Thu 9 Jul 2015
Archived Mystery Review: ERLE STANLEY GARDNER – The Case of the Perjured Parrot.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[4] Comments
ERLE STANLEY GARDNER – The Case of the Perjured Parrot. Ballantine, 1982. First published in hardcover by William Morrow, 1939. Other paperback reprints include: Pocket #378, 1947. Cardinal C-379, 1959.
The problem, of course, with the Perry Mason stories is that the characters are totally flat and one-dimensional. Gardner’s prose, utilitarian at best, is designed only to tell the story and is best otherwise ignored.
But the stories he tells — I can’t resist ’em. They’re low on action and high in idea content. The plot and red herrings are simply mind-dazzling — if only you could sort them out!
I read one chapter and I’m hooked. I’ve guessed who done it from time to time, but not very often. I read too fast, I think, and Mason’s too smart for me.
Gardner is obsessed with circumstantial evidence, and it helps to keep in mind that his facts are always subject to considerable variation. This time I thought I’d outguessed him, but somehow he managed to zig left just as I was zagging right.
Involved are at least three parrots, hints of police graft and corruption, forged checks, multi-bigamous marriages and questionable divorce decrees, a will and two widows, and a time of death that turns out to be of utmost importance.
Mason also makes an ass out of another pompous witness. You’d think they’d learn.
Rating: B.
July 9th, 2015 at 8:37 pm
I very much enjoyed this one too!
In my Gardner article, this book is described as having “a great flow of story”. And how.
Thank you for a vivid review.
July 9th, 2015 at 11:08 pm
One of the best Mason outings of which there are more than a few. I would rate any Mason prior to about 1956 as worth reading as sheer escapist entertainment in the field and a good example of what can be done with strong stereotypes and strict constructionist skills at plot and exposition.
While Gardner is hardly scintillating I would recommend him to anyone when it comes to using dialogue intelligently and well as a storytelling tool.
While I consider Lam and Cool is best work I remain a dedicated Mason fan, and it is interesting to read tell early ones and see the pulp and Black Mask influence shine through the new slicker style he developed for the Mason books. The early Mason is one of the more interesting lawyer sleuths in the genre and ESG’S Depression era political view of a broken legal system that needs sharp operators like Perry to protect the innocent and disenfranchised as jaundiced as Hammett in The Glass Key or Falcon.
July 10th, 2015 at 6:29 am
I read this – along with a ton of others – during a few months in 1973. There were days I read two Gardners, swallowing them whole and barely chewing. In 1976 I caught up with a bunch of the Cool & Lam series and in recent years I’ve gone back and read a bunch of the old pulp stories. There is no one like Gardner for momentum.
July 28th, 2015 at 2:51 pm
Some people read fantasy with orcs, I read fantastic stories about lawyers in a vanished world. Perry Mason personifies my ideal image of a lawyer as an expert and fighter that will defend clients hard up against The Law and its relentless guardians, judges, DA’s and police. Other lawyers may let the chips fall where they may but Mason will drop everything to help people who are missing the breaks in a criminal justice system monstrously unfair to the poor and working class. Mason is also the lone individual fighting racketeering among the rich, corruption among the powerful, and reckless contempt for constitutional rights among the cops. I think Gardner likes and respects Tragg, but he hates improper police procedure and half-assed investigations.