The Case of the Golddigger's Purse

This 1945 book is dedicated to the people of "South of the Border" who were the most pleasant and intellectually stimulating Gardner met while vacationing in Yucatan and Colombia. He predicted that ordinary people would soon be visiting these countries via air travel. Perry Mason and Della Street are dining at a restaurant when Harrington Faulkner approaches and asks to consult about goldfish. Faulkner raises a rare breed, the Veiltail Moor Telescope, and believes his partner has poisoned them. Faulkner is with a beautiful young lady who wants money from this cold, rich married man. If an employee develops a secret cure for gill disease, does it belong to him or his employee? Can the smell of a car's exhaust tell you something (Chapter 7)? When Perry Mason and Sally Madison return to visit Harrington Faulkner, his wife finds him shot dead. Was Mrs. Faulkner waiting around the corner to giver herself an alibi when her husband's body was found? The length of time a goldfish could live out of water could establish time of death (Chapter 8). The incident in the hotel room tells something about that era (Chapter 9). Perry Mason files a writ of habeas corpus to find Sally Madison, who is being held by the police somewhere (Chapter 13). Mason interviews her in jail to find out what she did, and finally learns the truth. During the preliminary hearing Sergeant Dorset says the fingerprints were lifted, not photographed first. The places where they were taken from was not identified. [To understand this, refer to the trial for the murder of Sir Harry Oakes, or similar events.] Did the police pick out someone as the guilty party and then disregard any evidence that doesn't fit their presumption? Perry Mason shows his skill when questioning Lt. Tragg about the defendant's fingerprints on the murder weapon and the lack of the earlier possessor of the gun (Chapter 17). After considering the known facts, Perry Mason revisits the person who out-bluffed him before and suggests what must have happened at a corner drug store. This gets a reaction, and Mason call the police. Mason explains the danger of lifting fingerprints, and the likely murderer, in Chapter 19. Sally Madison will be freed, and Perry and Della will celebrate their victory (they are not liable as "accessories after the fact" for not disclosing their knowledge of Sally's purse). One unusual part of this story is the presence of a victim of tuberculosis, a now forgotten disease.

I love Perry Mason Mysteries; however, I found the detective work in this one to be a bit contrived. Perry Mason finds out things about the murder and the true killer that isn't really explained until he tells Lt Tragg. How he arrived at it isn't apparent in the story. It is a good entertaining book though. I recommend it for you mystery lovers.