The Case of the Empty Tin by Erle Stanley Gardener

Pocket 619, pub.  1949, art by Bayre Phillips

The Case of the Empty Tin, Pocket 619

Typically Gardner’s Perry Mason’s plots follow a checklist.

Murder, blackmail, scheming thieves. Rich Sultry widow. False arrests. Too many motives. On the stand the bad guy breaks down and confesses.

In 1941′s The Case of the Empty Tin, Gardner decides to experiment a bit. In this “case” Perry Mason morphs into a lawyer/gumshoe. This is the only Perry Mason novel without a killer-unveiling trial. As a nod to formula, a potential heiress is involved. But a middle-class family (gasp!) is also thrown into the mix and forms the basis for the main clue. The comic overlay is also interesting; it’s almost as if he wanted to try out a little Cool and Lam oddball humor on  ol’ Perry. The tried and true chinese crime connection is tossed in as well.

Some readers have complained that this little mystery is too hard to follow. For those of you tired of  who-don-its that you figure out in 1 chapter, give this a spin. In 1958 this novel was the basis of one of the Raymond Burr/Perry Mason Tv episodes — so it Nobokov it ain’t.

T’ai Chong Tze –The Big Lawyer

Never knew this. Gardner was at one time THE lawyer for most of the Chinese community in southern California.  From 1911 to 1918 Gardner worked as a lawyer in Oxnard, California. During this period he defended Chinese clients and became known as “t’ai chong tze” (the big lawyer). Must have made him a real popular guy in a racist time.  After he married in 1921,  he moved to  a few miles south to Ventura, (waves dude) where he had a law firm until 1933. I know the area pretty well. Ventura is a charming old beach town. His old law office still stands. It was during this time that he began “moonlighting” as a pulp writer.

In 1926-1927 Gardner published a series of pulp  stories called Dead Men’s Letters, a collection of stories published in Black Mask. These stories all feature Ed Jenkins, a.k.a. The Phantom Crook. The “Crook” is a kind of anti-hero that is not on the side of the cops (LA cops pre-war?–Have you seen LA Confidential?) and not on the side of the baddies. But he is on the side of the babe-ettes. Natch. In 1933 Gardner published his first Perry Mason novels, The Case of the Velvet Claw and The Case of the Sulky Girl from his office in down town Ventura.

In 1933 Gardner quit his law practice, left his wife and moved further south to a giant ranch in Temecula. He never divorced, but continued to support his family in Ventura until his wife’s death in 1968. Upon her death he  married his secretary from the 1930′s, Agnes Jean Bethell (1902–2002), the “real Della Street”.

Condition

Very Good. The Case of the Empty Tin. Pocket Books 961., 1949 First Printing. The cover is very bright. One crease close to spine on front cover (visible in photo) Nicks on edge of spine on back side. A few loose pages.

*Some of the oldies but goodies include: The Case of the Careless Kitten (1942), The Bigger They Come (1939), Take It or Leave It (1939),  The Case of the Perjured Parrot (1939), The Case of the Substitute Face (1938), Owls Don’t Blink (1942)

Miscellaneous Trivia

The Case of the Empty Tin first book in which the character of Lt. Arthur Tragg appeared.  Tragg is also the name of a major street in downtown Ventura.

Gardner was one of the founding members of the Court of Last Resort (The Case Review Committee), an association who reopened cases wherein a person might have been falsely convicted. In 1952 he won the Fact Crime Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for the book about the foundation.

Gardner’s Temecula ranch is now part of the Pechanga Indian Reservation.