The Case
of the Sulky Girl, Gardner’s second book, contains Perry Mason’s
first courtroom scenes. Fran Celane, the sulky girl of the title, comes to
Mason’s office, asking for help with a will. Her father left his money in a
trust for her, which she can receive if she remains unmarried at age 25. If she
marries before 25, the distribution of the estate is left to the discretion of the
trustee, except if the trustee dies before Fran’s 25th birthday.
This sets up the perfect situation for murder, and the reader is not surprised
when Edward Norton, the tight-fisted trustee, is found dead in Chapter Five.
Overall, the book is one of the weaker of the
period. While the will sets up an interesting situation for murder, Gardner grows
pedantic on probate and trusts. It’s obvious that Gardner knew the subject
well, but as with most books, all that the author knows should not appear on
the pages. Even with these drawbacks, the book was named one of the two
Haycraft-Queen cornerstones, the definitive library listing of mystery fiction,
for Gardner’s Perry Mason series. The legal descriptions were so detailed that
an estate lawyer later cited them during a trial in an Arizona courtroom.
I agree with you that this is one of the weaker Mason novels of the first dozen. I want to add that as a practicing attorney in California for several years, it was natural for Gardner to pour his knowledge into the early books like this, but he did back off by the time he got on a few more books.
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