The Case of the Duplicate Daughter

To a child reared on the Perry Mason TV series it came as something of a shock to discover the novels upon which it was based, in which Perry isn't nice respectable Raymond Burr but a flamboyant figure, more P.I. than lawyer, who spends much of his time on the fringes of legality, not infrequently straying beyond them. Likewise, Della seems to be a bit of a vibrant gal rather than the almost demure Barbara Hale. I've lost count of the number of the novels I've read since that discovery; these days I regard them as an entirely different entity than the TV series and later movies.

They're also all fairly interchangeable; I don't know how often I've been partway through a Mason novel and realized I've read it before. But, and this is the show more great thing about my enjoyment of Mason novels: it hasn't mattered. Assuming sufficient time has elapsed, I won't remember how the crime was achieved or who did it any more than I might remember a two-year-old cricket result: I had great fun at the time, and that's all that's needed.

So, even though it's been just a few weeks or months since I read this book (I'm catching up on a lot of unwritten book notes), all I can remember is that (obviously, from the title) a confusion of identity plays a part and that the setup is genuinely puzzling -- a father disappears into thin air while his daughter is briefly in the room next door cooking the breakfast second helping he's asked for -- and that the solution, for once in a Mason book, is likewise. So back on my shelf it goes to wait for that precious moment when I spot it there, read the blurb, flip through the pages, and think, How come I haven't read this one before . . .? show less

I like the Perry Mason novels

They are not great literature.

They are not great plots , me thinks

But they are great ( simple ) reads.

They all merge into one another but that does not matter.

I aim to read them all.

Bigship

19 August 2013

Good plot. The writing is clunky at times, but it is short and generally a fast read.

One of the better Perry Mason mysteries. Hamilton Burger was really upsetting the judge, and I wasn't sure how Perry Mason was going to get out of this one.

definitely not a play fair mystery. The solution lies in one of Father Knox's rules for playing fair with the reader.

"Did YOU kill her?" Perry Mason said to his client, as they sat in the counsel room at the county jail.
"Mr. Mason, honestly I did not".
"But you are morally certain that someone in your family did kill er. Was it Muriell?"
"I am not going to answer."
"Was it Glamis?"
"I won't be cross-examined."
"Was it your wife?"
"I'm not going to tell anybody, ever."
"Well," Perry Mason said as he rose to leave, "I'm going out to you house and talk to the family and see whether any one of them is lying. If none of them is lying, I'll feel pretty certain that you murdered Vera Martel."

The outcome is well hidden until the end.