Fri 21 Oct 2022
An Archived Review by Francis M. Nevins, Jr.: ERLE STANLEY GARDNER – The Case of the Shapely Shadow.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[3] Comments
ERLE STANLEY GARDNER – The Case of the Shapely Shadow. Perry Mason #63. William Morrow, hardcover, 1960. Pocket 4507, paperback, 1962. Ballantine, paperback, 1982. Reprinted many times.
There are a number of intriguing elements in this Perry Mason novel from Gardner’s final period, but like so many other late Masons, the finished product is a mess.
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The story begins when a beautiful secretary who deliberately makes her-self look unattractive dumps a suitcase full of twenty do1lar bills and an ethical problem in the lawyer’s lap, thereby entangling him in the murder of her boss and the machinations of the three women in the corpse’s life.
The background material on railroad-station lockers and Mason’s savage courtroom deflation of a hostile medical witness are beautifully handled, but there are countless logical holes left unplugged, the motivation becomes ludicrous at crucial points, the plot depends on a chain of multiple coincidences,and the Least Likely Suspect is about as obvious as a leper in a nudist camp.
October 21st, 2022 at 5:40 pm
Here’s a link to my own review of this book:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=65226
It’s obvious we read the same book, but as it so happened, at least back when I wrote it, I liked it better.
October 21st, 2022 at 11:32 pm
I liked it better too, and yet there are valid points to be made about the later Mason’s. I don’t know if it was a loss of steam or if there was nothing new much left to say.
That isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy the heck out of reading them still.
October 22nd, 2022 at 3:56 am
The best part is the legal manoeuvring which leaves Burger with egg all over his face (burger and egg?)