"The Exploits of the Patent Leather Kid"

The police hate him. The prohibition-era crooks, gangsters and bootleggers in his city hate him. He's certainly a crook - though an elegant one, in his patent leather mask, gloves and shoes. And somehow his crimes usually wind up with justice being served. He's the Patent Leather Kid, the creation of Erle Stanley Gardner, an author far better known as the creator of Perry Mason.

The Kid only appeared in thirteen stories, all of them published between 1932 and 1934 in a "pulp" magazine called Detective Fiction Weekly. Now, thanks to Crippen & Landru, all of the stories have been gathered together and reprinted as "The Exploits of the Patent Leather Kid." The collection, edited and with an introduction by mystery author Bill Pronzini, is the subject of this week's review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, which you may hear by clicking here.

These stories are great fun and thoroughly entertaining. They tend to follow a formula: the Kid (who, in "real life," is disguised as an apparently lazy, overly-rich socialite) hears of some injustice - usually someone falsely accused of a crime by the Kid's enemy, Inspector Brame. So the Kid comes up with an ingenious plot which usually profits both the Kid and the unjustly accused person, leaves the real "bad guys" either dead or incarcerated, and further infuriates Brame, who hates the Kid for making the cops appear inept and crooked.

The plots are usually fairly complex, but they all follow that basic pattern, and "good," as represented by the Kid, always triumphs. In that, of course, he shares both outlook and outcome with Perry Mason, who was every bit as troublesome to the police and the legal establishment as the Kid is to the police and the gangs. This volume is another in the series of "Lost Classics" which Crippen & Landru have been republishing. If you enjoy vintage crime, these short stories will certainly please you.