| Title | : | The Case of the Baited Hook (Perry Mason, #16) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0345329422 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780345329424 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 224 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1940 |
The Case of the Baited Hook (Perry Mason, #16) Reviews
-
On a cold, rainy night in 1940, Perry Mason is awakened out of a sound sleep by a man who offers to give Mason $1,000.00 if he'll come into his office immediately. They guy gives Perry a name that the lawyer immediately recognizes is phony and after Mason agrees to come in, he calls the Drake Detective Agency and gets them on the job. Drake's people are so efficient that by the time Perry gets to his office, he knows that the mysterious caller is actually an architect named Robert Peltham.
Peltham is accompanied by a mysterious young woman who is wearing a mask and who refuses to speak, making it impossible for Mason to identify her. Peltham wants the woman to be protected against any legal danger. He removes a $10,000.00 bill from his wallet, cuts a piece off of it and gives it to Mason as a retainer. He gives the other piece to the woman and says that if she ever needs Mason's services, she will give him the rest of the bill.
Adjusted for inflation, the $10,000.00 bill would be worth just under $175,000.00 in 2018. (Actually, $174,847.14, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but who's going to quibble over a hundred and fifty bucks or so?) Still, Mason initially refuses the case, pointing out all the problems involved in attempting to represent the interests of a client he can't even recognize. But in the end he agrees to the proposition.
Over the next several days, Mason sits around the office waiting for the other shoe to drop. In the meantime, he takes on a couple of other clients and before long, bodies are dropping, people are suing, and Mason still doesn't know what, if anything he should be doing.
The setup alone makes this among the most entertaining novels in this series. It's a lot of fun watching Perry trying to figure out what in the world is going on here and what he should be doing. In addition to a murder or two, there's also a scheming would-be heiress and a complicated stock sale that gives Perry an opportunity to trot out the Law of Agency, something that always spices up any mystery novel.
This is one of the few novels in the series that does not wind up in a courtroom. Things move so dramatically and so quickly, that Perry never even gets a chance to cross-examine anyone and expose them as lying fools on the stand. Still, it's a lot of fun and will appeal to anyone who enjoys this series. -
Hell, Yeah! Perry Mason rules! :)
-
ESG is amazing. The Perry Mason series in this 16th book seem to be reaching it's full potential. The plots are consistently intricate and dazzling. That he could crank them out so prolifically is remarkable. This book marks the first appearance of DA Hamilton Burger. Still no Lieutenant Tragg.
-
I've had a little bit of luck lately finding some episodes of Perry Mason with I've found I like the oldest ones, plus the early TV ones, and I really liked the ones where Raymond Burr and Della Street are in them. I'm going to keep trying to see if I can find some. Fun, and highly recommend.
Bob Dawson (Willard Sage) confronts his partner, Albert Tydings (George N. Neise), about an $80,000 shortfall in a trust account belonging to Carol Stanley (Judith Braun). Tydings amits he embezzled it, but he has a file that prevents Dawson from doing anything. After he leaves, Tydings tells the company clerk, Richard Ellis (Al Hopson), that he himself took only $60,000 and gives Ellis a day to return the extra $20,000. He takes a call for Bob from Carol and arranges for her to come to the office at 10 PM to discuss her account. He seems pleased, but his secretary, Enid Shaw (Mary Castle) looks resentful.
Carol arrives at the office and finds no one there except Tydings, who is slumped over his desk. She calls Bob and tells him that his partner has been murdered. Outside, a policeman tickets Carol's car, which is parked to close to a fire hydrant. Bob (not revealing his identity) and Carol (going him one better with a thick veil) go to Perry's apartment. Bob gives him two "Grovers" ($1000 bills) as a retainer. Then he takes out a $10,000 bill, which Perry says he hasn't seen before. (They were very rare even in 1957, and bore the image of Salmon P. Chase, Lincoln's Treasury Secretary.) Bob tears it in half, giving one half to Perry and the other to the disguised Carol. Perry will get Carol's half if the need arises for him to represent her, or return the retainer if he declines the case.
