Book review: Perry Mason - The case of the Lame Canary

Name: Perry Mason and the case of the Lame Canary Genre: Murder Thriller Author: Erle Stanley Gardener Publishers: Master Mind books Price: Rs 75/- My rating: 3.5/5

A big fan of Perry Mason novels, I've read more than half the books in the series. I categorize these books I've read into just two categories - the top five, and the rest. This book, I can say, does not belong to the former category. :-)

A lady Rita Swaine comes to Mason with a lame canary belonging to her sister Rosalind, who is fed up with her husband and wants a divorce. The apparent divorce case turns out into a murder, when Rosalind's husband Walter Prescot is found dead. An accident on the road involving a coupe and a truck which occurs outside Prescot's house around the time of the murder adds another dimension to the murder. The other ingredients in the plot are Rosalind's boyfriend Driscoll, a snoopy neighbor looking into the house of murder Mrs. Anderson, the Weyman couple neighbors, a strange Carl Packard, Prescot's partner Wray, his secretary Rosa and Driscoll's maverick lawyer Rodney Cuff.

Mason, who would have otherwise dismissed the divorce case, which he is not interested in, takes it up, because of a hunch on the lame canary, and goes on to solve the murder. The ending is dramatic and sudden - typical of Erle Stanley Gardner's style - the narrative, grasping and the solution to the puzzle, absolutely breath-taking. Add to it the knowledge about court room hearings, autopsies, forensic science, guns and others that you get - its short crisp and very gripping. Go for it!