ERLE STANLEY GARDNER – The Case of the Reluctant Model.  Perry Mason #66. Morrow, hardcover, 1962. Pocket 4524, paperback, 1963. Reprinted many times since.

   Fast, complex and unputdownable are the words for this one, which starts out unusually with Mason masterminding the strategy in a civil suit for slander that revolves around the authenticity of a certain painting.. There are some excellent character sketches, especially the aging playboy-businessman who dabbles at being a patron of the arts, and some knowledgeable insights on how to try lawsuits in the newspapers.

   Eventually of course comes the standard pattern — the murder, the   arrest of Mason’s client — the trial, the cross-examination scenes are among the most exciting in Gardner’s late books, and only the logical lapses and baseless deductions in Mason’s solution keep this one from ranking among Gardner’s best.