The Case of the Velvet Claws

Perry Mason Series, Book 1

By: Erle Stanley Gardner

Narrated by: Alexander Cendese

Length: 6 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

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.

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.

Good

I thought the book was pretty good over all, but I thought two cuss words were used too much. and some places in the story were weak, but after seeing the tv show, I was interested.

Fabulous narration of a "dated" writing style

Most people know Perry Mason via the television show starring Raymond Burr. This is NOT that Perry Mason. I find the writing style dated - very film noir, reminiscent of Dash Hammett. Which means: short choppy sentence structure, and dialogue that by modern standards is utterly cheesy. If you can get past that however, it is well worth the read/listen. The narrator here gets the "film noir" vibe and it comes through in his reading, and it made the very dated writing style seem less so.

Narrator could be better

The Narrator is good but I didn't like his voice. They should have had different people doing this

The beginning of Perry Mason

I have been a fan of the Raymond Burr Perry Mason TV show. I wanted to experience Perry Mason from Earle Stanley Gardener’s perspective as he wrote the books. I thoroughly enjoyed experiencing the cleverness of Gardener’s Mason.

We knew the lady was trouble as soon as she walked into Mason’s office. We knew because Della Street warned us. She has good instincts. Velvet claws is the perfect title for this book. We find out just how towards the end.

I was not disappointed in this novel. I now understood why so many people kept checking out these old books from our public library. Knowing that Earle Stanley Gardner was a lawyer himself, made the book a little more interesting. Even though the characters and plots are set in a decade of yesteryear the human side of this story grabs you and sucks you into the book so as you don’t want to put it down or stop listening.

The reader did an excellent job of voicing our characters. I enjoyed every minute of it. Sometimes I’d be listening at night and I had to back it up because I missed something important. It is a great did she do it or did someone else? I won’t tell you’ll just have to sink your brain and ears into the story.

Decent, but Dated

I wanted to try out a Perry Mason book after seeing the latest HBO series, and remembering the old TV series as well as the old movie serials with Warren William. Each film version portray Mason so differently I wanted to go back to the original story. It was a bit disappointing. The story was alright, but the reader's voice work (and story) emphasized the sexism of the day. The women sounded weak, predatory, or clingy. Even Della Street sounds clingy and whiny. Mason sounds like a thug... The writing style was as if Gardner was afraid people would forget the main characters' names, always using the full name each time through most of the book. Probably wouldn't read another.

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.

Horrible Narration but Good Story

What did you love best about The Case of the Velvet Claws?

Classic whodunit.

Any additional comments?

Cendese is the single worst narrator I've heard. I've listened to several Perry Mason's now.
His choice of voices are normal, Kentucky Colonel, bad Jimmy Stewart impersonation, mob muscle thug, breathless airhead female and a couple of others. All except "normal" are extreme and usually the voice does not go with the character. The judge might get the mobster voice, and Paul Drake usually gets the high pitched breathless voice. He totally misses the subtle voice changes for different characters used by other narrators.

That said, I've listened to several and keep listening. I just accept that Perry Mason in general is formula, campy and anything but deep literature, and try to ignore the narration. Cendese also improved (some) as the series progressed.

Bottom line. The stories are fun and worth listening too, just accept crappy narration as part of the package.

Fun Book

I see why the Earl Stanley Garner books were so popular. They hold up well over time. Good read and listening for someone doing a lot of driving.