The next morning the no-nonsense Miss Abigail Leeds (Geraldine Wall) barges into Perry's office. She says that in 1939 she was asked to take Carol (then known as Katrina) out of Poland and look after her until her parents could follow. They never made it out. Being single, she put Carol in what she thought was a respectable welfare home, but turned out to be a baby farm, i.e., an adoption-for-pay racket. Luckily, Carol was acquired by the Stanleys, who turned out to be kind. They adopted her legally and left her a six-figure trust fund when they were killed in a car crash. Unluckily, Tydings was named trustee. Abigail knows about his thievery, but only Carol has legal standing to start an investigation, so Abigail will bring Carol to the office that afternoon.
Paul reports that he traced the serial number on the $10,000 bill, and it had been issued to Tydings. Perry wonders if he's been retained by both sides of the same dispute. The pair go to Tydings' house and find blood both inside and out. The trail leads them to a closet, and when they open it, Tydings himself falls out, face forward. Paul calls the police. Back at the office, Perry tells Abigail and Carol that Tydings is dead. Abigail volunteers to be the new trustee, serving at no fee. Lt. Tragg arrives to question Abigail about an unpleasant meeting she'd had with Tydings. She says "Whoever murdered him did a civic service." Tragg admires her frankness.
Perry goes to the Tydings and Dawson office. With Tydings dead and Bob having left town last night, Ellis is in charge. He claims professional ethics prevent him from helping Perry. Perry wants to talk to Enid, but is told that she usually comes in late. Paul reports that Bob's car has been found, wrecked, by a lake. While the police are dragging for a body, Paul and Perry join them and don't correct the conclusion to which Officer Duggan (Lyle Latell) has jumped, that they are from the press. Perry points out that no one was driving when the car crashed, as the gas pedal has been wired down. So there's probably no body to find.
That evening, as soon as all the investment office staff have left, Perry and Della sneak in, with Paul as lookout. Perry examines the ledger of Carol's account, which he has a court order to do, and finds evidence of Tydings' defalcations. On the floor he finds the empty shell of a small-caliber bullet, perhaps from a Beretta. If Tydings was shot in his office, why was the body moved miles away to his house? Perry speculates that if a woman shot Tydings and Bob was involved with her, he might move the body to protect her. Perry notes that on his daily calendar for 10 PM the night he was murdered, Tydings made a sketch of a female torso. If Tydings was expecting something to happen, perhaps the woman involved is Enid, as there must be some reason she can come into the office late. Perry gets a frantic phone call from Paul, who had trouble getting through. Tragg is on his way up! They duck out a window onto the fire escape, and evade capture.
Back at the office, they learn that Bob is wanted for murder. Blood found in his car matched Tydings' blood found in his office. Paul's man tailing Carol calls in. She's led him to a motel where Bob is hiding. Paul and Perry go there to question him. However, Tragg has been following Perry (perhaps the fire escape ploy was less effective than Perry thought?) and arrests Bob and Carol. She hands Perry her half of the "Salmon". Eventually, the D.A. charges Carol with murder and Bob as an accessory, because the record of the parking ticket shows she was at the office building at that time.
Perry and Della go to Abigail and Carol's house. They find cancelled checks for $150 payments from Abigail to Ellis, going back five years. Perry goes to the T&D office and uses one of the checks, plus a court order, to put an end to Ellis' stalling. The clerk reluctantly hands over Tydings' blackmail file. Perry tells Ellis that he'll no longer have money problems, because by the time he gets out of prison for extortion and grand larceny, he'll be getting his old age pension. Perry tells Abigail that Burger is charging Carol with 1st degree murder, which means the gas chamber if she's convicted. He mentions that he knows who killed Tydings, but can't prove it to a jury. She realizes that he means her, but wonders if he's just a good guesser. He produces Carol's birth certificate, which shows that Abigail is the mother. Unwilling to risk her daughter's fate any more, she confesses. Tragg is waiting in the next office to arrest her, and Perry says he'll defend her. Tragg and Abigail leave, arm in arm. (If you'll forgive an editorial comment that doesn't really belong in a plot synopsis, this is perhaps the lieutenant's finest moment in the entire run of the series.)
Later at Perry's apartment, he has a bad cold and Della is mothering him. Della brings up the case, and Perry mentions that Carol had found out about her parentage while in high school and didn't care. She only avoided mentioning it to her mother to avoid embarrassing her. Della concludes that the murder to protect that secret turned out to be futile and senseless. "All murders are," replies Perry. -
An interesting and enjoyable book.
