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District Attorney of Madison County, California, Doug Selby entered politics to reduce local corruption. Though his job is prosecuting criminals, he is equally interested in solving mysteries and identifying murderers. His job is a natural extension of his hobby, reading mystery stories.Tags
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Member Reviews
What a rush! A non-Perry-Mason Gardner with similar trio of characters, but perhaps even better plotwise. It felt much more like a primetime weekly procedural. My second favourite Selby series.
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ThingScore 75
Doug Selby and Rex Brandon witness a traffic accident late on the evening of Thanksgiving Day. They are summoned to the area by a phone call from a man who has clearly had too much to drink and who is experiencing what is called 'a crying jag' - overwhelming feelings of regrets induced by too much alcohol and the proximity of a holiday weekend. He hopes the sheriff will extricate him from the show more situation in which he finds himself - incapacitated by alcohol and in possession of a stolen car - but the sheriff's only concern is to ensure that he doesn't get behind the wheel. Continued show less
added by apenguinaweek
Author Information
862+ Works 30,639 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
Some Editions
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Scherz-classic-Krimi (165)
Work Relationships
Common Knowledge
- Original title
- The D. A. Calls a Turn
- Original publication date
- 1944
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 98
- Popularity
- 327,490
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.60)
- Languages
- Czech, English, German
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 21
