book report VIII

Further series fiction. Recently completed: Perry Mason's The Case of the Buried Clock, The Case of the Drowning Duck, and The Case of the Gold-Digger's Purse. Also, James M. Cain's The Postman Only Rings Twice, and Louis L'Amour's The Empty Land.

Mason first. The Buried Clock was a bit too convoluted, hinging on some minor complications with time and various people's versions of what time it is. Some good characters, but most of them were left hanging and had no resolution. One particularly good one disappeared halfway into the book, never to be seen again. The Drowning Duck struck me on one particular point—the number of people who immediately scoffed or expressed wonder at the idea that a duck can drown. Now, once you think about it, I suppose that's obvious ... but I suspect today's audience wouldn't be that quick to remark on the idea. And The Gold-Digger's Purse struck me funny. I didn't think it rang true the way Mason got himself stuck with the case, and the defendant seemed to change personalities halfway through.

The Postman Always Rings Twice strikes me as a lesser work than Double Indemnity—less well crafted, less interesting in general, more broadly painted. It's definitely a classic, but not one that I have any great longing to read over and over again.

And, finally, Mr. L'Amour. Who hit another one out of the park. The Empty Land was unlike any other work of his that I've read. It reads as a "Who's Who" of Western characters (not actual people, but the types you would have found). There are dozens of named characters, and each is fully fleshed out with his own personality. Instead of being the story of a man, it is the story of a town, and each cog in the town's wheel is painted vividly. Quite a book!