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The Case of the Runaway Corpse (Perry Mason Series)

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The Case of the Runaway Corpse

The 'Foreword' is dedicated to Dr. Frederick D. Newbarr "an expert pathologist, coroner's physician and autopsy surgeon". He is a medical detective who first used techniques from England and Europe. He spent many long hours on the Black Dahlia case. Criminal defense lawyers are among the shrewdest practitioners who can cross-examine a witness to find a weak point. Few take on Dr. Newbarr because of his knowledge and preparedness.

Della tells Perry there are two women to see him: a young woman in her late 20s (Mrs. Myrna Davenport), and an older woman in her 50s (Mrs. Sara Ansel). Its about a murder case. Myrna's husband wrote a letter accusing his wife of planning to kill him! Also, of poisoning a niece Hortense Paxton who stood to inherit the bulk of an estate. Myrna has a garden and dangerous pest chemicals. Now her husband Ed has become sick. They want Perry Mason to get that letter. Perry explains the legalities in doing this. Perry will act to safeguard Myrna's property rights. Later Perry gets a call from Sara Ansel; Ed is dead so Perry must go to his office. Mabel Norge, Ed Davenport's secretary, shows up and calls the police. Perry explains his duty as Myrna's attorney to Mabel and the Deputy Sheriff. After they leave, Perry gets a call from Myrna Davenport: Ed wasn't dead, and now he went away. This "corpse" has runaway! This seems like a double-cross to Perry. Before meeting Myrna and Sara, Perry tells Della how to find out if they are being shadowed. A man is sitting and reading a newspaper at 3 AM. Ed got sick while driving, and stopped at a town for a doctor. Ed took a turn for the worse and died. The doctor called the sheriff, coroner, and district attorney because of this suspicious death.

Paul Drake wakes Perry with a telephone call. Myrna has been arrested for two murders; the body of Hortense Paxton was disinterred and arsenic was found, and they're looking for Ed (who is found in a shallow grave). The District Attorney calls Perry to ask him a question (Chapter 6). Perry learns that the witness who saw a man in pajamas leave by a window gave a false name and disappeared (Chapter 8)! District Attorney Talbert Vandling plays by the rules. Perry warns Myrna against a friendly inmate or talking on the telephone (Chapter 9). Perry learns more about the Paradise Motor Court (Chapter 10). Chapter 11 explains how rigor mortis can provide an estimate of time of death. The questioning of Sara Ansel brings out her testimony about the events. Perry's questioning of Dr. Renault brings out the inconsistency of previous nausea in the morning and stomach contents showing a meal of bacon and eggs! There is a conflict between the doctor who witnessed Ed's death and the doctor who performed the autopsy. This chapter with the preliminary hearing has the most pages.

Perry discusses the interesting facts in the case (Chapter 12). How could anyone know Ed would get sick in Crampton? What does the prepared grave say? Perry and Della search the area to find tracks of a car and trailer. Who was the one person who knew Ed Davenport would leave Fresno that morning? After meeting a witness, the preliminary hearing continues (Chapter 14). A witness is recalled, and the testimony puts a surprising end to the case against Perry's client Myrna. Chapter 15 ties up the loose strings. When a dead man is seen walking away then one or more witnesses must be mistaken or lying. Was a murderer caught because they were too greedy? You can expect a surprising finish to this story. [Was it based on a true crime?]

This is one of the better Perry Mason cases. The reader can guess it, but it may be difficult.

Erle Stanley Gardner was a pulp writer for BLACK MASK, the magazine of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. His own legal experience made his Perry Mason novels a bit more authentic than a lot of pulp fiction, but they have pulp's drive and energy. It's only because of a bland, family-oriented tv series (a very good one in its own right) that Mason seems like a respectable detective to a lot of readers today. Gardner himself was influenced by the series' success, and toned Mason's raffishness down quite a bit in later novels.

The fault in this one is not that the plot is over-complex (it's not, and an action writer can be forgiven for that anyway) but that the Fresno D. A. launches his case against Mason's client without checking out its basic facts. Mason is soon able to show that the supposed victim seems to have been poisoned two different ways at two different times, and as the prosecutor's case wobbles, our lawyer has time to figure the whole thing out.

I don't mind that kind of thing at all, not even when Sherlock Holmes has to tell Inspector Lestrade that the bones he thinks are part of a human skeleton actually come from a rabbit. If their opponents weren't dumb, our heroes couldn't shine the way they do. And in this book, Della Street really works Mason over for refusing to tell his theory till he can look extra smart. She calls him a prig, and he deserves it.

Great fun. Raymond Chandler said in a letter to Gardner that in his excellent books, "Each page throws the hook for the next." He said to another correspondent that he forgot a Gardner novel as soon as he finished its last page. If you're looking for perfect escape fiction, that's just another recommendation.