Read Between September 21 2018 to September 23 2018
Edition Details:
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Master Mind Books
Page Count: 176
ISBN: 9788184682632
Series: Perry Mason # 77
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| The Case of Worried Waitress by Erle Stanley Gardner |
First Sentence:
Perry Mason and Della Street were having lunch at Madison’s Midtown Milestone.
Perry Mason had just lunch in his mind when he went with Della Street to Madison’s Midtown Milestone. During the lunch he could not help but notice that the waitress that was serving them seemed to be a bit worried. He attributed it to the nervousness.
But Kelsey Madison, the owner of the restaurant, didn’t think so. He knew the waitress had bought the table from other waitresses and she was not looking for just a generous tip. She may use this opportunity to get free consultation from the esteemed lawyer.
He informed Perry about his suspicion and asked him to inform him if the waitresses harasses him.
Why was the waitress so worried? Were Kelsey’s suspicions true? If so, what did the waitress wanted? What did Perry do?
You’ll have to read the novel to find the answers to these questions. Meanwhile, below you can read my views about the book .
Major Characters:
Perry Mason – Criminal Defence Lawyer
Della Street – Perry’s secretary
Kelsey Madison- Proprietor of Madison’s Midtown Milestone
Katherine Ellis aka Kit – The waitress
Sophia – Kit’s aunt with whom she was living
Gerald Atwood – Sophia’s lover whom she had wanted to get married to
Bernice – Gerald’s first wife
Hubert Deering – Bernice’s son from a previous marriage
Paul Drake – A PI at Drake’s Investigative agency
Stuart Baxley – Family friend of Sophia
Levering Jordan -A Private Detective who worked in the firm named Moffat and Jordan Investigators
Mr Gillman- Owner of Gillco Manufacturing Company
Lt Tragg – the investigative officer who was looking into the case of attack on Sophia
Mrs Gillman- A blind woman
Mrs Gooding – manager of the flat where Mrs Gillman lived
Hamilton Burger – the district Attorney
Judge Churchill – The judge who was presiding over the case of Kit
The Case of Worried Waitress is 77th novel in the Perry Mason series. The last Perry Mason novel i had read was three years back. That time i had thought i would be going through the whole series but then something or other kept coming up and fairly, i forgot about it.
I was buying a bunch of magazines few weeks back when i saw this title on the shelf and bought it on a whim.
Most of Perry Mason’s stories are set in a fixed pattern. The client approaches Perry. Either the client is already or if not he’ll get ultimately get embroiled in a legal hassle and then Perry has to investigate and find out about the real culprit to prove his client’s innocence. The client in this case is Katherine Elis whom Perry meets in a diner and decides to help because of a hunch.
Katherine’s story is pretty interesting and makes you want to find out more about it. She has doubts about someone and thinks that whatever that someone is doing may cause harm to her too. Surely, it catches Perry’s interest too and he decides to help her. Then things happen fast. Some incidents occur and Katherine is charged with trying to murder someone. Now, it’s on Perry to find out the real culprit and put him behind bars.
The mystery and suspense kept me hooked till the last moment. Perry keeps investigating and unravelling things and information which kept increasing my interest in the book. There are enough twists and enough action in the story which forced me to keep reading.
The way Perry handles this case and goes all out to help a poor girl like Katherine made me think whether such thing would be possible in real life or not. He says in the novel:
One of the bad things about administration of justice is that it takes money to make the wheels go around.
And his above statement is pretty true which makes you think how long would he be able to afford to take on cases like that. He would pretty soon be in debt.Although there is something else that Della Street says which also makes sense. She says to Perry:
Della Street nodded, said, “The file number on this case is ‘thirty-two twenty-four thirty-two.'”
“What’s that?” Mason asked.
Della Street smiled. “I was just remarking that some people have it easier than others.”
“Oh,” Mason said, grinning. “I get you now. Well, you may have a point there,Della.”
“Not a point, a curve,” she said.
But i don’t think this had much value as Perry doesn’t try to get romantically involved with Kit. But yeah, a cute girl would definitely make some one like Perry go soft on her.
On the whole, this was a good yarn for me which kept me hooked till the end. I enjoyed reading it and the twist was something that i could not have guessed. If you are into mystery you’d enjoy it.
If you have read the book then do tell me, what were your thoughts on it.
If you haven’t read the book and want to read it then you can get it from the following link:
Paperback
I have read other books of Erle Stanley Gardner. You can read my thoughts about them by clicking on the link below:
Erle Stanley Gardner
I have read other Perry Mason books. You can read my views about them by clicking on the link below:
Perry Mason
