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I DREAMED I MARRIED PERRY MASON
by Susan Kandel
Avon, April 2005
304 pages
$6.99
ISBN: 0060581069


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Cece Caruso, biographer of classic mystery writers and vintage fashion aficionado, is in the throes of writer's block as she struggles to complete her biography of Earl Stanley Gardner, legendary author of the Perry Mason mysteries. In search of inspiration, Cece combs the Gardner archives and stumbles upon the files for the Court of Last Resort, a pro-bono legal aid service Gardner set up to exonerate those unjustly imprisoned.

Misfiled among the documents she finds the case of Joseph Albacco who was convicted of killing his wife 40 years before. Gardner had attached a note to the file saying that it rang a bell for him and asking his assistant to follow up, but whether or not Gardner took any further action on the man's behalf is not documented.

Cece travels to Tehachapi prison to interview Albacco and soon finds herself investigating the long-dormant case. As she digs deeper, she uncovers a web of blackmail and fraud that would tax even Perry Mason's incredible deductive powers. Along the way Kandel treats us to a whole lot of local color and we learn about Earl Stanley Gardner's life, the Perry Mason novels and TV shows. By the time the book's over, our nails are dirty with the politics of oil in post-war California, and we've heard whole closets full of dish about vintage Hollywood fashion .

The reader might expect the plot to sag a little under the weight of all of these sidebars, but it doesn't. The story sails along like a convertible with the top down on the Ventura Freeway in 1950. Cece is a bright, engaging sleuth and she comes complete with a whole posse of eccentric characters who flesh out her life. Her daughter struggles with marital problems, her best friend bakes wedding cakes and chases her passel of children, and a former boyfriend who happens to be a detective gives Cece some useful inside police info along the way.

I DREAMED I MARRIED PERRY MASON is an incredible book. Kandel turns out to be the Umberto Eco of chicklit. This cozy manages to tell an engrossing story while also offering a post-modern analysis of Earl Stanley Gardner's work. As with Eco, if you don't get all of the references, it doesn't hamper your enjoyment of the surface story one bit, but the savvy reader will find a wealth of lit crit here hidden among the snappy dialog and the riffs on 1940s Los Angeles.

Kandel has managed something wonderful in this pulp-meets-cozy construction as she stitches all of the elements of a standard Perry Mason novel into her plot, right down to the detective's brilliant deduction in the last scene that locks together all of the clues and delivers an unexpected twist.

If you've ever wanted to spend some time in the lost landscape of the small coastal towns that existed in the Southern California of the 1940s, Cece's the perfect guide. Like the best, she makes you laugh so hard you'll forget you're learning quite a bit along the way.

Reviewed by Carroll Johnson, July 2005

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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