-
Like many of Gardner's Perry Mason novels, Baited Hook begins with an unusual introduction to a client. In fact, the client is so mysterious that she is covered up and wearing a mask and doesn't even speak to Mason. And to top it off, although a large sum of money is dangled, Mason isn't told what the case is about or what he's expected to do. The case from there gets even more convoluted with Mason getting involved in a questionable stock trade, stumbling on corpses, and stands accused of being a pursesnatcher.
Gardner's Perry Mason stories are mysteries centered around a lawyer not a detective. Although this one is bereft of courtroom scenes, it has plenty of deductions and antics. -
My first Perry Mason experience.Loved the writing style and the way the tale unfolds throughout the story instead of the usual makes-sense towards the end.Cropping of new problems in the last but chapter makes you read until the last line.
-
An interesting & enjoyable Perry Mason mystery. The novel is different from other books in the series due to non existence of courtroom drama. ABOUT AVERAGE.
-
One of the more complicated Perry Mason mysteries, and one without any court scenes! Perry Mason is approached by a wealthy man and masked, silent lovely lady, and is offered $12000 to represent the woman in the future, if she should need it.
There are so many threads and character intermingling and plot points and alibis given its very difficult to keep everything straight, as every single person in the book seems to be lying -- and most are. Perry gets into seriously hot water this time and barely gets out, flying by the seat of his pants as usual.
But it was fun as he went up against some very high level corporate attorneys to come out on top.
Oh yes, a $10,000 bill makes an appearance, and yes they existed. Had Salmon P. Chase on the front. -
Solid and absorbing entry in the famous Perry Mason series. This one is all detective work and never sets foot in the courtroom. Breezy and brisk, the story flies along and there's no filler or wasted words. It's closer to a hard-boiled detective novel than the courtroom dramas many of the Mason stories are. Very enjoyable.
-
I really liked this one. Even if Gardner went about it in a very elaborate and mysterious way, the case looked pretty logical and methodical to me. It made sense and it kept me engrossed.
-
It ticks all the boxes if you like your classic crime.
-
Just as one would expect from a Perry Mason book, but this was the first time Della has been given anything other than a step-and-fetch-it role. She even called Perry a "goose" - I got a laugh out of that!
-
Magnificent! I LOVE Erle Stanley Gardner! He never disappoints, and I think that this is the best book that I have yet read in the Perry Mason series.
I began reading the Perry Mason books years ago and then began watching the TV series. I used to really like the TV series and once had the DVD collection for the entire series. But I grew bored with the TV series after watching the first six seasons, and I recently gave away the DVD’s. I really prefer the books! The TV show tried to pack too much plot into 51 minutes, and I often found the shows confusing.
The characters in the Perry Mason books were rather one dimensional, and Gardner was not a great stylist. But he wrote incredible plots, and they make the books worth reading.
The Perry Mason book series began in the 1930's, so occasionally you will read sayings and names common to that era that are offensive by any measure today, such as "She is free, white and 21” -- and worse! (The same is true of Raymond Chandler's books and the films of that time.) But the books are still worth reading if you like mysteries with complex plots that keep you guessing until the end.
I highly recommend the books. I plan to read all of the books in the series. -
At last, a Perry Mason mystery where I actually guessed the correct guilty party in the book's murder! Granted, I had no idea how or why this person was guilty--so Perry is still smarter than I am.
This enjoyable mystery from 1940 offers a change from the usual format, in that Perry never even goes to the courtroom in this novel. Perry Mason is dragged from bed one rainy night after midnight to meet a mysterious man (who's given him a fake name) and a woman who refuses to speak and wears a mask to disguise herself. The man wants Perry to represent the woman but refuses to say what the case involves, saying the headlines in tomorrow's newspapers will tell him. The man produces a $10,000 bill (they have Woodrow Wilson on them, in case anyone offers you one) and cuts it in two. He gives Mason the smaller half and tells him he will know his client when he or she produces the other half.
