The Case of the Shoplifter's Shoe

 

This was a really fun one. Perry and Della duck into a department store's tea room to get out of a sudden rainstorm when they notice the store's detective trying to arrest a shoplifter. Perry intervenes and he and Della enjoy an entertaining lunch with Sarah (the would be shoplifter) and her niece, Virginia. 

Sometime later, Sarah is hit by a car and knocked unconscious while fleeing from Austin Cullens' house after discovering he'd been murdered. Austin worked for her brother, George, who also turns up dead (no one seemed to care about who killed George). The DA charges Sarah with Austin's murder and that's when the real fun begins (not for Austin, of course, because he's dead. But everyone in the book kept calling him "Aussie", which is a *terrible* nickname for Austin, so perhaps he was better off). 

Sarah is claiming amnesia from being hit by the car, so she's no help as to what actually happened at Austin's house. Perry does pretty good without her, honestly. He gets Sergeant Holcomb all turned around in regards to the bullets he was carrying (seriously, though, why would you carry around bullets from TWO different crime scenes?! He was just asking for it). Perry was trying to show who the real killer was, and the DA was screaming about how he didn't care, which alarmed the judge (me as well. I think, and hey, maybe I'm wrong, but the DA *should* want to prosecute the right person). In the end Perry presented a completely logical explanation of how it could have happened and the DA (Sampson this time instead of Burger) claimed in court that his explanation was preposterous. When the jury returned the verdict, they included a line about how the DA should try to charge the real killer a little more intelligently than they did in their case against Sarah. I was literally laughing out loud. One of the best courtroom scenes in a Mason book ever. 

The Case of the Baited Hook

 

Mason is visited by a man who brings along a mystery woman who is clearly disguising her identity. He tears a $10,000 bill in half and gives Mason half, telling him he'll earn the other half if the woman ever needs an attorney. Mason is intrigued and agrees, but how does he prove the innocence of a woman when he doesn't even know her identity?

He's landed himself smack in the middle of a complex case involving divorce, stock fraud, and, of course, a dead body. It was one of those Mason stories where I'm not 100% sure what happened, but it's a fun ride nevertheless. 

Vampire Weekend

 

Vampires and punk rock?! Sign me up! 

I was pretty proud of the fact that I knew almost every single song and artist or band he referred to. I had no idea I was that cool 😀

Louise Chao has been a vampire for several decades now. She lives and works in San Francisco, and loves music and plays the guitar. Her family kicked her out when she was a teenager for rebelling. Her parents always pitted her and her little brother, Stephen, against each other. Stephen was the perfect kid who got excellent grades and always obeyed. So Louise left. She eventually ended up living with her Aunt Laura, who was also ostracized from the family for being a lesbian. Louise took care of Aunt Laura until she passed away. 

The last several years have been lonely for her. Her best friend died in a car accident and Louise has always been a loner who had trouble making friends. She's quick to dispel the "Hollywood" myths about being a vampire: honestly, it's pretty depressing. She spends most of her time looking for blood so she won't starve to death. She doesn't have supersonic hearing or amazing eyesight, she can't morph into another creature or turn into a mist, she can't fly. She comes home one day and finds a man and his grandson who are looking for Aunt Laura. They're long-lost relatives. The man, EJ, and his grandson, Ian, have had a rough go of things. Ian's father passed away and now his mother, EJ's daughter, is dying from cancer. Despite her better judgement, Louise invites them in and gets entangled in their problems. 

I won't say anything else since it would spoil it, but it was a darkly humorous and quick read. I liked it.  

The Case of the Lonely Heiress

 

All right, another Perry Mason! (There will be many more 😊). Marilyn Marlow's mother nursed wealthy George Endicott before he died, and he left her a substantial bequest. Marilyn's mother died, leaving everything to her daughter, but Endicott's family is contesting the will. There were two witnesses, both nurses, and now one of them, Rose Keeling, is changing her story and saying she *didn't* see Endicott sign the new will. Marilyn puts an ad in a lonely-hearts magazine, hoping to get a country hayseed she can manipulate into going after Rose, making her fall for him, and then convincing her to change her testimony back. It's a complicated plan (which is pretty typical in Mason books). It gets a lot more complicated when Rose turns up murdered. 

One of the things I love about Gardner's books is how many people are so close to the scene at the time of the victim's death. It could be midnight and there's twenty people going in and out of someone's pool, missing each other by mere seconds. Super fun stuff all the time. This time several folks visited Rose mere moments before she died and they all managed to miss each other. The courtroom scenes were great fun. 

The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom; The Spite House

 

Over the years I have managed to read most of the 80+ Perry Mason books that Gardner wrote in his lifetime, but since he died in 1970, some of the titles have been hard to come by. Thankfully there is a resurgence in popularity of Mason due to the new HBO show (which, while a terrific show and stars the amazing Matthew Rhys, does not bear much resemblance to the books). I can't say with 100% certainty that I haven't read "The Dubious Bridegroom" at some point, I just don't have a record of reading it, but I didn't keep careful records of my books for many years. 

Edwin Garvin is a businessman who decided to trade his wife in for a newer, younger model and accomplishes this by getting a shady Mexican divorce and then marrying his new girlfriend Lorraine. Well, the first Mrs. Garvin is not taking this sitting down. She happens to have the same initials as her husband and sends out requests for proxies for the next stockholders' meeting, cleverly using her initials along with the certificate number of the stock she owns. Everyone thinks they're giving their proxy to Edwin, but they're really giving it to Ethel. When Ethel turns up murdered Edwin is the obvious suspect. 

