Fortune Favors the Dead

This was a fun one, I enjoyed it. A coworker recommended it, since she knows how much I love noir and mysteries. 

Willowjean (Will) Parker ran away from her life in a circus and ends up saving the life of a famous female detective named Lillian Pentecost. Lillian sees potential in Will and takes her on as an apprentice. 

Twins Rebecca and Randall Collins along with their Uncle Wallace show up with a case. The twins' mother, Abigail, died in a fire at their home Halloween night, and Rebecca thinks the ghost of their father, who committed suicide a few years earlier, had a part in it. 

There were plenty of suspects. I did guess the ending before it was revealed (barely), but it was a good resolution.  
 

In Light of All Darkness; The Case of the Shapely Shadow; Charles III: the Making of a King

 

This one was really sad. I was a teenager when Polly Klaas was kidnapped, not much older than her. I remember everyone looking for her, in those pre-Amber Alert days. And I remember when they found her murdered body, and the trial of her killer (I feel no need to type his name, it's easy enough to look up if someone wants to know). 

Polly was a super low risk victim. In her bedroom with two other girls, in her own house, with her mother sleeping in the next room. A stranger abduction, which is really rare. And her killer was evasive and not at all forthcoming about how he chose Polly or what he did to her before he killed her. 

This book focused on the investigation and the personnel who searched night and day for Polly, hoping against hope to bring her home alive. It was very well told and extremely powerful. Her father, Marc, started a foundation to help other missing children and their families, while her mother retreated into anonymity. Everyone who had any contact with this case seemed to be forever changed by it. 

I'm almost done with the Perry Mason books, which seems hard to believe. The ones from the 60s don't have as much detail or originality as the ones from the 50s. They're still pretty good, but not as good. 

Janice comes to Perry's office with a heavy suitcase. Her boss, Morley Theilman (okay, Gardner, you're just making up names now), asked her to put it in a specific locker. She wants to open it to see what's in it and kept one of the keys that came with it when she bought it for him. They open it up and the suitcase is crammed with $20 bills. Perry and Della quickly turn on separate dictation machines and start reading as many numbers as they can before Perry sends Della with Janice to deposit the suitcase in the locker and send the key to an A.B. Vidal. Janice thinks Vidal is blackmailing her boss (she found a blackmail letter in his trash). 

Janice tells Perry that Theilman is missing, and naturally he turns up murdered (shockingly, neither Perry nor Paul find the body). Janice is a suspect, as are Theilman's first and second wives (the man got around). The key to the whole thing is the $20 bill a cab driver in Vegas is carrying, one of the bills from the suitcase. Who gave it to him and how did they get it? 

I feel guilty even including this one, because it was 99% pictures with very little text (in my defense, when I put it on hold I thought it was going to be a more traditional biography). It was mildly interesting to see King Charles throughout the years, but without much context it really doesn't have much going for it. 

The Case of the Blonde Bonanza; The Case of the Ice Cold Hands; Bogie & Bacall

 

Okay, new Perry Masons! 

This one was fun. Perry gave Della two weeks of vacation, so she heads to her aunt's house in Bolero Beach. Mason stops by since he's "in the neighborhood" (wink, wink). Della has an intriguing mystery for him. There's a lovely young lady named Dianne who is totally pigging out at the commissary every day. Della is mystified as to why she would ruin her perfect figure. Mason is just happy to be looking at her perfect figure. 

At any rate. Della's aunt knows Dianne and invites her over for dinner. Perry and Della learn that Dianne has signed a contract to model a new type of clothing for larger women, and agreed to gain weight in order to do so. Perry asks to see the contract, takes a look, and discovers an odd clause: the man paying Dianne is entitled to half of whatever she earns *or inherits* for the next six years. Perry quickly deduces that Dianne has a rich unknown relative and Mr. Boring (the man behind the contract) knows about it and is after her inheritance. 

Boring drops Dianne like a hot potato (leaving the poor girl to take off the extra weight she gained) and Perry decides he must have found a bigger meal ticket, like blackmailing the relative directly. Turns out Dianne's father, who was in a boating accident fourteen years earlier and presumed dead, is actually very much alive and very wealthy now, living the good life in Riverside with a new wife. When Boring turns up dead in a motel room and Paul Drake's own operative puts Dianne as the last person in the room, things get hot. 

Perry is visited by a young woman named Audrey who gives him five $100 tickets from a horse race the day before and asks him to collect the winnings for her. Perry suspects a set up, but he agrees and takes Della with him for a fun day at the track. They actually stayed for two whole races! Perry goes to collect the $14,000 Audrey won the day before and is immediately accused by a man named Fremont, who claims that the tickets were bought with money embezzled from his company. Since Fremont doesn't have a leg to stand on, Perry leaves with the money and contacts his client. He learns her name is really Nancy, and her brother, Rodney, is currently cooling his heels (I love that expression) in jail, having been arrested the day before at the track for the same thing Fremont accused Mason of doing (Rodney actually is guilty though, Nancy used her own money to place her bets). Turns out Rodney's been helping himself to a little of Fremont's cash now and again, and finds himself up to his eyeballs in debt. Nancy, knowing about it, scraped up every dime she had and played a long shot at the track, hoping to win enough money to pay Fremont back and get her brother out of Dutch. 

