The Case of the Substitute Face (Perry Mason) Paperback – February 19, 2016

Della street and Perry Mason take an exotic cruise to points east - Hawaii, Japan, China, Bali, back to Hawaii, and are headed to San Francisco. It isn’t a honeymoon, but I don’t think it was really an expedition to examine legal techniques of the East. But there is murder afoot, or rather, on deck. And Perry figures it out. In a sudden, convoluted ending, where, once again, Della turns down domestic bliss in order to be the sidekick adventuress.

Perry and Della are returning from their South Seas voyage, on the Honolulu to San Francisco final leg, when a man falls overboard in a storm. Accompanied by two gunshots, a wife discovered with a wet dress in her closet and a lot of money in a wet money belt under the bed. Perry sets up a local office in San Francisco to solve this one, which takes some doing -- as the murdered man is thought to be an embezzler.Oh, and his step-daughter is in mutual love with the son of the President of the firm embezzled from.

5-star story! 3-stars for the publisher's laziness... = 4 stars.Erle Stanley Gardner was a consummate master of his genre and, in my opinion, his work is timeless and still appeals to today's readers.There were some elementary OCR proofing errors which made me think the publisher did not even bother to proof the OCR text. Pity... it would have been a simple one-pass proofread to catch the OCR errors

This is a very early Perry Mason. The main characters are still being developed and fleshed out.I have to admit that I don't guess who the murderer was until very close to the end which is very unusual for me. There were a lot of twists and turns that kept my interest. I'm not going to give away the plot but did find it intriguing. It was sad that the book had a warning about some potentially offensive language. I guess in this day of everyone walking around looking to be offended it's necessary - I suppose it wouldn't do any good to say that including this 'warning' offended me - would it?I would rate this very early Perry mason a very good 9.0 to 9.5 out of 10!

I read all of Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason series and his other, less numerous book series when I was a kid. And now I'm enjoying re-reading them. I also enjoyed ESG's biography, co-authored by his daughter and his lover if I remember correctly. He'd hide out in a trailer he kept in the desert and dictate a Perry Mason book to his secretary in 3 days, He was the first of many authors who made me wish I could write fiction.

I have always been a big fan of the Perry Mason TV show, and though I enjoy the books, I usually like the TV version of the story.Not in this case - the book version of the case of the substitute face is much more entertaining. Della Street gets more of a starting role.

These novels follow a pattern, in which what seems to be an open-and-shut case against the defendant turns out to be a cleverly-designed plot on the part of the real culprit for reasons that are suddenly revealed by Perry Mason. Along the way we learn about fine points of criminal law at the time Gardner was writing, and are treated to a first-rate story. This one turns out to be marvelously satisfying, with many moving parts that come together at the end.

LIke most of Mr. Gardner's mysteries, this was great. Actually, his stories were wonderful. He was "of his times," and at times the dialogue sounds pretty odd. Mr. Gardner has this annoying, detracting way of over-describing who's saying what in many of his dialogues, particularly blurting AFTER someone starts talking. And the editing, or transcribing, of this book was, I guess, done by a big drunk or something (maybe I ought to apply!).But you just can't beat the great, often teasingly complex, plots, and the wonderful dialogue and maneuvering in the courtroom.

I don't think there is much I can write about a Perry Mason novel. It is as expected thrilling. You can't keep your book down till the last page. I have read most of the Perry Mason Series.

Erle Stanley Gardner wrote over eighty Perry Mason books and I've read about three quarters of them. They are amongst my favourites when it comes to a bit of light, escapist reading. I have found that most are very good, a few are really excellent, and just a few are disappointing. I rate this as one of the best.Critics have said - rightly, I suppose - that these books are not great literature. There is not much depth of characterisation; sometimes the plots have weaknesses; and Gardner certainly does not waste any time on the sort of long, descriptive passages that you get in Raymond Chandler's writing.But if you want briskly paced page-turners, these are the books for you. They do not feature the grim blood, gore and "darkness" of so much modern crime fiction. Instead they grab our attention and give us enjoyment through Perry Mason's quick-wittedness and the brilliant and fast-paced dialogues, especially the courtroom dialogues.In this book we see some classic examples of this brilliant dialogue and of Mason's quick brain. We also see the disappearance of Della Street and Mason dragging a reluctant Paul Drake into a bit of house-breaking. Despite the alleged lack of depth of characterisation, I feel that I "know" these central characters well.Incidentally, Series One and Two (from the late 1950s) of the TV Perry Mason are available on DVD. They too make for a great bit of relaxing entertainment.Phil Webster.

Good for kids

Very nice . 👍👍

very good Perry Mason mystery ! Recomended for Mr Gariner 's fans .