As I sit here writing this, in 2018, I note that my wife is sitting in the next room, watching actor Raymond Burr in one of the classic Perry Mason television broadcasts, from the immensely popular series based on Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason books, a program which ran for nine years, from 1957 to 1966. She assures me that these shows are still available from several television networks, and she is certainly enjoying them. Here we are, more than a half century after those shows were first televised, and we're still watching them. That's pretty good staying power, isn't it?
Erle Stanley Gardner's creation, Perry Mason, was the defense lawyer every one of us would have wanted representing us if we had been accused of a major crime. Yet - somehow - my mystery reading had never included any of Gardner's books (and he wrote a lot of them in addition to the Perry Mason series) until I had been keeping this blog and its companion podcast going for a couple of years. When I did start reading the books, I began with this one, The Case of the One-Eyed Witness. I liked it. A lot. Here's what I had to say about it on the Classic Mysteries podcast (as always, slightly edited):
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It was a regular television feature every week when I was a teenager: the ultimate courtroom attorney, Perry Mason, taking on a new case each week, saving countless innocents from the not-so-tender mercies of District Attorney Burger and Police Lieutenant Tragg. I still remember Raymond Burr in that long-running series, bringing Perry Mason to life. While I knew that the characters, at least, were based on an immensely popular series of books, I somehow never quite got around to reading any of them until quite recently, when I finally managed to find one of the original Perry Mason books – and found myself thoroughly enjoying it. Let me tell you about The Case of the One-Eyed Witness, by Erle Stanley Gardner.
Gardner was surely one of the most prolific mystery writers of the 20th century. For some 40 years, beginning in 1933, he wrote more than 80 books about Perry Mason – and he also wrote other mysteries as well. But it is for the Perry Mason books that he was best known and is most likely to be remembered.
The Case of the One-Eyed Witness first appeared in 1950, and the plot is pretty much typical. Mason is hired over the phone by a woman he has never seen – and whose name he does not know – for a job about which he knows nothing. All he DOES know is that the woman, who sounded desperately afraid on that phone call, has disappeared. He has a couple of clues to follow, so he begins an investigation – and the bodies begin to pile up.
Eventually, Mason meets the woman he believes to be his mysterious client – she denies it, by the way – and she is charged with murder. Mason must begin a court case with a client who may or may not be guilty, may or may not be lying to him, may in fact even be a victim herself. Eventually, Mason continues his own investigation – ably backed by his regular secretary, Della Street, and the private investigator Paul Drake, who figures in many of the Mason books. And, ultimately, Mason unmasks the real criminal in court, thus clearing his client.
What about the one-eyed witness mentioned in the title? As usual, that’s part of the mystery – and I must say I was surprised to find that the whole pattern of the book follows those of most classic puzzle mysteries. We are given clues – usually mixed, of course, with a liberal sprinkling of red herrings to distract us. But the author plays fair – we get the clues when Mason does, for the most part.
Don’t misunderstand me – the fact that I talk about patterns, and the book following a course which is common to many other Perry Mason mysteries doesn’t mean that it is utterly predictable, by any means. Gardner was a good writer, and he was able to avoid a lot of the predictable traps which can turn some series of novels into mere repetitive hack-work. Gardner manages to make us care about his characters. Mason’s outlook on the legal profession appears to mirror the attitude that Gardner himself shared – he was a practicing lawyer before he began writing. I suspect that Mason’s philosophy would pretty well echo a later fictional lawyer, John Mortimer’s English barrister Horace Rumpole, who always argued that his clients were innocent in his eyes until the moment when a jury of their peers walked back into a courtroom to deliver a guilty verdict. Mason makes it quite clear in The Case of the One-Eyed Witness that his own role in the legal and judicial system is critical. Asked by a reporter why he is defending someone who seems quite clearly to be guilty, he replies,
“I know only that she is accused of crime. But she is entitled to a fair trial before a jury, and in order to have such a trial it will be necessary for her to have counsel. If counsel should refuse to appear for a defendant, there couldn’t be any trial.”
As I said earlier, I had never really read any of Erle Stanley Gardner’s books before this one. But I must say I’m intrigued. “The Case of the One-Eyed Witness” is unlikely to be my last Perry Mason mystery. Not by a long shot.
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The book is available as an e-book. It looks as if there may be a fair number of print copies through the second-hand marketplace. It's worth the effort to find it.
You can listen to the full version of the original audio review by clicking here.
Next: Miss Withers Regrets, by Stuart Palmer.
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