Customer Reviews

The Case of the Perjured Parrot

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the 30th Perry Mason novel I've read (the 14th in the series), and it's the best one so far! A spinster librarian finds love. He's a bit older than her and unemployed, but he's such a wonderful man that she marries him and enjoys the happiest months of her life. But alas, when he is found murdered in their honeymoon cabin, she discovers his real identity--that he was actually a multimillionaire who was married to another woman. Such betrayal! and all the evidence points to her as the murderer, including a parrot who repeats the murder dialog over and over again. And everyone but her has an ironclad alibi for the time of the murder. I won't give away the solution, except to say that it's so good that you'll want to study cinema just to bring it to the screen.

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 Perjured Parrot": A

This is one of the strongest entries in the Perry Mason series. Written in 1939, when Gardner was at the height of his limited creative powers, this well-constructed mystery is full of baffling clues that set the reader to thinking and speculating. The story is fast-paced, founded in authentic human behavior, and - best of all - the characters remain true to themselves. The mystery is quite mystifying, and the solution quite satisfying - the sort that brings to your lips a smile combining approval and acknowledgement of being outwitted.

Multimillionaire Fremont Sabin is murdered in his mountain retreat. His recent financial activities have made him the center of a storm of personal vendettas and backroom business dealings. Confused identities, an unacknowledged romantic liaison, a parrot that witnessed the crime - Gardner mixes these and other interesting bits in a tantalizing concoction guaranteed to keep the reader guessing - and eagerly turning pages to get to the next twist in the tale.

The story also provides Gardner with an opportunity to use a favorite detective device: the forensic "expert" who provides a definitive interpretation of the clues at the murder scene, an interpretation which invariably leaves the authorities with no alternative but to push Perry's client into a cell and oil the old electric chair switch. Gardner can't suppress a genuine pleasure in deflating the experts with alternative interpretations. A pleasure that was no doubt rooted in his personal interest in justice and fairness that led him in the 1950s to found the "Court of Last Resort", whereby he continued to try to rectify "misinterpretations" of physical evidence on a grander social stage.

I paid this book $1.00, and did not spend anything for the for shipping. Still it is not worth it: I threw it away after reading (that is, trying to read) a few pages. The novel itself is fine, a typical Perry Mason mystery. I'm talking about the edition. There are printing errors almost in each page, and both the font and the paper are wrong. Do not purchase books by Stratus Books, not even if they are sold for one dollar, shipping and handling included.

The Case of the Perjured Parrot, Erle Stanley Gardner

Perry Mason tells Della Street that he never takes a case unless he is convinced his client is innocent. Then he explains the discrepancies in the evidence to free his client. A new client shows up for a consultation, his father's murder was in the day's newspapers. This millionaire father set up trust funds to help the crippled, the aged, and the infirm; those who had their health deserved nothing more. Fremont Sabin was shot with an obsolete derringer, only his pet parrot was alive in Sabin's isolated hunting cabin. Charles Sabin wants to prevent his father's widow from destroying the will that left the bulk of the estate to him. Charles Sabin also wants the murderer brought to justice. Fremont married his housekeeper after his wife died, but became very unhappy. Charles Sabin explains why the parrot found in the cabin was NOT his father's pet parrot, and this may be important to solving the murder.

Perry and Della drive to the mountain cabin to view the scene; the police are there. The time of death was estimated as the morning when the fishing season began. Fremont's secretary, Richard Waid, received a telephone call from Fremont the night before and was told to fly to New York (he has an alibi). The alarm clock, set for 5:30, had run down at 2:47. Sheriff Barnes estimated the itme of death from the caught fish and the canned beans eaten for lunch. When leaving, Perry notices an almost hidden wire; someone was tapping Fremont's telephone! Fremont Sabin had been donating to the group that was investigating official corruption; scores of people would murder him if they found out about this (Chapter III).

Perry gets Paul Drake to track down parrot sales; they are a rare bird. They find the shop that recently sold a parrot, and the woman who bought parrot food. Now complications arise. This woman was a librarian who was recently married. Her parrot can be seen and heard on the back porch, and provides a clue. The murder weapon was part of the collection at the Public Library's museum, and was taken by the librarian, Helen Monteith (Chapter IV)! Perry tells Helen that she will be arrested for suspicion of murder as soon as the police find out about her. Perry meets the widow, Helen Watkins Sabin, who is very combative. Did she secretly go to Reno for a divorce? Was the divorce granted before the murder, or after (making her a rich widow)? Does the parrot offer a key to the solution (Chapter VI)? Wire-tapping is a felony in California, private detectives don't do it. "You'd be surprised to know how often the police do it" says Paul Drake (p.140).

And so the rest of the book tells how Perry Mason solves the murder and frees his client. By now you must have picked up the hints and the question about time of death and divorce. But what if the divorce decree was forged? Can a parrot testify in court without committing perjury? Circumstantial evidence is the interpretation drawn from the known facts (Chapter IX). Questioning Sergeant Holcomb about his theory of Helen's guilt reveals an alternate explanation derived from the same facts, one that doesn't ignore little discrepancies but accounts for them. One summoned witness has left, and Helen Monteith Sabin goes free. Just when you thought it was all wrapped up, there is a very shocking surprise ending (don't peek). In fact or fiction, an eyewitness can be mistaken or lying when there is no corroborative evidence for the testimony. This book describes a time when a grocery store was owner-operated.

