"I work all the time, the later the better. A man does his best work when those around him are asleep." He waved a short, thick arm in a sweeping gesture which included a quarter circle of generalization. "I mean the people in the city. There's a lot of telepathy, not individual telepathy so much as group telepathy, mind beating on mind, chaining you into a convention of business humdrum. What do you want?" ( )

Original price scratched out. ( )

Complicated plot line about a car accident, a Hollywood producer and a mysterious bigamist. ( )

Hitchhikers, Movie Producers, & Secrets

When you open up one of Gardner's Perry Mason novels, you find something which is very much like a classic pulp detective novel with a strange situation, a possible frame-up, corpses, vague clues, and keeping evidence close to the vest until Mason can figure out what it all means. You also get courtroom scenes including the kind of courtroom examinations and gotcha moments that seldom occur in real trials. Unlike the classic pulp detective, Mason is an attorney and doesn't get involved in gunfights and brawls and the like.

This mystery opens up on a pitch-black night on a deserted highway with a young blonde hitchhiker naively thumbing her way to Hollywood, a creepy driver who picks her up, a flask of booze, and a terrible accident. This isn't really Mason's usual kind of case, but somehow the earthy goodness of the blonde's friend convinces him that he needs to clear her name, particularly when it means going up against the power of the Hollywood elite. It is a thrilling ride as the story develops and gets ever more complex.

Perry Mason mysteries are not necessarily meant to be solved before he's ready to unveil the secret to the riddle. And the solution here is rather hopelessly complex, perhaps too complex to really be satisfying. ( )

Meet Stephane Clair. She has an wealthy uncle who wanted to control her life - so she ran and had been working in San Francisco since then - a job after job, based on her looks and youth. Until she decides not to comply with yet another boss - and hitchhikes to Los Angeles. Things do not go over very well - she ends up in a hospital, accused of driving a car that killed a man in a very bad crash -- when she knows that she was not the one driving. On top of everything else, the car had been stolen. Thankfully she has a friend that goes to Mason - and Mason decides to take the case.

And he is off - against Hollywood and its influence, working with Lt. Tragg (for most of the story anyway), trying to find not only how to save his client but also who was driving the car at the time. Tragg cannot go after the Hollywood magnate (or at least is not allowed to) so he works with Mason, probably giving him some more liberty than usual.

Of course everything would have been a lot easier if Drake and Mason did decide to play white knights and bring a woman from New Orleans to Los Angeles. They believe her to be the wife of their suspect - but then as soon as she gets where she wants to be, she disappears. Which makes the case harder - and puts Mason in a bad situation. Especially when people start getting murdered.

Usually in the novels, Mason's client is accused of the murders fast enough - that almost do not happen here. And the cooperation between Tragg and Mason continues from the previous book (and Drake now is prominently featured) and Tragg almost manages to outwit the lawyer. It is another enjoyable story.

As for the mystery - all the clues are in place, it is just down to disproving any other theory. And Mason, Della, Drake and Tragg end up doing it marvelously. ( )