The Case of the Green-eyed Sister by Erle Stanley Gardner, 1953

 

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Major characters:

• Sylvia Atwood, the green-eyed sister; a widow
• Hattie Bain, her sister
•      Edison Levering Doyle, Hattie's boyfriend; an architect
• Jarrett Bain, Sylvia's brother
•      Phoebe Bain, Jarrett's wife
• Ned Bain, father of Sylvia, Hattie, and Jarrett; a widower
• Jeremiam Josiah "J.J." Fritch, a.k.a. Frank Reedy, Ned's former partner
  
• George Brogan, a shifty private investigator

Locale: Los Angeles

Synopsis: Chronically ill widower Ned Bain has three children: Sexy, flashy Sylvia Atwood, plain stay-at-home Hattie Bain, and archeologist Jarrett Bain. 

Sylvia approaches Perry Mason and asks him to represent the family in a thorny matter: Ned Bain's former partner, J. J. Fritch, has always been suspected as being one of a long-ago bank robbery gang. Now Fritch has hired unsavory private investigator George Brogan to act as an intermediary - he claims to have a tape recording proving that Ned Bain was a part of the bank robbery gang also. He wants to sell the tape to the family so they can destroy it, and avoid the notoriety. Fritch and Brogan have arranged matters so it barely does not rise to blackmail.

Sylvia and Mason have Brogan play the tape for them in his apartment, and it is obviously a splice-up job made to make Ned look guilty. Mason sneaks a magnet in and manages to erase the tape. In true blackmail fashion, Brogan comes up with another copy; and when Sylvia and Mason return to hear this one, Sylvia finds Fritch stabbed to death. The police suspect Mason immediately, and while Fritch's body is still warm, word comes of Ned's passing from a heart condition. Now suspicion is that Ned snuck out and killed Fritch, then returned to his bed. It could be a neat closure if true, but is it?

Review: One thing I especially liked about this is the small cast of characters, mostly limited to one family; unusual for a Perry Mason. There are no red herring people popping in and out. 

There is none of Mason's usual evidence-manipulating. This is a straight-forward story, and the courtroom scene is lengthy and quite amusing. As far as the reader is concerned, the killer is not revealed until the usual Mason-Street-Drake  tête á tête wrap-up afterwards.