Franklin Shore had been a leading banker until he ran away from his home - and his wife. He disappeared - though his wife refused to accept the fact of his death, not because she loved him but rather because she hated him for what he had done. Now, a decade later, somebody claiming to be Franklin Shore was calling Shore's niece, Helen Kendal, saying he was ready to come home - but wanted her to keep his return a secret. She should meet him in a very remote spot in the hills around Los Angeles - and he wanted her to bring a well-known lawyer, Perry Mason, to the meeting.
So Mason and his secretary, Della Street, went with Helen Kendal to the meeting place - but Franklin Shore wasn't there. Instead, they found the body of a man who had been shot and murdered, slumped over the wheel of his car, dead. It’s not Uncle Franklin – no sign of him – and, in fact, it’s not the body of anyone they know – yet. And Perry Mason was going to have his hands full, and, in fact, might even find himself disbarred for his handling of the case. Curiously enough, the key to solving the puzzle would come from a small kitten named Angel Eyes. It's the story told in The Case of the Careless Kitten, a Perry Mason mystery by Erle Stanley Gardner, originally published in 1942. It's the subject of this week's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the complete review by clicking here.
Erle Stanley Gardner had a long and fruitful career as a mystery and thriller writer, and the series featuring Perry Mason certainly became the best known among his works. Mason was the leading character in more than 80 novels and a number of short stories as well. Even today, episodes of the Perry Mason TV show continue to play on some television channels, and the character was also featured on the radio and in movies as well. In general, I’d have to say that most of Gardner’s books are great fun. If the Perry Mason books follow a pattern – and, again in general, they do, there is still plenty of variety and ingenuity on display there. The Case of the Careless Kitten is certainly in the traditional mode of a Golden Age puzzle-plot story. As usual, there's considerable pleasure in seeing Mason tweak the noses of some of his long-time adversaries, especially District Attorney Hamilton Burger. The Case of the Careless Kitten has been re-published as one of Otto Penzler's new American Mystery Classics series, and Penzler has written an informative and entertaining introduction to this edition. I recommend it to you whole-heartedly.
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