The Case of the Lame Canary (A Perry Mason Mystery)

A woman has urgent business with Perry Mason. Rita Swaine brought along a caged canary with a sore foot. She tells Perry about the problem her twin sister has with her new husband Walter Prescott, and the money he has taken from her sister Rosalind. Rosalind has been seeing her old boyfriend Jimmy Driscoll, and Rosalind's husband has threatened her. Rita explains the problem that happened that morning. The case intrigues Perry, so he agrees to take the case. Rita tells of an accident that happened around noon. Perry calls Paul Drake to investigate Walter Prescott, his business associate, the snoopy neighbors, and the man injured in that accident. Perry learns of trouble at the Prescott home (Chapter Three). Perry and Paul question the neighbors about the accident, and learn the homicide squad was at the Prescott house. The dialogue is an interesting as some trial scenes (Chapter Four). The man injured in the accident has left the hospital, and can't be located. Perry and Paul visit Harry Trader, who drove the truck that was in that accident. Trader will tell them little, except it was the other driver's fault (Chapter Five). Perry and Della Street fly to Reno to locate Rita Swaine. They also find Rosalind Prescott and Jimmy Driscoll. Perry gets the complete story from Rosalind. Della calls to warn about the police, so Perry can call the telephone operator to report their presence. Perry gives good advice to his clients (Chapter Seven). Paul Drake tracks down "Carl Packard", who was injured in that accident; he can't be found. Perry learns he was an insurance detective who investigated fire-bugs connected with an arson ring (Chapter Eight)! The Coroner holds an inquest and establishes that Walter Prescott was murdered with a pistol, the bullets came from Jimmy Driscoll's gun that was left with Rosalind Prescott (Chapter Ten). This makes Rita Swaine the last person in the house when Walter Prescott was alive. Now Rita tells Perry more about what happened that day. She found Walter Prescott dead when she arrived after Rosalind and Jimmy had left the house! Perry will have a difficult job defending Rita; she withheld evidence from the police. Perry gives her good advice as to her conduct in jail. Paul Drake calls Perry to tell him "Carl Packard" has been found, but will never testify in court. In Chapter Fourteen Perry tries to imagine what could have happened. Paul Drake drops in to tell that Rita has confessed to what she found when she arrived at the Prescott house. When Perry learns that Walter Prescott's secretary is moving to Reno he comes up with an idea involving the shipping of luggage from Rita Swaine's apartment! This brings out Sergeant Holcomb to investigate. The Coroner holds another inquest into Jason Braun's death. One witness says he wants to leave because he was injured. Perry makes a suggestion, so Dr. Wallace examines a witness on the stand. A commotion breaks out, and a shocking surprise results. Perry's client will be release

Background: The stylistic heritage of the Perry Mason mysteries is the American pulp magazines of the 1920s. In the early Mason mysteries, Perry - a good-looking, broad-shouldered, two-fisted, man of action - is constantly stiff-arming sultry beauties on his way to an explosive encounter that precipitates the book's climactic action sequence. In the opening chapters of these stories, Gardner subjects the reader to assertive passages that Mason is a crusader for justice, a man so action-oriented he is constitutionally incapable of sitting in his office and waiting for a case to come to him or to develop on its own once it has - he has to be out on the street, in the midst of the action, making things happen, always on the offensive, never standing pat or accepting being put on the defensive. These narrative passages - naïve, embarrassingly crude "character" development - pop up throughout the early books, stopping the narrative dead in its tracks, and putting on full display a non-writer's worst characteristic: telling the reader a character's traits instead of showing them through action, dialogue, and use of other of the writer's tools.Rating "Ground Rules": These flaws, and others so staggeringly obvious that enumerating them is akin to using cannons to take out a flea, occur throughout the Gardner books, and can easily be used (with justification) to trash his work. But for this reader they are a "given", part of the literary terrain, and are not relevant to my assessment of the Gardner books. In other words, my assessments of the Perry Mason mysteries turn a blind eye to Erle Stanley Gardner's wooden, style-less writing, inept descriptive passages, unrealistic dialogue, and weak characterizations. As I've just noted, as examples of literary style all of Gardner's books, including the Perry Mason series, are all pretty bad. Nonetheless, the Mason stories are a lot of fun, offering intriguing puzzles, nifty legal gymnastics, courtroom pyrotechnics, and lots of action and close calls for Perry and crew. Basically, you have to turn off the literary sensibilities and enjoy the "guilty" pleasure of a fun read of bad writing. So, my 1-5 star ratings (A, B, C, D, and F) are relative to other books in the Gardner canon, not to other mysteries, and certainly not to literature or general fiction."The Case of the Lame Canary": A-One of Perry Mason's best early mysteries, "The Case of the Lame Canary" starts in typical fashion: a visitor to Mason's law office simply wants some advice on a peculiar situation that seems to make him or, more often, her legally vulnerable, but along the way introduces a puzzle that intrigues Mason and serves as the entry point to his involvement in a convoluted murder case. In this instance, Mason is drawn in by the relatively simple puzzle of determining why the canary his client is carrying appears to be lame. And the case that unfolds from this point forward is certainl