress was a play on Monroe’s name.
One last statement, if you have watched the TV series version of this novel, it is entirely different. The only novel specific characters in both are Caddo and the heiress by another name. Otherwise, the storyline is quite different.
Overall, this was a quick and enjoyable read. It was a quantum step of from the 60s TV series but I suspect that it was the moral TV code at the time. I rate this novel with five stars. If you want read a Perry Mason novel, “The Case of the Lonely Heiress” would be a good choice with which to start.
If you’re expecting this to be like the show, you’ll be disappointed. I thought the writing was amateurish which I hate to say. Maybe my expectations were too high but it was hard to finish.
I remember my Dad reading Perry Mason novels and always kept a place in my heart for Earl Stanley Gardner. So when I saw this at a good discount on BookBub I sprung for it. I understand that Gardner was writing for the Pulp market and so may have had to compromise a bit, but this is really (Really) bad writing. Plot points are repeated over and over to make sure you got them and the characters do pretty unlikely things on their way to the ending that was not especially satisfying. I’m hoping this is not a good example of his work. And I’m not going to buy another book to find out.
A little plodding and slow but ver straightforward.
My first Perry Mason book, excellent read.
Dated but good. Even nostalgic for an old fart like me.
I have been a Perry Mason fan for years, but have just recently started reading the books. Interesting in that normally I prefer to read the book BEFORE I see the film.
Enjoyed visiting the 1930s with one of the original Perry Mason stories. Not Raymond Buyer’s Perry, but I could still visualize the TV actors.
Grew up watching Perry Mason – and seemed to follow the same pattern of the shows
I love all Perry Mason Mysteries and anything written by this author!
More witty and intelligent than most detective fiction – always fun to watch Mason’s mind at work.