The Case of the Velvet Claws

Perry Mason Series, Book 1

By: Erle Stanley Gardner

Narrated by: Alexander Cendese

Criminal lawyer and bestselling mystery author Erle Stanley Gardner wrote nearly 150 novels that have sold 300 million copies worldwide. Now, the American Bar Association is bringing back his most famous and enduring novels - featuring criminal defense lawyer and sleuth Perry Mason - in striking trade paperback editions.

Married Eva Griffin has been caught with a prominent congressman, and is ready to pay the editor of a sleazy tabloid hush money to protect the politician. But first Perry Mason tracks down the publisher of the blackmailing tabloid and discovers a shocking secret, which eventually leads to Mason being accused of murder.

This is the first Perry Mason mystery and our introduction to secretary Della Street, detective Paul Drake, and the great lawyer himself.

©1945, 2011 Erle Stanley Gardner (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Perry Mason

Perry Mason is an excellent book to listen to. I found this book is interesting as Raymond Burr's portrayal of Perry Mason. this is the first book out of 150 books of Perry Mason.

delivery! crisp and clear!

the performance makes it easy to feel like you are there...in that time and in that place!

Spotty Legal Noir

First things first: the narrator was decent, though he slipped a few times with the characters and narration. In that a character would speak and he’d slip the characters voice with the narration or another character.

Other than that he was fine, a dry timber voice, that sits somewhere between Phil Heartman’s 30’s parody and Ron Burgundy, both with a more serious tone and sense.

As for the story, frankly this is my first ESG book, so take this with a grain of salt.

1) shocked this didn’t end up being a court room drama like the ol’ Raymond Burr show, it’s in a way more a kin to the current HBO show.

2) ESG seems to really (and heavily) rely on copious descriptions of eyes and the phrase “has an air about him/her” to the point that it toes the line of gratuitous.

Dark mystery

Good whodunit with a darker edge than the classic Perry Mason television series. The character voices are well done.

Great Story

For a story set in L.A., everyone sounds like they are from New York except those specifically from Georgia. Still, the performance was great, just funny to someone from the West Coast. I would still listen because the voice actor did a good job.
As usual, the Perry Mason series is interesting with twists and turns. It made it hard to complete chores around the house because of how interested I was in the story.