Fremont is playing hardball, though, and wants to prosecute. Then he turns up dead in the bathroom of the hotel room Nancy rented. She keeps lying to Perry, which got him super annoyed. Of course in the end it all worked out. 

Side note: I read an interview with William Hopper (who played Drake on the original show) and he said after the show became so popular Gardner started making Drake more like how Hopper played him. I saw that in these last few books, with Drake coming into the office and saying "Hello, Beautiful" to Della, which Gardner never had him do until he did it on the show. Fun little inside tidbit. 

It took me ages to get through this book. Not that it wasn't well written, it was, I just knew absolutely nothing about Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. I don't think I've seen a single movie either one of them has been in. So why did I check it out? you ask. Yeah, I don't know either. Curiosity, I suppose.

The first third of the book talked about Bogie, his early life and rise to stardom. He was on wife number 3 when he met the Hollywood newcomer, Betty Bacall (her real name, Hollywood changed "Betty" to "Lauren", thinking it sounded sexier. I disagree). Their attraction was immediate and he divorced his wife and married "Baby" (there was a twenty-five year age difference, so the nickname was apt). 

They weren't together very long before Bogie tragically died of cancer, but they had two children and made some movies together. Bogie died a legend, and Bacall took it upon herself to make sure that legend stayed shining. She went on to marry again and have another child, but her later years weren't very happy. She lived at the Dakota in 1980 when John Lennon was murdered out front and all she did was complain about how "inconvenient" it was for her to get to and from rehearsals. She sounded like a very unpleasant person. 

Love & Pain

 

I'm a big Silverchair fan. If you don't know who Silverchair is, why are you reading this instead of listening to "Israel's Son"? Seriously. 

Back in the early '90s (just a few years ago), three surfer boys from Newcastle, Australia formed a band. Ben on drums, Chris on bass, and Dan on guitar and lead vocals. Ben and Dan wrote most of the songs, although Chris also contributed. Their breakthrough hit "Tomorrow", helped propel them into international superstar status (side note: I hate that song passionately. Literally every other Silverchair song is better). 

Dan struggled with the sudden fame. They all did. Dan developed anorexia and almost died. Ben and Chris tried their best to help him. It was especially tough for Ben, since he and Dan had been best friends for years, long before the band. Dan shut him out, he shut everyone out. He insisted on complete control of the songwriting and Ben and Chris went along with it. Chris didn't really seem to care but Ben did. They both felt like they couldn't even make suggestions without Dan flying off the handle. 

Management issued a press release in 2011, saying Silverchair was on an "indefinite hiatus". Dan has since said that he would never play with his former bandmates ever again. He's alluded to their betrayal, and they've alluded to his. Honestly, I feel like it's all a giant misunderstanding but I wasn't there, so what do I know? I just think it's so sad that something that brought so much joy to so many people, including themselves, is now the cause of so much pain for all of them. At least we'll always have the music.  

Silent Film's Last Hurrah

 

I was sad I had no new Perry Masons to read this weekend 😞

I have no idea why I wanted to read this book. I am not a film buff in any way. I think I've seen maybe two silent films in my life. But you know what? It was really interesting. 

Once "The Jazz Singer" came out in late 1927, major studios realized that "talkies" were the way to go. Some movies were reshot either partially or entirely, some had musical soundtracks added for the theater (hybrids), but some movies were released as silent in the 16 months following. Know (at least to Meuel, I don't know if it's a real thing or not) as "the long 1928", some of the greatest silent films of the era came out during that period. Some stars were able to transition successfully to talking films, while others could not. It's amazing to think how quickly it all changed. 

The Case of the Haunted Husband; Jessica Lange: an Adventurer's Heart; The Case of the Calendar Girl; The Case of the Signing Skirt; The Case of the Duplicate Daughter; The Fourth Rule; The Case of the Spurious Spinster

 

Okay, let's get this party rolling!

This is one of the best Mason books I've read so far. Stephanie is hitchhiking from San Francisco to L.A. The first driver who picks her up and leaves her in Bakersfield was a nice guy, but the next guy who picks her up is a wolf. He's drinking, driving too fast, and can't keep his hands to himself. He causes a terrible wreck, and when Stephanie comes to she's behind the wheel of the car with the man nowhere in sight. She's taken to the hospital and accused of vehicular manslaughter, despite her insistence that she wasn't driving. 

Perry comes on the case and starts looking for the driver. Turns out the car belongs to a wealthy Hollywood producer who claims it was stolen earlier in the day and he has no idea who could have been driving it. There were some really fun scenes with Lt. Tragg being part of the gang, and Paul, Perry, and Tragg shamelessly flirting with Della all at the same time. 

Jessica Lange is a terrific actress, I absolutely loved her in "American Horror Story". I had no idea she was with Sam Shepherd for as long as she was: over two decades, and they had two kids together. She also had a daughter with Baryshnikov, the famous ballet dancer. It was a very interesting story about a woman who doesn't lead a typical Hollywood life. 