There were some great courtroom scenes (Gardner's specialty) with the San Diego DA for a change, instead of Hamilton Burger from L.A. It was clever and fun, I enjoyed it. 

So Spite Houses are a real thing. One of the most famous examples in the U.S. is in Boston. Apparently a father left a plot of land to his two sons, and one son was off fighting in the Civil War, so his brother built a big house, leaving only a small sliver of land for his brother, assuming it was too narrow to build a house on. He underestimated his brother, who came home and built a 10 foot wide house in the land left. 

Eric Ross is on the run with his two daughters, Dess and Stacy. We don't know why at first, Compton very cleverly strung that out as well as dropping bombshells very casually mid-sentence. So well done! Eric is taking odd jobs for cash here and there, trying to get to Odessa, Texas and his grandparents' house. He sees an add for a caretaker for a haunted house in Degener, Texas. Apparently the previous caretakers have all been scared away. The eccentric multi-millionaire who owns the house, Eunice Houghton, is willing to pay big money to anyone who can deliver proof of what's going on in the house. Eric and his girls move in and the frights immediately start. 

I thought this was going to be an homage to "The Shining", but it actually was quite different. It was told in multiple points of view and like I said, Compton was very clever with his storytelling style. 

Becoming Free Indeed

 

I admit, I used to love watching the Duggar family on their show. I went to a Christian school from kindergarten through eighth grade. My parents were not religious and I was the only kid in my class who didn't go to church on Sundays. I was very much a rule follower as a kid and believed everything adults in my life told me. It was very confusing, being told one thing by the teachers at my school and something completely different by my parents at home. Years later, I asked them why they sent me to this school when they were not religious and they told me they wanted me to have a better education than the ones they received at their respective public schools. I can respect that, and I understand that they were trying to do the best for me, but the school was not great. I remember asking my 7th grade math teacher for help with a tricky problem, and bless her, she tried, she really did. But she couldn't figure it out, either, and ended up giving me the answer out of the teacher's edition of the book, patting my hand, and telling me not to worry about it, I wouldn't need math as an adult. Now that I manage a nearly 10 million dollar budget at work, I really wish I understood math more than I do, but that's beside the point. 

The point is that by the time I left this school at the age of 13, I was very jaded against Christianity in general. Everyone I'd met seemed hypocritical, teaching me that I should behave in a certain way but not modeling that behavior. I didn't believe there were many true Christians in the world. And then I saw the Duggars on TV, looking so happy and cheerful and the kids were so well behaved and it was obvious the parents loved each other. I thought they were lovely, decent, kind Christians and it restored my faith. I envied how happy they all were, and was fascinated by their everyday lives. I was disappointed and shocked by the scandals that rocked them and felt betrayed, as I'm sure many people who were fans of the show did.  

Jinger did not write a tell-all trashing her parents. She is emphatic that she loves them very much and recognizes how hard they tried to give her and her siblings a lovely childhood. They just got taken in by the IBLP movement, and as a result Jinger grew up fearing God instead of loving Him. So this is her tale of how she untangled her faith from the rules she'd been taught growing up. She seems truly happy and in a better place and I'm really glad for her. 

Richard Duke of York: King by Right

 

A fascinating look at Richard, the third Duke of York, father to King Edward IV and Richard III. Richard had a better claim to the throne than King Henry VI, and furthermore Henry's mysterious illnesses really made him unfit to rule. Henry didn't even want to be king, he was by all accounts a gentle, pious man who preferred studying to ruling. Richard was a fighter as well a fair and just ruler when he was Lieutenant of Ireland. He pledged his fealty to King Henry VI repeatedly, but Henry had advisors who didn't like Richard and poisoned the king against him, including his wife, Queen Margaret. Richard made the unfortunate decision to take the throne from the king, and ended up dying in battle. His eldest son, Edward, was able to succeed where his father had failed and took the throne, becoming King Edward IV. 

Hollywood: an Oral History

 

A fascinating look at the history of Hollywood from the early silent film stage to present, as told in thousands of oral interviews from people in the industry. I can't imagine the number of interviews they had to plow through to put together such a cohesive and interesting account of how movies and studios evolved. One of the things I really enjoyed was hearing from folks who *didn't* hate the old studio system. I think I've really only heard one side of it up until now, but there were actually benefits to the way it used to work. Of course things had to evolve and change in order to keep the movies going. I'm not a huge movie buff, but this book still kept me engaged and interested. 

Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun

 

The third Finlay Donovan book was definitely better than the second. 

Finlay is trying to get away from Feliks, the Russian mob boss who hired her to find and kill EasyClean, who was the person she was trying to save her ex-husband from in the second book. Vero also owes a loan shark in Atlantic City $200,000. So, the usual. 

Vero comes up with the brilliant idea of going to the Police Training Academy to hide out from Feliks, figuring they'll be safe surrounded by a bunch of cops. Including Nick, the cop Finlay has the major hots for but is afraid of having a relationship with due to her somewhat sticky illegal acts. Finlay's agent is chomping at the bit for her next book and wants it to be sexy. 

So Vero and Finlay go to the academy, but of course they aren't safe from Feliks, and they're trying to figure out who EasyClean is. 

All in all it was pretty funny and had some good moments. It kept me guessing.