The Case of the Reluctant Model

The Case of the Reluctant Model The 'Foreword' is dedicated to Judge James M. Carter of the US District Court in San Diego, and outstanding humanitarian. Judge Carter referred a case to Erle Stanley Gardner, who had copies made and passed to medical examiners. There was a mistaken assumption on the part of the pathologist who never saw the victim of a drunken quarrel (probable natural death). Art dealer Lattimer Rankin visits Perry Mason, and wants to sue a rival for slander because the rival hinted the art dealer sold an imitation. Perry explains why this would be a mistake; instead let the owner of this picture sue for disparaging its value. This chapter explains how a suit is useful for publicity. Chapter 2 explains why you should be careful in making comments in public (even if you won't be sued in court). Perry and Della attend the press conference on Otto Olney's yacht (he bought the painting in question). Afterwards they have dinner and dance the Twist (Chapter 4). They are approached by Collin Durant, the art dealer said to have questioned the authenticity of Olney's painting, but shoo him away. But something about this doesn't seem right to Perry (Chapter 5). Maxine Lindsay, the witness in the suit, calls Perry to tell him that she has to leave on an urgent personal matter. Maxine gives Della a key to her apartment so her canary can be fed. When Perry and Della show up at her apartment the next morning, they find a dead body but no canary! Perry finds where Maxine went, and meets her to talk, just before Lt. Tragg arrives to question her. The murder weapon was owned by Maxine. Paul Drake discovers that Collin Durant ran up big bills at an art supply shop - for an artist who was a talented copyist. One of the copies was of that disputed painting. The mystery is where Durant got his thousands in one-hundred dollar bills. Only a bank would have this denomination. Chapter 14 begins the preliminary hearing of the State of California versus Maxine Lindsay. The ballistics expert testifies that Maxine's revolver fired the fatal shots. In Chapter 16 Perry Mason elicits important information from a resident at Maxine's apartment house: she only saw someone wearing a baggy tweed coat from the back. Perry Mason takes a calculated risk: he calls the defendant to the witness stand. Maxine tells what happened that night: Durant came over about 6pm and told her to get out of town fast, and she did so because he had some hold on her. Perry Mason now has a bombshell to explode on the prosecution's case (time of use of the locker). But now a witness comes to visit Perry Mason. This talk leads to new evidence and the solution of the crime. Perry's defendant is cleared. [But the ending seems a little forced to me.]

Mason's client was angry. A rival art dealer had proclaimed a work he had sold was a forgery. He wanted to sue for slander. Mason told him he didn't want to do that. If he did that, the papers would carry the story about the art dealer was accused of fraud. Instead, Mason suggested that the dealer's client sue for devaluing the painting in question.Everything appears to be going well, with the witness giving her deposition, and art experts authenticating the painting. But then the witness takes a run-out powder, the art critic ends up dead, and Mason is faced with defending a client against a mountain of evidence.