You may recall that I’ve discovered, rather to my surprise, that I enjoy Erle Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason novels. They’re nothing profound or inspirational, but they’re interesting reading entertainment, competently written.
But Perry Mason, defense lawyer, wasn’t the only continuing character Gardner created. Another character – on the other side of the legal fence – was Doug Selby, district attorney in a small town outside of Los Angeles. I found a deal on book 5, The D.A. Calls a Turn.
The story starts on Thanksgiving day. A successful local businessman is killed in an auto accident. Oddly, although his shoes and socks are expensive, he’s wearing an old suit that’s too small for him. The coroner says that he did not die in the crash, but was murdered beforehand.
D.A. Doug Selby, along with his friend the sheriff, and his girlfriend, a friendly newspaper reporter, conclude that the only explanation is that the victim must have been suffering from amnesia. He had suffered some kind of trauma in the past, they postulate, and started a new life as a businessman. Then, for some reason, he had regained his memory on Thanksgiving, gone to fetch his old clothes, and gone on the run. It is assumed he has a criminal past.
The whole plot is kind of complicated and (I thought) far-fetched, and frankly I had trouble tracking it. The writing was okay – Gardner was a pro. But the story didn’t compel me – maybe I wasn’t paying close enough attention.
I might note that this e-book has a number of Optical Character Recognition errors, and it must have been published from the British edition, as it uses English orthography.
