The Case Of The Sleepwalker's Niece [Hardcover]

Erle Stanley Gardner (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 282 pages
• Publisher: Triangle; Reprint edition (1943)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000GLJLNK
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,429,913 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "This isn't a murder case-- yet.", July 8, 2007

By 

frumiousb "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Case of the Sleepwalker's Niece (Mass Market Paperback)

Pure comfort read guilty pleasure popcorn book.

Perry Mason is willing to see a very agreeable blonde who wants him to help her uncle before he kills someone while sleepwalking. Intrigued, he takes the case. Much to his dismay, he gets pulled into a run-of-the-mill divorce and it looks like nothing fun will result. Luckily for him, but unluckily for someone else, a murder happens at just the wrong moment. Was it the sleepwalking uncle? Or someone who wanted to take advantage of an obvious weakness? Perry Mason and Della Street at their witty, snappy best.

Big fun. :)

4.0 out of 5 stars Confounding mysteries, and some very funny moments, April 7, 2011

By 

Brent Butler (North Carolina) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Case of the Sleepwalker's Niece (Hardcover)

In this Mason mystery, a client who sleepwalks seems almost certain to have stabbed a guest in his house while sleepwalking. Even Mason thinks he must have done the deed, though he isn't sure if his client premeditated the murder or not. While the list of suspects doesn't seem long, this one is tough to figure out.

I call Perry Mason mysteries "fair mysteries", in that you have a chance to spot the vital clues at the same time they are presented to Mason. Although that is true of this book, it is not quite as true as most. The inconsistencies that the case's solution hinges on are a bit on the nebulous side until focused on in the wrap-up. For that reason I stingily held back one star.

On the other hand, there are literally laugh out loud exchanges between Mason and Sergeant Holcomb, then Hamilton Burger (in his second appearance in the series). I greatly enjoyed this read, and that's what counts.

4.0 out of 5 stars I was completely fooled as to who committed the murder, September 3, 2010

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Case of the Sleepwalker's Niece (Mass Market Paperback)

The circumstances of this case are much more convoluted than in most other Perry Mason mysteries. Peter Kent is married to a gold-digging wife that was divorcing him but now is recanting because she learned that he may be worth millions more than she thought. Kent wants his divorce to be final so that he can remarry and his niece consults Perry Mason about Kent's supposed homicidal tendencies while he is sleepwalking, but only during a full moon. Kent's business partner and his lawyer are in town in an attempt to defraud Kent out of business profits that are in fact based on a patent stolen by the business partner. Add in a few other characters, including a butler, and there are many candidates for the killer when a man in Kent's house is found stabbed to death and the bloody knife is found under Kent's pillow.

As is nearly always the situation in a Mason case, the police and District Attorney Hamilton Burger are trying to nail Mason for impropriety and ethics violations. They focus on certain specifics of the case without examining the inconsistencies of the evidence. Mason simultaneously must deal with the murder charge against Kent, his wife's attempts to gain additional money and his business partner's attempt to defraud him of the fraudulent business revenues. Things are made even more difficult when the wife and business partner form an alliance against Mason and Kent.

However, Mason is up to the challenge, he is able to expose the true killer in dramatic fashion and all the nefarious characters end up getting what they deserve. I must confess that my prime suspect turned out to be innocent of the murder; the guilty party was not someone that I had even considered a suspect. That is the highest praise that I can give to a murder mystery, that I was completely fooled regarding who the killer was.