Book Review: The Case of the Mythical Monkeys by Erle Stanley Gardner
Working as a secretary for scandalous writer Mauvis Meade was a pretty good gig for Gladys Doyle. She didn’t ask too many questions when Mauvis asked her to take a meeting at a ski resort with a Hollywood publicist. Her boss even gave her instructions on a special shortcut to take on the way back!
But it seems Gladys took a wrong turn in the rain and dark, because the car gets stuck in a mudhole. This might be California, but winter is still too cold to wait in the car until dawn without blankets, so Gladys heads to the one cabin she can see with a light on. The handsome man who answers clearly does not want her there, and answers only to “Joe.” He is prevailed upon to let her stay in the spare bedroom, on the condition that she doesn’t bother him while he works.
When Gladys wakes up at dawn, the cabin is cold, Joe is not present, and her car is out of the mudhole. But in the other bedroom is a dead man with a rifle beside him. In the tradition of innocent people who discover a corpse in fiction, Gladys promptly picks up the rifle, leaving her fingerprints on it, before realizing that she needs to get out of there. When she returns to the apartment she shares with Mauvis, Gladys sees that it’s been ransacked. At this point, she remembers the one lawyer in town that might be able to help her–Perry Mason!
Yes, it’s another case for the celebrity defense attorney, his secretary Della Street, and detective Paul Drake. This book has a decently large part for Lieutenant Tragg of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Homicide Division. His plodding but thorough investigative methods mean that he’s often left behind when Mason is playing one of his risky gambits, but the lawyer knows he can rely on Tragg to do a good job making a case.
The monkeys of the title are the “no evil” trio, printed on a scarf left at the scene of the crime. Perry Mason conceals this discovery from the police, which puts him at risk of breaking evidence laws. Or does it?
A couple of characters have tender consciences, which is both good and bad for Perry. And then one of the witnesses has a secret that allows our crafty hero to bend the rules of court procedure considerably, leading to the exposure of the real killer.
This is a good example of the Perry Mason novels, though the set up requires a lot of coincidence to make it work. It also made a pretty good episode of the TV series. Check your library or used bookstore.
