The Case of the Velvet Claws: Perry Mason Series, Book 1 Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Erle Stanley Gardner (Author), Alexander Cendese (Narrator), Brilliance Audio (Publisher)

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Criminal lawyer and bestselling mystery author Erle Stanley Gardner wrote nearly 150 novels that have sold 300 million copies worldwide. Now, the American Bar Association is bringing back his most famous and enduring novels - featuring criminal defense lawyer and sleuth Perry Mason - in striking trade paperback editions.

Married Eva Griffin has been caught with a prominent congressman, and is ready to pay the editor of a sleazy tabloid hush money to protect the politician. But first Perry Mason tracks down the publisher of the blackmailing tabloid and discovers a shocking secret, which eventually leads to Mason being accused of murder.

This is the first Perry Mason mystery and our introduction to secretary Della Street, detective Paul Drake, and the great lawyer himself.

Listening Length

6 hours and 1 minute
Author

Erle Stanley Gardner
Narrator

Alexander Cendese
Audible release date

Dec 27 2015
Language

English
Publisher

Brilliance Audio
ASIN

B071NRCKRW
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	6 hours and 1 minute
Author	Erle Stanley Gardner
Narrator	Alexander Cendese
Audible.ca Release Date	December 27 2015
Publisher	Brilliance Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B071NRCKRW
Best Sellers Rank	#60,902 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #499 in Traditional Detective Mysteries #3,619 in British Detective Stories #7,929 in Thrillers & Suspense

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

2,375 global ratings

5 star		51%
4 star		31%
3 star		12%
2 star		3%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from Canada

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Amazon Customer

The very first Perry Mason novel

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on July 15, 2020

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This isn't Raymond Burr's Perry Mason. Neither is it Matthew Rhys's angsty version. In this first novel Perry is basically Sam Spade with a law degree. Mason (a) slugs someone, (b) carries a gun at one point and (c) is routinely described as a big, tough guy. He doesn't even make it into court here; he functions more like the classic hardboiled PI and it's good fun if a little disconcerting. Also, his stalwart secretary Della Street is way cooler than Sam's Effie Perrine--cooler name too. I read some of the later books many year ago and Gardner seemed to have smoothed the rough edges off his creation by then. If you've never read any of the Mason books, this is certainly an interesting, and obvious, place to start.

2 people found this helpful

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Daniel Davidson

Early Mason

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on July 8, 2020

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Haven’t read one of these since the 1970s. This was the first one, and I picked it up to see if there was any justification for the version of the character currently being portrayed in the miniseries. I can sort of see where the pre-lawyer Mason could be justified, but this is still a long way from the character portrayed famously by Raymond Burr. It was enjoyable. I’ll probably read another one.

2 people found this helpful

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David M. Mannes

Perry Mason’s First Case

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on May 21, 2019

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Good mystery. I’d grown up watching the TV series, and have seen a couple of the 1930’s movies; but the books are grittier and Mason’s sense of humor is more evident in the books.

2 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

all good

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 2, 2018

Verified Purchase

all good

One person found this helpful

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Classic

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on December 9, 2013

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Want a good, classic who-done-it? This is the book for you. They don't write them like this anymore. Do you like Agatha Christie and Rex Stout? If you do, I expect you'd like Gardner.

