On This Page
Description
Platinum blonde, Veronica Dale, is arrested on a charge of vagrancy, yet she has a hotel reservation in her name. Addison, head of a department store, booked the room for her and is now being blackmailed. Perry Mason can't decide who is hiding what and then comes murder and one of Mason's toughest trial scenes.Tags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Despite the wonderfully sleazy cover art and some PG-rated language this is a straight-up whodunnit with any potential vices relegated to innuendo. But those expecting the TV version of Perry Mason will be in for a bit of a jolt for Gardner's super lawyer is something of a legal Mary Sue (Marty Stu?) and a smug jerk to boot who isn't above using people and manipulating evidence in order to win his case. And his secretary, the virginal Della Street, is not much better. Recommended for those who like their fiction with extra pulp.
When will these men learn to not pick up random ingénues off the side of the road!? Never, if Gardner had his ways. If he had his ways, the world would be full of doddering rich men who love to manipulate stocks and sexy young women who love to manipulate men. Perry Mason, Suits, what others belong in this evolution timeline?
This book certainly had an interesting title (and a pulpy cover to go with it), and it also ended up being a page-turner that I enjoyed more than anticipated. Mason's behaviour is at times questionable (such as why does he have a drawer full of chequebooks for every bank in town?), and Addison makes for an annoyingly obtuse client, but Mason carries the day in the end, as you would expect. I was able to predict some elements of the plot before Mason did, but the story moved along so fast that he was able to catch up with me soon enough.
I have a few more Perry Masons on my shelves and hope that they all go as fast as this one did.
I have a few more Perry Masons on my shelves and hope that they all go as fast as this one did.
Sorry to say I had a lot of issues focusing on this one compared to other Mason's. One of my favorite features of the books is an extended interview type intro, but this one rushed into it, did not have as strong of a court presence. Still of course worth reading as I travel through all these Masons eventually.
Sergeant Holcomb leaned across the desk, took a long, powerful swing and slammed his fast full into Hansell's face. "I don't let blackmailers talk that way to me," he said.
Original price: $0.35.
An excellent Perry Mason novel.
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
#MysteryBingo2022Gold(Original)
36 works; 1 member
#MysteryBingo2022Gold(Revised)
36 works; 1 member
#JustTheFacts2022Gold
48 works; 1 member
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
Öölane (103)
Work Relationships
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Case of the Vagabond Virgin
- Original title
- The Case of the Vagabond Virgin
- Original publication date
- 1948
- People/Characters
- Perry Mason; Della Street
- First words
- Della Street, Perry Mason's confidential secretary, said, "John Addison is on the phone, Chief. He's so excited, he's sputtering."
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"As difficult," Mason said grinning, "as it was for Addison to make a virgin out of a vagrant."
- Disambiguation notice
- ISBN 0345303938 is for The Case of the Vagabond Virgin; not The Case of the Smoking Chimney.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 250
- Popularity
- 129,321
- Reviews
- 9
- Rating
- (3.78)
- Languages
- 7 — Czech, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 19
- ASINs
- 25
