The Case of the Beautiful Beggar

Twists upon turns upon twists! Thankful to Gardner for taking out all the bits that would slow a story down, while still dealing out satisfying ambiguities to keep me on my toes.

I have yet to watch any of the TV adaptations but am keen for the Matthew Rhys. I can't imagine how any Serial Drama adaptation can capture the hurtling speed of the book plot and the flippancy of its dialogue and characterisations without completely creating a completely different tone to the books. Petition to keep my Perry Masons two-dimensional and superficial!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's about a woman who has no money of her own, but has returned from a long voyage to receive a letter from her uncle. This letter asks her to see Perry Mason and give him a check for $125000. Perry and the woman are to go to the bank and withdraw the money as a hedge against some relatives he suspects are trying to wheedle him out of his estate.

This woman is very devoted to her uncle and has spent much of her young adult life caring for her elderly uncle.

What I liked about this story is that it seemed very cut and dried at the beginning; I was left wondering how this mystery could go one. But, slowly at first, the story unfolds with one twist her and another turn there, and soon you're pulled into a show more great mysterious adventure. Complicating this is that his client is often working against him in her misled notions to help save her uncle.She can never quite trust Perry. It's interesting to see how Perry handles that.

It's a quick read and quite enjoyable. Another in a great series of Perry Mason adventures. show less

Easily one of the best Perry Mason novels I've read in a long time (and this is from a guy who generally loves ESG's Perry Mason novels). It had interesting twists, and interesting solution, and was hard to put down. Top notch effort, especially being one of the later books.

i love old mysteries. perry and della's relationship(whatever it may be)never changes, paul drake, lieutenant tragg, hamilton burger in every book, a difficult client who is never guilty, no romance, kids, careers, eyebrow waxing. maximum 250 pages.

One of the better late Mason's, the book does use several of the plot devices of earlier books.

First for 2014

One of his better books, though I am partial to them

Big ship

2 January 2014