Perry Books

This 1955 novel is dedicated to the Hawaiian medical examiner who described "Bangugut", an unexplained syndrome of sudden death that is called "Nightmare Death". No cause of death can be discovered after examining the vital organs. Popular belief blamed it on witchcraft. Or was it a "perfect crime"?

Perry Mason gets a call from a new client, but she can't come in because she has nothing to wear. All her possessions have been stolen while she was sunbathing. Della Street brings her an outfit, and Arlene Duvall tells her story. Her father was sent to prison after being convicted of stealing a money shipment. He was convicted on circumstantial evidence; the money was never found. Arlene hires Mason to find her missing trailer and car. Paul Drake quickly finds the missing trailer, and explains how this is done in Chapter 3. They mention the terrible traffic in Los Angeles (after the destruction of the trolley system). Perry Mason explains to the trailer dealer what constitutes a legal agreement. Arlene hires Mason to investigate the crime and free her Dad. Mason says he will serve justice first; if he Dad is guilty he will get his fee from the reward money.

Mason meets with Jordan Ballard, who worked with Colton Duvall at the time of the theft. Ballard asks for a lift home, and tells Mason the background facts. Mason leaves, and checks in with Paul Drake to learn the police were called after Ballard was found murdered! Arlene Duvall was followed, and seen entering Ballard's house just after Mason left. Mason then goes to see Dr. Holman Candler, the good friend of Arlene. The urgency of this situation forces Mason to work through the night. Next morning Mason appears before a grand jury to answer questions about his activity at Ballard's house. The District Attorney wants to charge Mason with perjury, or murder! (There is a lesson her against making assumptions about an action that can have many meanings.) Arlene Duvall is arrested for murdering Ballard, and Perry Mason will have to defend her.

As part of this story you will learn about some detective techniques and parts of the laws. A number of funny things happen on the way to the trial. Since Mason's clients are always found 'not guilty' there's no surprise there, but in the journey to this conclusion. The suspense lasts until the final pages when Perry Mason draws the facts together to solve the murder, and the earlier theft of the money shipment. Mason warns against the frequently made mistake of first deciding who was guilty and then fitting the facts to prove that guilt (Chapter 14). I won't give away the ending, but it implicitly warns against assuming that something could not have happened.

I don't imagine that Perry Mason--or, for that matter, too many real-life attorneys--have had potential clients call them up stating that everything, including their clothes, have been stolen, and would it be possible for the attorney to take a set of clothes? That's what happens at the beginning of this Perry Mason caper.

Arlene Duvall is the woman, and her father is in prison for a crime Arlene believes he did not commit, a bank robbery that netted nearly $400,000. Since her father's imprisonment, she has lived out of a trailer. She has a mysterious source of income that allows her to spend money both extravagantly and conspicuously, leading to obvious suspicion that her father has told her where the stolen money is. Indeed, this inference is so strong that Mason only agrees to represent her as long as she is innocent. If he discovers she is guilty, he promises to turn her in and take his fee out of the reward money. After the theft and then a murder of someone with some relationship to the bank heist, matters grow far more serious. As usual, District Attorney Hamilton Burger is after Mason, this time for perjury in front of a grand jury--and later possibly as an accessory to murder.

The Perry Mason novels are fairly predictable. They are of consistently high quality and tend to feature the same elements, from the wrongly accused client to the vengeful D.A. I have read several without being able to find one that was notably better or worse than the others. Still, there are some elements that set this one apart from others published within a few years. (I'm thinking of The Case of the Demure Defendant (published one year later) and The Case of the Long-Legged Models (published three years later), both recent reads.) From the opening naked client to a few other elements, there are some ever-so-slightly risqué elements here that suggest the time this was published (the mid-1950s). However, those elements are slight, so what we have is another solid entry in the long-running series.

Perry Mason gets a telephone call from John Racer Addison, the department store man. He wants Perry to rush down to the City Jail to represent Veronica Dale, a nice girl who was arrested as a vagrant. Addison wants his name kept out of this. Veronica tells Perry the arrest was due to a mistake, and she is bailed out; the arresting officer will check her story. Veronica's story checks out, but it does sound odd. Later Mrs. Laura Mae Dale visits Perry to thank him for helping her daughter Veronica. Mrs. Dale was from out of state but was able to track her daughter quickly. Then Perry receives a frantic call from John R. Addison who is threatened with blackmail; we learn about his meeting with Veronica. A gossip columnist may publish these facts to put him in a tight situation with his business partner. [This appears to be a clever blackmail plot.] Perry Mason has a clever ploy to use on the blackmailer in Chapter 4. Chapter 6 explains the effects of a divorce on business ownership.

