This had its moments and was very readable as ever, but the denouement relied on the murderer having so much on the spot presence of mind and deviousness as to be unbelievable. There was a fair amount of repetition as Della agonized over the fact that Perry had concealed a piece of property stolen from the murder scene and thus put himself on the wrong side of the law. His motive for doing so was tied up with the business the murder victim had been involved in. No one seemed particularly bothered about the morality of keeping this secret, which troubled me a little. Obviously times have changed... ( )

Tentokrát se jedná o vražedný útok na pochybného kalifornského lékaře, který na své klinice provozoval nezákonné machinace s adopcí dětí. Zámožný podnikatel, který se na advokáta obrátil s pozoruhodnou, zřejmě však vylhanou historkou, je do celé záležitosti zapletený a před policií se ocitá v nezáviděníhodné situaci obžalovaného. Pravého pachatele odhalí advokát s pověstným důvtipem v průběhu jednání.

The 52nd book in a series is a strange place to start, but I'd just finished the new HBO series and it was on KU, so here I am. This is a quick read, mostly dialogue, and follows the standard format of the old TV show. I'm guessing most people are not starting with this one, which means you know how a Perry Mason book goes. Either old-fashioned boilerplate mysteries are your thing or they're not, but luckily this was exactly what I wanted it to be. It will not change your life, but I didn't want my life changed this weekend; I just wanted to be impressed with some legal maneuvering and to have Perry Mason solve the case before I did. Mission accomplished. ( )

One of his better ones

And not because I picked the real culprit about half way through, though not the motivation

Big Ship
20 January 2019 ( )