The fun of this mystery is that Perry Mason has no idea who he is supposed to be representing and has to keep putting ads in the daily newspaper to get updates about clients he can and can't represent (because they may be a conflict of interest). The suspects are varied and interesting. This is also one of those older Perry Mason mysteries when Perry is not above creating false evidence to lead the police in the wrong direction. I loved that switchboard operator, Gertie, got a chance to shine in a couple phone conversations with Mason that were laugh-out-loud funny.
At one point, Mason tells Della Street his philosophy of life: "Every time you stop to figure what the other fellow’s going to do, you unconsciously figure what you’d do in his place. The result is that you’re not fighting him, but yourself. You always come to a stalemate. Every time you think of a move, you think of a perfect defense. The best fighters don’t worry about what the other man may do."
This is book #16 of the 86 Perry Mason mysteries. -
This is rather different from the other Perry Mason books to which I've listened. This one starts off with Perry receiving a call in the middle of the night when he's at home, and he heads out into the rain to meet a potential client at his office. The client goes through all kinds of measures to remain mysterious and to keep the identity of the woman with him a secret, and he ends up retaining Perry as the woman's attorney by leaving half of a $10,000 bill with Mason.
Since the client is unknown, Perry must send and receive messages through newspaper ads to make sure that he doesn't take any clients with conflicting interests. A woman shows up the next day, seeking to have Mason assist a young woman in obtaining the inheritance she deserves, and Mason takes that case. When a murder occurs and the other clients feel threatened, Perry Mason gets dragged into a nasty situation which could ruin his career.
The book is particularly interesting because of all the cloak and dagger stuff. Which woman holds the other half of the $10,000 bill? Who is the murderer, and why? Why exactly was Mason called out on that rainy night after midnight? Not everything that is told to Mason is the truth, and he gets caught up in the web of lies and has to extricate himself by
I quite often am bored by the courtroom scenes in the books, so I didn't miss them here. -
This is Sergeant Halcomb's last case, so I thought he'd get fired in it. Sadly, he gets transfered away from Homicide off-screen between this book and the next one.
The case was pretty interesting, though I'm skeptical that the set-up made sense considering Mason's character. In short, someone offers Mason to take a case without knowing the client, and offers him 12,000$ to do it. Mason takes the case, though in many previous books he's made a point of saying the money isn't a big deal to him. -
Major characters:
Robert Peltham, architect and hospital trustee
Abigail E. Tump
Byrl Gailord, adoptee from Russia
Albert Tidings, hospital trustee
Nadine Holmes, Albert's estranged wife, actress
Parker C. Stell, hospital trustee
Adelle Hastings, who endowed Hastings Memorial Hospital
Carl Mattern, Tiding's secretary
Locale: Los Angeles
Synopsis: Act 1: Robert Peltham, architect, hires Perry Mason to protect the interests of a mystery woman, who comes to his office masked. He cannot explain why, only that he expects to be exposed in something scandalous. He pays a retainer and then cuts a $10,000 bill in half, giving Mason half and the woman half; so that she can prove her identity to Mason in the future if need be.
Act 2: Abigial Tump seeks to hire Mason. She had brought a refugee girl out of Russia, and through an agency the child (Byrl) was placed with Frank and Marjorie Gailord. Byrl took the Gailord name as her own. Frank and Marjorie have passed away, and Byrl, now of age, has income from a trust they established. The trustee is Albert Tidings. Abigail claims Tidings is a crook, and wants Mason to have the courts replace him with a different trustee.
Act 3: A financial scandal erupts at Hastings Memorial Hospital. An audit is ordered, and the three trustees appear to mixed up in the trouble. The trustees are Robert Peltham, Albert Tidings, and Parker C. Stell. The hospital is endowed by wealthy Adelle Hastings, who tells Mason that Stell is the only honest one of the trustees. Mason already knows Peltham. He goes to find Tidings, and walks into his estranged wife's house to find him dead.
Review: Being one of the early Mason titles, this is back when he was directly descended from the pulps - not hesitating to rough people up, perform illegal searches, and manufacture and manipulate 'evidence'.
There is no Lt. Tragg, but Sgt. Holcomb provides a lot of conflict for Mason.
It was a bit involved following the Gailord family line. Here is the sequence of events:
1. Frank and Marjorie Gailord were the original adoptive parents of Byrl Gailord
2. Frank died.
3. Marjorie remarried (her second) to Albert Tidings
4. Marjorie died.
5. Tidings remarried (his second) to Nadine Holmes
6. They became separated.
7. Tidings found dead in Nadine's home.
The big surprise of the book was the lack of a courtroom scene! The only thing remotely like it is a brief meeting in the D.A.'s office.
