The Case of the Waylaid Wolf

When he died in 1970, Erle Stanley Gardner was the best-selling American author of the 20th century. During his career he wrote more than a hundred books under a whole gallery of pen names, but he’s probably most famous for his Perry Mason series, of which I – a devoted crime novel fan – have never read a single one.

As far as I can tell – I went cross-eyed counting them on Wikipedia - he wrote 82 Perry Mason novels. With a tally like that, and the schedule it must have demanded to produce so many, it’s no surprise that character is kept to a minimum. Perry Mason, his secretary Della Street and investigator Paul Drake barely register as individuals. The trial, or in this case the preliminary hearing, is everything.

The surprise – to me at least, who watched the TV series with Raymond Burr when I was little – is how intense that hearing is. Erle Stanley Gardner began his career as a lawyer, but soon tired of it and switched to writing. But his experience as a litigator is unmissable in the arguments before the court during the hearing.

Evidence, arguments and rebuttals zip back and forth. Witnesses are put under pressure and the judge is constantly being asked to rule on matters of the law. But instead of the standard Objection, your honour! Sustained routine I grew up with, the arguments here are lengthy and convoluted. There’s real depth, as in this example:

“Objected to, if the court please,” Mason said, “on the ground that question is incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial, that it is leading and suggestive, and further on the ground that counsel, well knowing the ruling of the Court in regard to conversations had with me outside the presence of the defendant has deliberately tried by this leading question to prejudice the Court against the defendant’s case.”

It may be pulp; it may belong to a tried and tested formula with little interest in character; but this little thriller has a surprising depth to its courtroom proceedings and is most definitely not to be skipped over. Perry Mason actually wins his case. He earns his victory. And in that it’s most definitely not a forgettable, time-passing pulp adventure.