Perry Mason accompanies John Addison to the property he had visited. Its near the spot where Addison found Veronica Dale. While inspecting the house, they find a dead body! Perry questions Addison about his whereabouts, then advises his innocent client what to do. The attempted blackmail leads to Eric Hansell's arrest for forgery. The police are notified about Edgar Ferrell's death, and question Addison about it. Perry is taken to the police station to answer questions about a check; he could be in hot water. But a lucky call cools things down. Perry and Della meet Veronica Dale and question her about her meeting with Addison. When they return to Della's apartment and find hidden objects Perry improvises a slingshot. One of Paul Drake's detectives gets information about that department store from a young salesgirl (Chapter 14).

Chapter 15 has the Preliminary Hearing and the testimony about the physical evidence. Unknown fingerprints were found at the murder site. Eric Hansell testifies, and we learn he had a female accomplice. Perry's cross-examination of the next witness reveals new facts about the night of the murder (Chapter 17). Afterwards Perry reconsiders the known facts against the Prosecution's theory (Chapter 18). From these facts, he goes to see the person who has stayed in the background and uncovers the solution that will free his client.

For a real example of using the testimony of an innocent girl read Adela St. John's "Final Verdict" chapter 63. Young Alice, sweet sixteen, knew a little too much. Earl Roger's experts testified the police could not see through doors and around corners. Then Earl Rogers produced Alice's husband and the fact that she was well over twenty-one!

This beautifully presented hardback book, contains refined images of sculptures in substancial materials that will last a life. I suggest everyone should purchase this book as a tribute to Henry's life and the skill he displayed.

This large-format, full color atlas is packed with information on a wide variety of topics all based on Census 2000 data. The chapters are subject based, which makes it relatively easy to find the information in which you are interested, even without consulting the well designed index and table of contents.

Many of the topics covered in the chapters are pertinent to serious issues facing the country today. Specifically, the chapters on migration and language contain nearly two dozen maps, each of which visually represents dozens of stories of interest and possible use to journalists and policy-makers. Everyone who picks up the atlas will come up with a different question because of something they see in the maps.

Anyone with an eye for map design, with an interest in demographics, or who is a policy maker, researcher, policy-maker, public official, and, most importantly, social science educator should have a copy of this atlas.

The results in this book are profound; I know I personally benefited from the High/Scope Program.
Dr. Clement's research is thorough and well thought out. I highly recommend this book to anyone.

I never had interest in chemistry (and probably never will) but I found this book easier than most. By easier I do not mean that there is not much content, but the way of writing and the explainations are given in simple terms, making it better than most books. Many concepts which were greek to me were easily understood, and the excersises were designed to make a person think and apply knowledge. It is a good book, but then again, unless you're interested in chemistry this book won't magically pour knowledge of chemistry into your head. All this does is make you learn chem the way it should be learned, by understanding and applying knowledge. Among most of the chem books i've come across I'd rate this as one of the best. This manual is useful for lab exercises, if you're a student. After using this book a lot of lab excersises were very very easy to me, and I understood concepts more than by listening to the professor.

This is one book which an engineer esp an environemtal engineer must have as it starts from basics and takes you to complex situations making them understandable.

I'd been living in China about a year when I came across this extraordinary book. Actually, I think the word "stunning" better describes it for me, if for no other reason than the sheer elegance of the language.

For clarity of thought and depth of insight I'd rank the author with de Tocqueville, and as an observer of daily life, I'm not sure I've ever come across a better or more interesting one.

The author possesses a scholarly sensibility and a genuinely humane nature that, when combined with his other gifts, allows him to draw conclusions based on his observations that are, for someone reading the book while actually living in the country, remarkably enduring.

What a pleasure!

If that weren't enough, since he wrote in the 19th Century, the author is blessedly free of all the cultural relativism, or political correctness, or whatever you want to call it, that renders so many modern Westerners incapable of saying anything interesting, or accurate, or thoughtful at all about China.

Mr. Smith is honest and even-handed (and, therefore, a true friend of China); his observations are blunt, which, while sometimes uncomfortable to a modern sensibility, is ...well...very Chinese.

craig [at] projectusa.org

The Princeton series has been well-regarded and justly deserves it. The lessons rapidly progress to colloquial Mandarin, and the red book gives in-depth explanations and examples. Each lesson has many new expressions. They are generally real-life conversations, but the authors have made an effort to make them at least a little humorous and not too dry. The 2007 edition seems to be improved over the earlier (1994?) edition with real typeset fonts instead of typewriter Courier and a better index. The content however is much the same. Besides this red/blue/yellow book group, you should definitely get the green book for the character text (why is it sold separately?) and the video series in which the dialogs are acted out (the audio is the most important, the video part adds some amusement). But not all is perfect: it would be nice if the answers were provided for the exercises in the red book and the practice sentences in the yellow book. Maybe they're in a teacher's edition (but of course teachers don't need it!) Otherwise, this series is quite excellent.

Please be sure as to which version of this book you would like. There is both GR and Pinyin, which are very different. This one is GR, but in great condition.