If you like tough-guy Mason, this is him before he got more desk-bound and mellow. -
La historia empieza muy bien con una intriga de esas que invitan a seguir leyendo un capítulo más: el famoso abogado Perry Mason recibe una llamada intempestiva en mitad de una noche de tormenta para ir a atender a alguien que quiere contratarlo, es decir, no es que acuda a la llamada de un cliente, sino de alguien que no lo es pero le muestra el cebo de mucho dinero.
La entrevista con el presunto cliente es de las que no suceden en la vida real y, de suceder, ningún abogado aceptaría: el que paga trata de engañar al abogado sobre su identidad -aunque este es tan listo que lo desenmascara- y la cliente se presenta camuflada bajo un imperdible enorme y un antifaz, no habla para no descubrir su voz y, por descontado, al abogado no se le dice quién es ni para qué necesita sus servicios.
Aquí arranca la novela, luego hay un asesinato, una huérfana, un desfalco, una compra de acciones... varias tramas que se entrecruzan y complican desentrañar la madeja y además ni uno de los personajes le dice la verdad a la primera al listísimo abogado que tiene que ir a tientas en la oscuridad para descubrir de qué va todo.
Los métodos del abogado, que no duda en recurrir al engaño si conviene a sus intereses -aunque diga que lo hace por el interés de su cliente-, resultan convincentes, no así las reacciones de aquellos a quienes Perry fuerza la mano, que una y otra vez, en lugar de mandarlo a paseo se muestran de lo más colaboradores y le dan toda la información que demanda.
El hilo de sus deducciones es fino, pero existe, no hay inspiraciones divinas que le lleven a descubrimientos fundamentales, aunque el que su amigo el detective Drake le proporcione oportunamente la única información que necesita para resolver el asesinato se le parece mucho. ¿Cómo sabía Drake que eso era lo que tenía que hacerle llegar? ¿Por qué tenía que ser a escondidas de la policía y del fiscal?
Pero el final me decepciona. Al haber varias tramas la mitad quedan a medias y la única que se concluye es la del asesinato. En cambio, el follón de la venta de acciones se deja irresoluto a pesar de que en ese follón hay un testigo cuya declaración no se ha desmontado, que acusa a Perry de estafa y de ocultar un asesinato. Y tampoco se resuelve la situación de la enmascarada y de su amigo, aunque ahí había poco que rascar. -
I have been very lax in keeping up with my kindle unlimited books. I have been further lazy to review the few I have read/listened to. I plan to correct this before my end-of-year graph-making sessions because I do not want my reading to appear completely similar.
I almost typed the words surprisingly fun, but given my recent experiences with the audiobook versions of Perry Mason's adventures, I should say unsurprisingly fun. If one approaches these books with the right mindset, there is some solid reading/listening time to be had with the books.
This particular one starts quite entertainingly. It is a dark stormy night, and Perry Mason gets a call from an unknown person demanding a secretive meeting at his office. It is here that a lot of money is offered to perry Mason without him knowing who his female client is (wearing a mask and keeping quiet) and to defend her when the time is right. These cryptic instructions are quite annoying to both Perry Mason and us as the reader because, within the next few chapters, we have a total of four women who could be the secret client!
Much of the book is spent with Perry Mason trying to head off his clients and ensure he has enough information to keep his promise and keep himself safe from actually being incarcerated.
I kept jumping from one culprit to another until certain facts were revealed that crossed at least a few people off the list.
The beginning of the story gives almost no indication as to the convoluted finale that wraps the book up.
If anyone is trying to read more books with the dynamic lawyer and his faithful sidekicks, this is an entertaining installment. As a bonus, the narrator is quite brilliant in bringing the character to life. The person we see is lighter(while maintaining his intelligence) than in the series on TV. I would actually recommend the audiobook over the physical read for this series. The suspense does seem more potent here.
