3.5* ( )

Weird premise, but then, that is ESG for you. Nice, satisfactory, fast pace. ( )

Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason novels are always masterpieces of deductive reasoning. Mason, a shrewd calculating attorney, sort of stumbles by accident into this case by buying a drowned secretary's diaries at auction - offering a bid merely to get the auction rolling. This case involves an estate of an eccentric millionaire of the Howard Hughes variety - whose estate is sort of like the Island of Dr. Moreau - filled with massive gorillas who are the subjects of homicidal experiments. This is to put it mildly an unusual Perry Mason book, but it's well written, cleverly plotted, and an easy read. ( )

This book seemed less enthralling from the get-go as many of his others - until the end, then it was quite gripping. ( )

As much as I loved watching the Perry Mason series on TV the old series, I have to admit the books are a lot different and I am surprised at the content allowed back then, aka style. ( )