Erle Stanley Gardner, The Case of the Velvet Claws (the first Perry Mason book)

Erle Stanley Gardner, The Case of the Velvet Claws
© 2011 (renewed)
Original publication 1933
Available as an ebook and from used booksellers

My reading TOCTVC originated in a post on the Wolfe Pack’s Facebook page (the Wolfe Pack being, of course, a group devoted to the life and works of Nero Wolfe—and his creator, Rex Stout).  Specifically, Pack member Ted Burge posed this question:

“So in the story, Mason gets a client to confess, with Della and Drake there. The police enter the room, and Mason turns the client in. Gardner was a litigator before turning author. How is the confession not privileged and why doesn’t it result in a fast descent into disbarment for Mason?”

But that’s not I want to write about.  TCOTVC was the first Mason book; I thought I had read them all (all 80-something of them), but could call up absolutely no memories of this one.  And, although I On have occasionally bought one (or two…) for my ebook reader, I didn’t have this one.  So I bought it and read it (and none of the Mason books take very long) and this report is my reaction.

The plot, briefly.  An attractive young woman (calling herself Eva Griffin) calls at Wolfe’s office to seek his help.  The previous night she had been at a nightclub with Harrison Burke, a member of Congress who is preparing to run for the Senate.  While there, a man was shot (murdered), and she and Burke managed to get away without being questioned.  But a tabloid (Spicy Bits, which is basically a cover for blackmail) has learned that Burke was there, and she wants Mason to ward off any publicity—if necessary, by buying off the editor of the tab.  Della has checked on the woman’s address and has reason to suspect that the name is phony.  Mason takes the case (which suggested to me that either he was hard up or he was taken in by his new client’s charms).

Well, of course, Eva Griffin is a phony, and, as is often the case with Mason’s clients over the years, seemingly unable to keep her story straight.  We quickly discover that she is the wife of George Belter, the wolf behind Spicy Bits, that her marriage is rocky, and that she fears that Belter will make her life even more miserable than it is if he finds out about her fling with Burke.

Later the very same night, she phones Mason and begs him to come pick her up (at a drugstore near the Belter manse), with a story about someone having shot Belter (true!) and claiming she had heard Mason arguing with Belter just before the fatal shot was fired (false!).  Mason goes to bet her (in a rainstorm, which becomes relevant), and, after poking around, calls the police. 

On our way to the solution of the crime (and, or course, Mason’s client did not do it), we encounter (among other things) a drunken nephew, a stoic housekeeper and her niece, a forged will, and, yes, the scene in which Mason extracts a confession from Eva and turns her over to the cops.

It’s pretty much what you will find in every Mason book, but it’s also a lot less well handled than in subsequent books.  Gardner did a great job devising intricate (and often almost unbelievable) plots (in the sense of structure of the book and events within the book), but he was never an eloquent or graceful writer.  (Gardner wrote, in addition to the Mason books 29 books featuring Donald Lam and Bertha Cool, and 9 about a small-down DA, Doug Selby.  These other 2 series, which I think are in some ways are better than the Mason books, share the plotting intricate plots and pedestrian writing.  In some ways, though I like them better.)

The one thing that stands out in TCOTVC is the repeated intrusions into the story of Mason explaining/excusing his actions—some of which actually could get him in legal hot water—that it is his duty to fight for his clients, even at risk to himself.  (I found this vastly amusing because there is a personal injury lawyer in Indianapolis whose TV ads feature the lawyer proclaiming “I fight hard for my clients.”)  I suspect that removing all those speeches, which are more obtrusive in this book than in most of the later ones, would cut the reading time from a little over 2 hours to maybe 1 hour and 40 minutes.

This, like the Mason books generally, is like candy corn…you eat it (read them) and then wonder why.  But they are hard to resist.