(6/10 stars)

“This is once,” he said, “that not only does Perry Mason’s client have her neck in the noose, but the great Perry Mason put it there.”

Lola Allred needs a lawyer—but why? Perry Mason often receives retainer checks in the mail from potential clients. What is unusual is to receive two $2,500 checks from the same person drawn on two different banks. One is forged, one genuine, neither explaining what he’s been hired for.

When Mason goes looking for Lola, she’s nowhere to be found. Her husband says she’s run off with another man. Mason’s not so sure. The deeper he digs, the more dirt he finds on the wealthy Allred family. It seems that nobody’s hands are clean in this case, and it will take all of Mason’s legal wiles to uncover the truth Continue reading “The Case of the Lazy Lover (1947) by Erle Stanley Gardner”

 (6/10 stars)

“You’ve never been in a case before where an officer was killed in the line of duty. Take my advice and don’t get in one. Things happen in cases of that sort. You could get hurt. You will get hurt.”

After a tough deposition, Perry Mason and his secretary Della Street are looking forward to a quiet dinner at their favorite restaurant. When they arrive, however, the owner is upset by a strange event. His new waitress, Dixie Dayton, just ran out in the middle of a shift, leaving her mink coat behind. Even a ratty mink like this one is beyond the means of a waitress—how did Dixie get this coat, and why would she abandon it? And why is her boss Morris Alburg so worried?

Mason is soon juggling two potential clients who may be connected to the murder of a police officer, a situation that will put his legal skills to the test. Continue reading “The Case of the Moth-Eaten Mink (1952) by Erle Stanley Gardner”