Once again: Extremely random cover! -
A very satisfying mystery. It was a dark and stormy night. Perry Mason's private line rings after midnight. He is summoned to his office to meet a client. Robert Peltham is accompanied by a masked woman whose identity both decline to divulge. Mason may not be given much information to go on, but Peltham cuts a $10,000 bill, gives him one third of it, and hands the mystery woman the balance: Mason will know this woman is to be his client when she produces the rest of the bill. Meanwhile, he is approached by Abigail Tump, who wishes to retain him to assist a young lady, Bryl Gailord, whom she rescued years before from a shipwreck that claimed the lives of her Russian aristocratic parents, in a battle with her stepfather Albert Tidings over her legacy. Since Tidings and Peltham are both on the board of a local hospital (the finances of which are being investigated by Adelle Hastings, the third member of the board), Mason is concerned about a possible conflict of interest. It's not long before Tidings's dead body turns up and the attorney finds himself in deeply swirling waters of betrayal, deception, and murder. -- Although it almost seems at times as though there are too many women in this story, this fact helps to ratchet up the suspense: which of the women, if any, are Mason's mysterious client? The lawyer -- aided, as always, by faithful secretary Della Street and detective Paul Drake and his operatives -- eventually untangles the various threads of the story to reach the appropriate conclusion. (Yes, his mystery-lady client is eventually unmasked, and, yes, she is innocent of the murder...)
-
Perry Mason gets a call on his private home phone, late in the night. The man on the phone is demanding Perry meets him at Perry's office as soon as possible. The man needs Perry's services immediately, and to entice Perry he is offering payment in the form of two thousand dollar bills for a retainer. The follow-up is $10,000 if Perry is required to go to court.
When the man shows up at Perry's office, he is accompanied by a female. She was dressed in a voluminous raincoat, buttoned from neck to bottom, a close fitting hat and a mask. Her identity completely hidden. The man wanted Perry to defend the woman if she were to be involved in murder. At that time Perry would be told who she was.
This offer is hard to refuse, so Perry takes it. During this case there are times where he regrets that he did take the offer, but knows that he must see it through.
He also has a second case that involves an illegal adoption. There is a big question whether the child was of Russian parentage, as presented by one of the parties, or something else. A hugh trust fund is the weight behind the question.
Between Perry, Della Street and Paul Drake, the cases get solved; but there are quite a number of jogs in the path to the solution, along with some dodges of the police getting the information first and getting it wrong.
I always enjoy Perry Mason. -
I have known about the Perry Mason character for many years. When I was younger, it was a show, like Murder, She Wrote and Matlock, that was popular with the elderly crowd. Within the last few years, I've seen a handful of the older episodes of the show, back in Raymond Burr's prime. But even having that familiarity did not prepare me for what I encountered in this book. Although Mason is well known as a lawyer, dazzling all with dramatic courtroom scenes, he is something more than that in this book (and truth be told, the case doesn't even make it to the courtroom). Mason certainly knows the law, and uses it to bully others to his advantage, but he almost operates like a private eye as well, using Paul Drake and his detective agency to its full advantage. He is willing to bend the rules, but only within his own ethical code.
Most of the novel is concerned with Mason trying to figure out who his client even is, and what he'll need to defend them against. There are many twists and turns that keep the story moving, but it never feels bloated or too convoluted. One can see why Gardner was such a popular author in the 20th century. -
The Case of the Baited Hook, Erle Stanley Gardner [Penzler/American Mystery Classics, 1940].
Perry Mason is hired by a secretive, but apparently well-heeled client, to represent a mysterious young woman drawing him into a case involving stock fraud, a supposed Russian heiress, and murder.
***
Erle Stanley Gardner, who became the world’s bestselling writer, began his career as an amateur boxer and underground fight promoter. He began to study up on law to defend himself against potential criminal charges stemming from illegal fight events. Gardner was able to pass the California bar exam without formal law school training and In practice, defended mostly poor Chinese and Mexican immigrants. At one point, he left his law practice to sell tires (!) which was more lucrative. Gardner began writing stories for pulp magazines, including Black Mask. In 1936, Gardner published his first novel The Case of the Velvet Claws, which introduced the iconic character Perry Mason. Perry Mason stories have been adapted for radio, movies, and television, most recently as an HBO series starring Matthew Rhys. His work has been praised by Sinclair Lewis, W. Somerset Maugham, and G.K. Chesterton.
