The Case of the Baited Hook by Erle Stanley Gardner, 1940

 

Babylon Revisited Rare Books

About the author: Erle Stanley Gardner (1889 – 1970) was an American lawyer and author. He is best known for the Perry Mason series of detective stories. The best-selling American author of the 20th century at the time of his death, Gardner also published under numerous pseudonyms, including A.A. Fair, Kyle Corning, Charles M. Green, Carleton Kendrake, Charles J. Kenny, Les Tillray and Robert Parr. (wikipedia)

Major characters:

• Robert Peltham, architect and hospital trustee
• Abigail E. Tump
• Byrl Gailord, adoptee from Russia
• Albert Tidings, hospital trustee
• Nadine Holmes, Albert's estranged wife, actress
• Parker C. Stell, hospital trustee
• Adelle Hastings, who endowed Hastings Memorial Hospital
• Carl Mattern, Tiding's secretary

Locale: Los Angeles

Synopsis: Act 1: Robert Peltham, architect, hires Perry Mason to protect the interests of a mystery woman, who comes to his office masked. He cannot explain why, only that he expects to be exposed in something scandalous. He pays a retainer and then cuts a $10,000 bill in half, giving Mason half and the woman half; so that she can prove her identity to Mason in the future if need be.

Act 2: Abigial Tump seeks to hire Mason. She had brought a refugee girl out of Russia, and through an agency the child (Byrl) was placed with Frank and Marjorie Gailord. Byrl took the Gailord name as her own. Frank and Marjorie have passed away, and Byrl, now of age, has income from a trust they established. The trustee is Albert Tidings. Abigail claims Tidings is a crook, and wants Mason to have the courts replace him with a different trustee.

Act 3: A financial scandal erupts at Hastings Memorial Hospital. An audit is ordered, and the three trustees appear to mixed up in the trouble. The trustees are Robert Peltham, Albert Tidings, and Parker C. Stell. The hospital is endowed by wealthy Adelle Hastings, who tells Mason that Stell is the only honest one of the trustees. Mason already knows Peltham. He goes to find Tidings, and walks into his estranged wife's house to find him dead.

Review: Being one of the early Mason titles, this is back when he was directly descended from the pulps - not hesitating to rough people up, perform illegal searches, and manufacture and manipulate 'evidence'. 

There is no Lt. Tragg, but Sgt. Holcomb provides a lot of conflict for Mason.

It was a bit involved following the Gailord family line. Here is the sequence:

1. Frank and Marjorie Gailord were the original adoptive parents of Byrl Gailord
2. Frank died.
3. Marjorie remarried (her second) to Albert Tidings
4. Marjorie died.
5. Tidings remarried (his second) to Nadine Holmes
6. They became separated.
7. Tidings found dead in Nadine's home.

The big surprise of the book was the lack of a courtroom scene! The only thing remotely like it is a brief meeting in the D.A.'s office. 

If you like tough-guy Mason, this is him before he got more desk-bound and mellow.