2 people found this helpful

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Duane Schermerhorn

Intial entry in the Perry Mason series is weak, clawless

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on June 26, 2000

Background: The stylistic heritage of the Perry Mason mysteries is the American pulp magazines of the 1920s. In the early Mason mysteries, Perry - a good-looking, broad-shouldered, two-fisted, man of action - is constantly stiff-arming sultry beauties on his way to an explosive encounter that precipitates the book's climactic action sequence. In the opening chapters of these stories, Gardner subjects the reader to assertive passages that Mason is a crusader for justice, a man so action-oriented he is constitutionally incapable of sitting in his office and waiting for a case to come to him or to develop on its own once it has - he has to be out on the street, in the midst of the action, making things happen, always on the offensive, never standing pat or accepting being put on the defensive. These narrative passages - naïve, embarrassingly crude "character" development - pop up throughout the early books, stopping the narrative dead in its tracks, and putting on full display a non-writer's worst characteristic: telling the reader a character's traits instead of showing them through action, dialogue, and use of other of the writer's tools.
Rating "Ground Rules": These flaws, and others so staggeringly obvious that enumerating them is akin to using cannons to take out a flea, occur throughout the Gardner books, and can easily be used (with justification) to trash his work. But for this reader they are a "given", part of the literary terrain, and are not relevant to my assessment of the Gardner books. In other words, my assessments of the Perry Mason mysteries turn a blind eye to Erle Stanley Gardner's wooden, style-less writing, inept descriptive passages, unrealistic dialogue, and weak characterizations. As I've just noted, as examples of literary style all of Gardner's books, including the Perry Mason series, are all pretty bad. Nonetheless, the Mason stories are a lot of fun, offering intriguing puzzles, nifty legal gymnastics, courtroom pyrotechnics, and lots of action and close calls for Perry and crew. Basically, you have to turn off the literary sensibilities and enjoy the "guilty" pleasure of a fun read of bad writing. So, my 1-5 star ratings (A, B, C, D, and F) are relative to other books in the Gardner canon, not to other mysteries, and certainly not to literature or general fiction.
"The Case of the Velvet Claws": C
In this inaugural story in the Perry Mason series, Gardner spends a lot of time defining the by now all-too-well-known characteristics of the series - the characters (Della Street, faithful, adoring secretary and Paul Drake, beleaguered, efficient, somewhat dense private detective and Watson to Mason's Holmes), the urban setting, the typical client (in this case, as in so many others, an obstreperous, self-destructive, double-crossing female whose appearance was de rigueur in the pulps and the film noir classics of the forties) and of course our intrepid lawyer-hero - the impatient, no-nonsense, man-of-action who will stop at nothing to honor his client's right to be represented by the best legal mind possible. If all of this sounds a bit comic-bookish, well, it is, since its true ancestors - the pulps of that era - were only marginally removed from that form themselves.
In this outing the mystery is weak, the cast of suspects too small, and the situation and characters stock - lifted straight out of the pulp magazines where Gardner developed his style and his early following. There is none of the courtroom daring-do that earmarks the best of the Perry Mason series. The writing displays more of the dark-alley, rainy-night elements of the hard-boiled pulp style than the later entries in the series, and so has some interest for the reader who wants to trace Gardner's evolution to a new style, one that melds the elements of pulp with his unique blend of convoluted plot, legal intricacies, fast-paced action, and courtroom melodramatics.

2 people found this helpful

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book_acquirer

Good, not Great, but still well worth a read

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on July 21, 2002

I agree with the earlier reviewers that there is a notable shift between the earlier Perry Masons and the ones he wrote starting in about 1939/1940 or so. The earlier ones are definitely a straight continuation of Gardner's pulp books (Paul Pry, etc) and belong firmly in the Sam Spade category. The Perry here is very different from the Perry of the TV show and the later Perry of the books. Since Gardner kept tight control over the TV scripts, I imagine that the later book Perry resembles the TV Perry very closely for a reason....
In any case, the first few Perry Mason mysteries are very much in the Chinatownish genre--police corruption, decadent rich folks, and some surprise plot twists. To appreciate the earlier (1930s) Perry Masons, one must realize that the simple truth of the matter was that the DA's office was virtually the law enforcement division of the movie industry and the gambling syndicates and the LAPD was willing to frame any convenient sap it could lay its hands on. This explains the incredibly dark view of the establisment in the earlier books. Gardner, who was one of the few white lawyers willing to take Chinese clients in cases against the white establishment, had more than his share of run-ins against the 'Establishment' and more-often-than-not usually won because he was almost as good a lawyer as his creation, Perry Mason. In fact, once or twice he reworked some of his cases into the Perry Mason plots (e.g., the "Twice in Jeopardy" defense for an accused hit and run driver). When the LAPD was cleaned up and became more professional, Gardner retired Seargent Holcomb and brought in Lt. Tragg to update his books.
I have to agree with the earlier characterization and writing style critiques--as great writers go, Gardner would have to rank somewhere below me. However, as great mystery authors go, Gardner's ONLY competition is (the pre-1960s) Agatha Christie. The rest are all also rans but with some honorable mentions. I never pass up a chance to read a Perry Mason mystery because the court scenes are always a delight, there are NEVER any holes in the plot and I can almost never figure out who dunnit and why.

3 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer

Great storyline kept me guessing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 8, 2022

Verified Purchase

Brilliant first case for Nr Perry Mason. Helpless girl, stupid lover, beast of a husband and one twist after another in the story. Enjoyed reading it and was guessing til the last minute. Best crime writer ever...

Joey VanB

An interesting glimpse into the past

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 26, 2020

Verified Purchase

I purchased this title after watching the recent enthralling TV revival of Perry Mason starring Matthew Rhys. I think having Rhys in my mind's eye probably helped me enjoy the story more than would otherwise have been the case
It is dated in relation to much of what we now take for granted but an interesting period piece of its kind.

LoopyLou

Really enjoyable book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 27, 2021

Verified Purchase

I enjoy the old tv series of Perry Mason and was considering watching the remake but thought I would give the books a go first. I have enjoy this book a lot and am looking forward to reading the next 1

Kindle Customer

Good story.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 27, 2020

Verified Purchase

Good story.

Jules Smith

This writer could go far... even a Judy and Richard book club choice!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 7, 2020

Verified Purchase

Plot and characters
Not too sure why I need to say more but 7 more words required until complete entry

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The Case of the Velvet Claws: Perry Mason Series, Book 1 Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

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