The Case Of The Fenced-in Woman (1994) - Plot & Excerpts
I've been reading Gardner's Perry Mason books off and on for decades. Many years ago, I was an intense fan of the series, and read them all at least once. Now, after a lot of water over the dam, I'm looking at them again.Those who are used to really fine mystery writers (in the literary sense), such as Ross Macdonald, may find the writing style here off-putting. It can be stiff and mechanical. Nonetheless, I still love the general setting: the characters of Perry, Della, Paul, Lt. Tragg, and Hamilton Berger. That, and the ingenious plots, are why I read Perry Mason.On the whole, the ones written by 1954 are the best. This one was published in 1972, and is one of the very last. By the mid 1960s, Gardner was crafting and overseeing the stories, but most of the actual writing was done by helpers. It shows. Though the plot is ingenious, as always, the book is not very good, and will seem dated to many.The plot centers on a shady businessman, Loring Carson, and his wife Vivian, who are getting a nasty divorce. The man had hired a detective, who accidentally shadowed the wrong woman, thereby involving another, innocent young woman, Nadine Palmer, in some nasty publicity. Meanwhile, Carson has sold a large house to Morley Eden. Problem is the house stradles two lots, one of which is actually owned by Vivian. To get revenge and pressure her husband, Vivian has a barbed wire fence built right through the house on the boundary. It cuts through the living room and a swimming pool, though it's possible to duck down and swim under the fence. Morely Eden comes to Mason to get some kind of legal redress.As you might guess, it's not long before Carson is found murdered in the house, right next to the fence. A clever hiding place is nearby and may have held a great amount of money and securities. Mason pursues clues that lead him to Nadine Palmer and then to various casino hostesses in Las Vegas. While in Las Vegas, someone tries to frame Perry by putting a brief case full of the missing securities in his hotel room!The book is dated in its handling of divorce, and in its many attempts to be titilating with descriptions of nubile young women in and around the swimming pool. It reminds me of some of those B-movies from the early 1960s.Della Street and Paul Drake are in it only briefly. No Hamilton Burger, although there are pretty good courtroom scenes with an assistant DA. Recurring characters or themes: Perry gambling in Las Vegas; car is parked next to a hydrant and gets a ticket; witness watches the scene of the murder from a hillside overlook.Good Tragg; no Hamilton Burger; pretty good courtroom scenes. Possibly unique: The case actually goes to the jury and the defendents are found not guilty. Recommended only for clever plot and the early-mid 1960s atmosphere.
Gardner, Erle Stanley. THE CASE OF THE FENCED-IN WOMAN. ****. I always enjoy the Perry Mason novels from this author. Although this one isn’t one of his best, it is still an excellent read. The plot line is lean and devious. The characters are (almost) believable. The dialog is crisp and spare. You can’t do much better than to curl up with one of Gardner’s novels. In this episode, a man buys two lots from a builder and then has him build the house of his dreams on the property. What the builder didn’t manage to tell him was that he didn’t have clear title to both pieces of land. It seems that he was going through a divorce and that the second parcel was awarded to the wife as part of the community property. Unfortunately, the new house sits right on the dividing line of the two parcels. When the new owner moves into his home – still unaware of his problem – he finds that the house has been divided into two parts by a sturdy barbed wire fence. He now has half a living room, no kitchen, and half a swimming pool. He also meets the ex-wife, who further explains that she has obtained a restraining order that does not permit him to enter into her part of the house or, even, to reach through the fence. She takes a little mercy on him by offering him a cup of coffee, but that’s it. On subsequent days, she parades around in her underwear, and even arranges to have a lingerie party in her side of the house, so that she can force the homeowner to take some action against her ex-husband. This award made by the judge in the case was partially caused by the judge’s suspicion that the husband was hiding assets from the court in order to cheat his wife out of money due her from the divorce. Our harried homeowner engages Perry Mason to file suit for fraud and whatever else he can think of against the builder. While this is being done, the homeowner and Mason enter his side of the house to give a press conference and discover the ex-husband lying on the floor, dead, with a large kitchen knife sticking out of his back. Obviously, the most likely suspects are the homeowner and the ex-wife. Perry takes on the defense of the two when they are charged with murder, and has to use all of his ingenuity to battle the massive case of circumstantial evidence facing his clients. Lots of red herrings and lots of psychology used by Mason to ultimately get his clients off. Recommended.
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