Case of the Crying Sparrow; Case of the Irate Witness; The Bad Weather Friend

 

This was another novella, and honestly it wasn't terribly good. The best part was poor Paul having to pretend to be a mining expert and riding a horse, which he strenuously objected to, only to have Perry tell him "tough". So rude, Perry. 

 A wealthy man asks Perry to find his wife, who has disappeared. The day before she vanished, they had a break in at their home and his wife's jewelry was stolen. Ironically enough, the day before the break in his wife cancelled the insurance policy on the jewelry. Weird. 

I, personally, would have told the guy to go to the police, but instead Perry, Della, and Paul cook up an elaborate story about mining investments so as not to tip off the man's mother as to what was going on. 

No courtroom scenes, so it was kind of dull. 

There were four short stories in this book, only one featuring Mason (I read all four, though). The Mason one was actually the least interesting. Perry is trying to have a weekend getaway and gets stopped at a roadblock. There's been a robbery in Jebson City. He ends up defending the accused. At least there was a courtroom scene. 

Two of the other stories were pretty good. "The Jeweled Butterfly" was about a young woman named Peggy Castle who writes a gossip column for the company newsletter. She gets an anonymous tip about two employees meeting up at a nightclub for a secret rendezvous, so she goes. Don shows up, but not Stella. She and Don end up finding Stella's body in her apartment when they go looking for her, and she has a mysterious jeweled butterfly pinned to her stocking. It was a fun story. 

The last story, "A Man is Missing", was a Western that played on Gardner's love of the outdoors. It was pretty good, too.

The third story, "Something Like a Pelican" was weird and out of character for Gardner. Lester Leith is a amateur detective type with a butler who gets involved in a case of missing blueprints. It involved a woman throwing a fur cape out a window. Like I said, it was odd and not very good. 

And that does it for Perry Mason. Bittersweet. But now I have a whole list of really fun ones to go back and reread when the mood strikes!

Okay, Dean Koontz. He's hit or miss. Some of his books are brilliant, others not so much. This one was decent, not one of my favorites, but not terrible. I think my main problem with this one (with several of his latest books) is how YOUNG the protagonists are. 

Benny is 23. After a super rough and weird childhood, he inherited a small sum of money from his mother and moved to Newport Beach, where he became a very successful real estate agent with a nice house in a really nice area. Houses in that area are going for over $15 million right now, so you can figure that one out. At 23? I would have believed 33, but 23 is just too young, I'm sorry. Especially to be self-made and not doing anything illegal. But I digress. 

Benny is a nice guy and he's having a really awful day. He got fired from his job, his fiancée dumped him, and an uncle he didn't even know he had sent him a cryptic note about an inheritance. A giant, heavy box arrives. Inside is Spike, a craggle. Spike is there to turn Benny's life back around and vanquish his enemies, a mysterious cabal intent on ruining the lives of people too nice for this world. 

Okay then. It was a quick read, mildly interesting, but nothing to write home about.