For some reason, perhaps because of the old TV series (which I hated as a kid but quite like now), I never really considered reading a Perry Mason book until fairly recently. I’ve been pleasantly surprised how much I’ve liked them. There’s no great writing here – the prose can be pretty shopworn – but Erle Stanley Gardner was a top-notch plotter. One reads these books for the surprises. Today’s review: The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom.

Attorney Perry Mason is putting in late hours in his office one night, when he spots a pair of lovely female legs on the fire escape. He confronts the possessor of those legs, persuading her to come inside. (Mason is certain that she tosses a gun into the alley in the process, but she insists that’s not true.) She tells him that she has been concerned about the oil exploration company that occupies offices directly above his. She thinks someone is up to something shady there, and as a relative is an investor, she wanted to see what was going on. The story’s a little thin, but she manages to escape Perry in the end.

The next day Perry meets the manager of the office upstairs, who wants to hire him on a divorce matter. He recently went to Mexico to get married, not realizing that his first wife, who had told him she had divorced him in Reno, did no such thing – and now she’s trying to use bigamy as a lever against him. Perry learns that she has gotten the police involved, and accompanies his client and the new wife to Mexico, where they can get a Mexican divorce and marry legally.

But when the police put out a warrant for murder against his client, things get complicated.

There are some very nice plot twists in The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom. I especially liked one where Perry tries to get a jump on the prosecution strategy and it comes back to bite him. Lots of lies, lots of twists, and a surprise ending in the Gardner style.

First class, undemanding entertainment. I enjoyed The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom.