The Mirror Universe Perry Mason!

I have had occasion in the past to post information and reviews about both Erle Stanley Gardner's excellent Perry Mason novels AND about his excellent non-Perry Mason stories. Gee whiz, this guy was a prolific and superb storyteller. Mason deserves his success and his status as an iconic character, but it's too bad that many of his other characters have faded into Popular Culture Limbo. The Gardner Universe is a diverse and endlessly entertaining place.

District Attorney Doug Selby appeared in nine novels (most of them first serialized in magazines before being published as novels) between 1937 and 1949.  I've never gotten around to reading any of the Selby novels--Gardner was SO prolific it sometimes seems impossible to get caught up with all of his characters.

So The D.A. Takes a Chance, first serialized in the Saturday Evening Post in 1948, is the first I've read, chosen because my local public library happened to have that one. It's the 8th in the series, but the stories are self-contained enough so that my usual obsession with reading things in "proper" order really didn't kick in.

It's a good, solid detective story that deals as much with Selby butting heads with obstructive politicians and a sleazy lawyer as with the crime. A woman is stabbed to death while recovering from a gunshot wound. Certain people with political pull want it declared a suicide. But Selby and county sheriff Rex Brandon don't buy this. Getting to the bottom of the case will inevitably mean stepping on a few toes. Selby had only recently been reelected after returning from service during the war, so a misstep could mean the end of his career as D.A.

But dogged investigations by himself, Brandon and lady report Sylvia Martin slowly uncovers interesting clues. Among these is a knife that wasn't the murder weapon having a fingerprint on it that should not be there. A box of chocolates laced with barbituates also play a key role in figuring out whodunit.

Selby, Brandon and Sylvia Martin form a dynamic very similar to the Perry Mason/Paul Drake/Della Street that is so key to the Mason novels, though Sylvia acts independantly of Selby more often than Della did with Perry. Another interesting element is the sleazy lawyer who causes Selby the most trouble during the novel. A.B. Carr (known as "old A B C") is a sort of Evil Perry Mason, clever and able to improvise plans on a moment's notice, but without the ethics and real concern for justice that was an inherent part of Mason's character. As I understand it, Carr is a regular nemesis in the series, which increases my desire to read more of the Selby books. He's an effective villain and nearly (though not quite) matches the protagonist in sheer cleverness.

So I can whole-heartedly recommend The D.A. Takes a Chance. I think Gardner's skills as a storyteller are high enough to take it on faith that the rest of the series is worth reading as well. I really which more of Gardner's stuff would get reprinted.