A sulky girl came to Perry Mason's office. She has a fairly unusual problem. Her father left her a very big chunk of money in a trust managed by her uncle. In case she marries before she is 25, she must get the approval of the latter: he has the power of giving away all her money to charities if he does not approve her choice. Does it sound complicated?Well, she is 24 and wants to get married right away so she wants Mason to either persuade her uncle to approve her choice, or somehow neutralize his complete power over her inheritance. It looks like a boring legal case, but it swiftly develops into quite a few blackmail attempts and a murder: as I mentioned, big money is involved.It is the second book of the series and as such the characters are not very well developed. Perry Mason is not as fleshed out as in the later books and his secretary Della Street plays a very passive and small role. It is interesting to note that this in the first time the famous lawyer actually goes to court defending his client; his court battles will become his trademark later in the series.Another notable feature of the book is the number of blackmails going on - at one point they reached practically one per page; I am talking about different ones by different people.As a mystery book it is highly entertaining and very easy to read; 4 stars is its final rating. This review is a copy/paste of my BookLikes one: http://gene.booklikes.com/post/898547...
BOTTOM LINE: #2 Perry Mason, Della Street, Frank Everly, Paul Drake; classic, PI/lawyer. Another slinky heiress enters Perry’s office, with a convoluted tale. It seems as though she’s hired him simply for help in “getting her own way” with an unreasonable guardian (who holds very tightly to the pursestrings), but his duties soon escalate to saving her from hanging, when that guardian is found dead and she’s far too close to the action and is lying about it. Characters are crisply drawn, especially the regulars - Paul Drake has a couple of good scenes, Della is “around” but seems far too sweetly adoring, and there’s an intriguing law clerk who works for Mason, and plays a necessary role in the denouement. This is the first Mason courtroom shenanigans case, and beautifully done too, with an incredibly convoluted lead-up, a fittingly climactic moment on the witness stand, and a very satisfying story over all.I wonder if the weakening of the Della character is due to publishers’ suggestions, “temper of the times” kinda thing? In book 1 she was pretty tough and smart; here she’s just an adjunctive. Wonder if Frank Everly, law clerk, is going to show up in future books?
Do You like book The Case Of The Sulky Girl (1992)?
Me esperaba otra cosa de los famosos libros de Perry Mason, con tanto eco que tuvieron antes de que yo naciera y la serie de televisión que a tantos espectadores mantenía ansiosos cada semana. Quizás no haya elegido su mejor libro. Escaso en descripciones y en detalles, empobrece al género de la novela negra. Me ha resultado muy frustante el hecho de ocultar toda la información que pudiera ser útil al lector hasta el interrogatorio final, de forma que te limitas a leer sin casi entender acerca de lo que se habla. Para historias así me quedo con Agatha Christie... Y para interrogatorios con Phoenix Wright.
—Luis
The book wasn't very well written, with the exception of when he was writing about law, and I think for that era, this had to be a unique approach. Think of the inception of Law and Order and how popular that became. The sulky, flippant, wild rich girl in a few pages of winding up at the end transforms into blissful, in love, waltz into the sunset girl...in a blink. That's one objection. Reading these books from the beginning it's interesting to see how he physically describes Mason, Street, Drake, etc. Della is beautiful, independent and 27. Paul Drake always has a cigarette dangling, drapes his legs over the chair and pines for lost love and Mason is big "but not fat" more of the big of a fighter ready to do battle. At this point, Tragg has yet to be added. Here's another point, for book lovers. I read the first edition published in 1933. The paper was so incredibly fragile (and poorly made) that I had to turn each page with the greatest of care. Some of the pages were crumbling at the bottom, some already ripped off and just left in place (I saw this several times) and some so thin you could almost see through them.
—False Millennium
This is pulp fiction. It's only goal is to entertain. Does it succeed? Yes. I suspect that many of the people who gave it low ratings were because it was merely only pulp fiction. Personally I don't mind. I'd rather read one of these than watch Law and Order or whatever current pulp fiction show is currently on TV because the story is better.What's this story about? It's about a lawyer with questionable morals who protects his clients at any cost, unlike the Perry Mason of the TV show. A woman, his client, is accused of murder in a rather complicated case (but not so complicated I felt lost), and it's up to him to prove she is innocent.
—DavidO