This was another terrific one, I loved it. Contractor Ansley is being given rough treatment by the crooked inspectors. He's been resistant to paying out a bribe to Meridith Borden, a self-proclaimed "public relations expert". He finally caves and goes to visit Borden, pays him off, and goes to leave. As he's turning out of his driveway, another car is turning in and hits him. He's fine, but the other car turns on its side. It's dark, so he goes fumbling around trying to see if the driver needs help. He can just make out an unconscious female in the grass, and he starts for the house to get help. The woman starts yelling, so he turns back and helps her up. She claims she's fine and he offers to give her a ride home. She gives him a phony name and address and he drops her off. 

Afterwards, he goes to restaurant and starts wondering if he should report the accident to the police. Luckily (for him, obviously, not so much for them) Mason and Della are eating dinner, and he interrupts to ask for advice. The three of them return to the estate. Perry suggests there may have been two women in the car, but before they can make a really thorough search, the automatic gates close and lock and some ferocious dogs come running. They barely make it over the wall in time. 

Borden is found murdered the next morning and Perry was right: there were two women in the car, each telling a very different story. Ansley is arrested for the murder and Perry is able to successfully prove his innocence. Burger turns around and charges one of the women, Dawn, with murder. Perry ends up defending her and also gets her acquitted. I think that was the first time Perry defended two people for the same crime. 

I liked this one a lot, too. Ellen Robb is a singer and cigarette girl in a gambling joint in Rowena (a stand in for Gardena, which was apparently quite the local spot for illegal gambling back in the day). Her boss wants her to help him cheat a man named Ellis during a poker game and Ellen refuses, so he frames her for theft and throws her out. She goes to Mason for help. 

Ellis's wife turns up dead, and Ellen is the prime suspect. Ellis had a thing for her, but according to Ellen, it was one sided. A gun shows up in Ellen's bag (one of many in this book, I think there were five total). Perry pulls some fast tactics with the guns. Nothing *technically* illegal, just not 100% on the up and up. 

As usual, Gardner makes the D.A. look like a chump. Two bullets were recovered, and he seems rather blasé as to if they were fired from the same gun (spoiler: they weren't). 

A fun twist that hasn't been used in a Mason book before (at least not that I recall): identical twins! Although we don't find that out until the end, I felt like I really should have guessed it. 

Carter Gilman asks his daughter, Muriell, to fix him another egg and sausage for breakfast. While she's in the kitchen, her father disappears, leaving behind his briefcase and a note not to call the police, but rather go to Perry Mason. 

Muriell does, and Mason is intrigued. He goes out to visit the house and finds $10,000 in one hundred dollar bills strewn around Gilman's woodworking shop, along with a broken chair and a spilled can of red paint. 

Vera Martell, a P.I. from Las Vegas is found murdered. Word on the street is that she was blackmailing Gilman's second wife because her daughter, Glamis, is illegitimate. There were some fun scenes with Mason and Tragg again and of course the awesome courtroom battles. 

Taking a brief break from Perry Mason, I finished the fourth Riley Wolfe book by Lindsay. It was pretty good. 

Riley is in London to steal the Rosetta Stone. Why? Well, why not? He needs a new challenge. While casing the Museum of London he meets a young woman named Caitlin. The two of them get along like a house afire, and even though Riley realizes there are red flags all over the place, he lets Caitlin get close. Typical man. Throw a pretty girl in front of them and they lose all common sense. 

Riley barely manages to get away when the heist goes sixes and sevens, and Caitlin is kidnapped by a uber villain named the Cobra. So now he has to save her from the Cobra. Fun twist at the end that I didn't see coming. 

And finally (whew!) "The Case of the Spurious Spinster". Sue Fisher is Endicott Campbell's assistant, and the wealthy majority stockholder of their company is due to show up Monday from South America to look over the books. Sue comes in on Saturday to make sure things are in good order. Elizabeth Dow, Campbell's nanny, drops by with Carleton, Campbell's little boy, and asks Sue to keep an eye on him for a little bit. Sue agrees and Dow leaves. Sue asks Carleton about the shoebox he's carrying, and Carleton tells her he and his dad switched treasures. His dad has his, and he has his dad's. Curious, Sue finally manages to get a peek inside the box and finds it's stuffed with hundred dollar bills. She manages to convince Carleton to put it in the safe. 

Dow comes back for her charge, and just in time, too. Amelia Corning, the wealthy stockholder, calls from the airport, disgruntled that no one is there to meet her, claiming she cabled that she was coming early. Sue hops in a cab and meets the frail woman in the wheelchair and gets her set up in her hotel. She frantically tries to find Campbell to warn him that Miss Corning wants to see him, but she can't find him anywhere. Amelia insists on looking at the books right then and there, so Sue takes her to the office. Amelia sends her out to buy suitcases so she can pack up the books and papers and take them back to her hotel room. Then, of course, she vanishes. Oh, and so does the shoebox full of money. 

But wait! On Sunday *another* woman claiming to be Amelia Corning shows up. Which one was the imposter? Where did the money that was embezzled from the company go? Oh, and by the way, who killed Ken Lowry, the manager of the fake mine that was at the cause of the whole mess?