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massive archive….
Before I ever
read my first Perry Mason novel, I was familiar with the character from the TV
series and from advertisements for The Detective Book Club on the back covers
of some of the mystery magazines my father read.
There was a
neighborhood sundries store my father, brother and I would occasionally go to
after dinner a couple times a week if the weather were conducive, where we’d
buy ice cream and/or candy, and where my father would purchase a paperback or
two and I’d pick up some comic books. (I don’t recall what my brother bought.)
As I mentioned in my review of a modern Hardy Boys book, Secret of the Red
Arrow, I had begun at age 11 to read mystery fiction aimed at adults. So one
evening at the aforementioned store, at the age of 12, I noticed a paperback
copy of Erle Stanley Gardner’s The Case of the Vagabond Virgin and handed it to
my father to pay for. Thus began my Perry Mason obsession, which resulted in my
reading another dozen titles one after the other. It was a good lesson about
the pitfalls of binge-reading a particular author and series, because I became
so oversaturated with Gardner’s style and approach in the Mason novels that it
was years before I could read another one.
Eventually I
read quite a few more--spreading them out over time. When I recently came upon
an electronic copy of The Case of the Sleepwalker’s Niece, I realized that it
had been at least 20 years, probably more, since I’d read a Perry Mason
mystery, so I decided to reestablish my acquaintance.
The eighth
title in the series, it begins when Mason is hired by Edna Hammer to speed up
the divorce of her wealthy uncle, Peter Kent. His estranged wife Doris has
suddenly tried to demonstrate a kind of renewed affection for Kent, who wants
the divorce so he can marry Lucille Mays. Because Kent once picked up a butcher
knife while sleepwalking, Doris was certain he wanted to kill her.
Adding to the
story’s complications are the presences in the Kent mansion of, among others,
Kent’s shady business partner, Frank Maddox; Maddox’s pettifogging lawyer, John
Duncan; Philip Rease, Kent’s hypochondriacal half-brother; Gerald Harris,
Edna’s fiancé; and Helen Warrington, Kent’s secretary.
When sometime
around midnight--or was it later in the morning?--a figure is seen walking
across a patio toward another entrance to the house where people are sleeping,
and said figure appears to be holding a knife, and still later someone is found
dead in bed, having been stabbed to death, the most likely suspect, and the
party arrested, is Mason’s client. The questions confronting the lawyer: was
Kent actually sleepwalking, was he pretending somnambulism to commit a murder,
or was he framed by someone else? And if he was actually walking in his sleep,
how to prove it.
Anyone with
even a passing familiarity with Perry Mason knows the answer to some of those
questions. I’m not going to answer them lest I spoil some of the book’s
surprises, of which there are several. Having said so, I must also admit I
found this one to be among the weaker entries in this classic series. Erle
Stanley Gardner’s style in the Mason novels relies on lean narrative and an
extensive use of dialogue to move the story along. But in The Case of the
Sleepwalker’s Niece, there is too much talk and not enough action. It isn’t
until Mason finally gets into the courtroom that the pace quickens a bit.
If you’re a
Mason fan and have missed this one, you might want to read it for the sake of
completeness. If you aren’t a completist, pass on it in favor of better entries
in the series.
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Barry Ergang ©2018,
2024
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