I've had trouble getting through most Perry Mason mysteries I've read in the past; none of them managed to "pull" me into the plot like Sherlock Holmes, Nero Wolfe, Spenser or even Ellery Queen stories always seem to do.

This one was the exception to that case, perhaps it was because it involved a parrot. Actually, it involved not one, not two, but three parrots.

They play a key role, used in a manner similar to the "old shell game" - except with parrots.

The story involves the murder of wealthy businessman Fremont Sabin, who may or may not have been killed before a divorce from his wife went through. Several clues point to the fact he may even have been committing bigamy. As usual, all his heirs are fighting over the issue, especially given the fact there is no will.

The parrot angle involves Sabin's beloved pet parrot Casanova, found at the scene of the crime. However, it becomes apparent a switch was made by someone (the murderer? one of his wives? Sabin himself?) as the parrot found at the scene proves to be a foul-mouthed imposter, and there does not seem to be any rational explanation as to why a switch was made, or where the real Casanova may have gone.

Pretty soon, Mason is playing musical parrots himself to help solve the case. One of them (the real one? an imposter?) keeps repeating the phrase, "Put down that gun, Helen! Don't shoot! My God, you've shot me!"

Helen is the name of both the wife Sabin tried to divorce and a woman with whom he may have committed bigamy.

There are plenty of other twists and turns and although I figured out one aspect of the story before the climax, I did miss figuring out the identity of the murderer. All in all, it's a good little page-turner, especially if you like parrots.

In The Case Of The Perjured Parrot, an eccentric millionaire is found murdered in his mountain cabin, his parrot loose from it's cage. Famous Lawyer Perry Mason is hired to represent the victim's son, who expects an inheritance battle with his father's ex-wife, Helen Sabin. Mason, his competent secretary Della Street, and Private Eye Paul Drake investigate, turning up another parrot in the home of another woman named Helen -- Helen Monteith. And this parrot repeats the phrase: "Drop the gun, Helen . . . Don't shoot . . . My God, you've shot me." Mason decides to protect this second Helen, and has Della take her away. The police, as yet unaware of the second parrot, find that the murder weapon came from Helen Monteith's work place, and accuse her of the murder. She claims to have been married to the victim recently, though his divorce wasn't final. She knew nothing about his other marriage.

This one is very well-written and readable, a real page-turner. The set up is very effective, keeps you reading to figure it out, and Mason's final solution of the case depends more on the clues than on breaking down witnesses like on the TV shows. There's also another big plot twist at the end, other than the murder revelation. The conclusion is consistent with the clues yet surprising, not a disappointment in any way.

In The Case Of The Perjured Parrot, an eccentric millionaire is found murdered in his mountain cabin, his parrot loose from it's cage. Famous Lawyer Perry Mason is hired to represent the victim's son, who expects an inheritance battle with his father's ex-wife, Helen Sabin. Mason, his competent secretary Della Street, and Private Eye Paul Drake investigate, turning up another parrot in the home of another woman named Helen -- Helen Monteith. And this parrot repeats the phrase: "Drop the gun, Helen . . . Don't shoot . . . My God, you've shot me." Mason decides to protect this second Helen, and has Della take her away. The police, as yet unaware of the second parrot, find that the murder weapon came from Helen Monteith's work place, and accuse her of the murder. She claims to have been married to the victim recently, though his divorce wasn't final. She knew nothing about his other marriage.

This one is very well-written and readable, a real page-turner. The set up is very effective, keeps you reading to figure it out, and Mason's final solution of the case depends more on the clues than on breaking down witnesses like on the TV shows. There's also another big plot twist at the end, other than the murder revelation. The conclusion is consistent with the clues yet surprising, not a disappointment in any way.

Erle Stanley Gardner, himself an attorney, helped create the hard-boiled genre in the 20's & 30's, when, along with Dashiell Hammett and Carroll John Daly, he published his stories in the pulp magazine Black Mask. Then in 1933 he created Perry Mason for The Case of the Velvet Claws. Some 80 further Perry Mason adventures followed, most serialized in the Saturday Evening Post. With about 200 million copies sold in thirty languages, popular radio serials and the long running TV Series beginning in 1957, Perry Mason is one of the most popular mystery series of all time. Gardner was made a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America in 1962.

Gardner followed a simple, but surefire formula. Perry's clients, mostly women, were wrongly accused, but DA Hamilton Berger was out to get them. Perry, along with his loyal secretary Della Street and private Detective Paul Drake, was forced to cut corners to solve the cases before his clients could have a murder rap pinned on them. Despite his willingness to play fast and loose, Perry is essentially honest, as he tells Della in the Baited Hook:

Lots of lawyers go into court with a case founded on false testimony. Sometimes they make it stick. Sometimes they don't. Personally, I've never dared to take the risk. Truth is the most powerful weapon a man can use, and if you practice law the way we do, it's the only weapon powerful enough to use.

If you've never read on of the Perry Masons they are well worth your time. You can always find old copies of them at local book sales and it appears that many of them are still in print.

GRADE: B+

Multimillionaire Fremont Sabin was murdered and his pet parrot was squawking by him. His son and his second wife begin disputing over the inheritance. That is an ordinary scene. One thing that is not ordinary at all; the parrot that was found nearby the body is NOT Sabin's parrot. Mason soon locates the REAL Sabin's parrot...But a parrot can be a witness? Well, it depends on how you interpret its talking. This story is the shortest of all Mason mysteries and not so spectacular, but I like it very much. The story is very well-plotted. The mystery of the parrot(s) is especially impressive. The time element is also excellent.