On This Page
Description
Poker-faced Nellie Conway, the nurses bed-ridden Elizabeth Bain, brings trouble when she calls on Perry Mason with a glass phial containing four pills which she suspects are poison. Her employer, Nathan Bain, she says, had promised her money to give them to his wife. But when Mason has one of the pills analyzed it is found to consist of acetylsalicylic--in other words good old-fashioned aspirin. Is Perry Mason's client a hoaxer, a psychopath, or something trickier? Nathan Bain's next move is show more to accuse Nellie of theft and provide proof by shining ultra-violet light on her fingers. The case which began like a joke suddenly becomes sinister. Perry gets his client out of this spot but trails her to Orleans where he has a hard job disentangling fact from theory on the subject of Mrs. Bain. This is one of the toughest, most complicated webs of intrigue that Perry Mason has ever had to fight his way through. The Case of the Fiery Fingers shows Mason at his most efficient and Erle Stanley Gardner at his most professional. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Nellie Conway, a practical nurse, comes to Perry Mason concerned that her patient's husband is trying to poison her patient. She hires Perry for $1 to help her find out. When Perry gets the results that the pills the husband gave Nellie to give to his wife are not poison, it looks like the case is over. But it is not!
The husband, Nathan Bain, accuses Nellie of stealing some of his wife's expensive jewellery. Now Perry finds himself defending Nellie on theft charges. Of course he gets her off, but all is not done.
Seems Nathan Bain has a suspicious history, and when his wife does wind up dead from poisoning, Perry again finds himself defending a member of this group in court. This time it is the half-sister of the victim.
Along with show more finding out what is in Nathan Bain's background and that of others, who is to benefit from the victim's death, and making it all make sense, Perry is dealing with a Sargeant Holcomb. I prefer Tragg to Holcomb for the police presence. Holcomb seem to be close to a by-the-book cop, where Tragg does give Perry a tiny bit of slack.
Over all, I again enjoyed another Perry Mason mystery.
Side note: I discovered that the plot of this book was used for two different episodes of the TV series. show less
The husband, Nathan Bain, accuses Nellie of stealing some of his wife's expensive jewellery. Now Perry finds himself defending Nellie on theft charges. Of course he gets her off, but all is not done.
Seems Nathan Bain has a suspicious history, and when his wife does wind up dead from poisoning, Perry again finds himself defending a member of this group in court. This time it is the half-sister of the victim.
Along with show more finding out what is in Nathan Bain's background and that of others, who is to benefit from the victim's death, and making it all make sense, Perry is dealing with a Sargeant Holcomb. I prefer Tragg to Holcomb for the police presence. Holcomb seem to be close to a by-the-book cop, where Tragg does give Perry a tiny bit of slack.
Over all, I again enjoyed another Perry Mason mystery.
Side note: I discovered that the plot of this book was used for two different episodes of the TV series. show less
Two courtroom scenes in this one. Top notch Mason.
A lot of the book happens away from the natural home of PM. He does give HB a good reaming in the courtroom, so this is a bit of a classic.
"What does she want?"
"She wants you to represent her."
"In doing what?"
"In doing lots of things."
"She wants you to represent her."
"In doing what?"
"In doing lots of things."
Relato corto que tiene a Perrry Mason como protagonista.
Dec 5, 2010Spanish
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
863+ Works 30,659 Members
Mystery writer Erle Gardner was born on July 17, 1889 in Malden, Massachusetts. In 1902, he had moved to Oroville, CA. His parents could not afford to send a second son to college, so he worked in a legal office as a clerk reading law. He spent a short time at Valparaiso University in Indiana but had to drop out because of an illegal boxing show more exhibition. He continued to travel throughout California and read law at several law offices and finally passed the bar in 1911, at the age of 21. He married Natalie Francis Beatrice Talbert on April 9, 1912. In 1916, he formed the Law Firm of Orr and Gardner in Venture, CA. Gardner used many pseudonyms such as Charles Green, Kyle Corning and Grant Holiday. While working as an attorney, he began writing fiction. In 1921, "Nellie's Naughty Nighty" was published in the pulp magazine Breezy Stories. He had a goal of writing 100,000 words a month and would sometimes write two or more stories a day. In 1923, "The Shrieking Skeleton" was sold to the Black Mask Magazine. In the 1930's, Gardner had two manuscripts that were rejected and than "rediscovered" by Thayer Hobson, the president of the William Morrow Publishing Company, and rewritten as courtroom mysteries. During this process, the character Perry Mason was born. In 1933, the first Perry Mason book was written, "The Case of the Velvet Claws." The next one was entitled "The Case of the Sulky Girl" and they were followed by more than eighty additional Mason mysteries. Gardner died on March 11, 1970. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Il giallo Mondadori (378)
Work Relationships
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Case of the Fiery Fingers
- Original title
- The Case of the Fiery Fingers
- Original publication date
- 1951
- People/Characters
- Perry Mason; Della Street
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 220
- Popularity
- 147,733
- Reviews
- 5
- Rating
- (3.50)
- Languages
- 8 — Czech, English, Finnish, French, German, Norwegian (Bokmål), Polish, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 14
- ASINs
- 15
