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Title: The Case of the Daring Divorcee
Subtitle: Perry Mason Series, Book 74
Author: Erle Stanley Gardner
Narrator: Alexander Cendese
Format: Unabridged
Length: 4 hrs and 47 mins
Language: English
Release date: 04-25-17
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes
Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Classic Detective
Publisher's Summary:
If the framer fits...
Take a no-holds-barred proxy war for a rich Texas oil company, with Jerry Conway, its young president, fighting for survival. Add a beautiful woman in a mudpack and not much else who gives up a freshly fired .38 to Conway before she shows him the door. Top it off with the body of another young woman with a bullet in her chest fired by the same gun, and you have the recipe for the perfect murder - and the perfect frame-up.
Perry Mason has two problems. His client, Jerry Conway, is the prime suspect. And Perry himself is the accused accessory....
Members Reviews:
A man's best friend is his secretary
I'm on a Perry Mason binge, picking them up as they're offered on sale. Last week I read THE CASE OF THE CURIOUS BRIDE, which was published in 1934. I decided to read THE DARING DIVORCEE (published in 1964) to see how things had changed in Mr. Gardner's fictional world in thirty years. Not much, really. Perry and Della and Paul Drake (who should all be getting rather ancient) are still young and energetic and good-looking. They haven't aged a day and I wish I knew how they do it.
Some other things haven't changed much, either. THE CURIOUS BRIDE opens with a young woman coming to consult Perry Mason, leaving abruptly, and accidentally leaving behind a purse with a loaded gun in it. THE DARING DIVORCEE opens with a young woman coming to consult Perry Mason, leaving before he arrives, and leaving behind (you've probably seen this coming) a purse with a loaded gun in it! Either the dames who need Mr. Mason's services are armed better than the Mafia or the author liked this idea so much he decided to repeat it and hope that his readers' memories were failing.
Other than that, the plots are different. This one's all about secretaries. The woman seeking a divorce was a former secretary who married her boss. There's a shady lawyer with a secretary who has her own agenda. The murdered man's business manager has a devoted secretary who's prepared to do pretty nearly anything for him. And at the center of it all (in this and every other Perry Mason book) is that paragon of secretaries - Della Street.
Della Street is the ideal woman. She comes in early and stays late and cheerfully does anything she's told to do. She's protective, but never possessive. She's intelligent, intuitive, witty, and can eat a dinner of consume, prime rib, and baked potato in 28 minutes in order to get back to the office in time for a client's arrival. She's the glue that holds the legal practice together and without her Perry Mason couldn't be Perry Mason.
The author was a lawyer himself and fully aware of the vital role of secretaries. He reportedly started out writing his mysteries in long hand and then (as he became successful and wildly prolific) changed to dictating his books to his staff of SIX secretaries. I'm quite sure that he never found one as perfect as Perry Mason's loyal subordinate. According to one website, some of Gardner's books are published by an outfit called "Della Street Publications." You go, girl!
WARNING: The book description is TOTALLY unrelated to the actual plot. Apparently whoever prepared the Kindle editions was in a rush and got careless.
