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The Case of the Stuttering Bishop by Erle Stanley Gardner
From the Publisher Okay, Perry Mason, Della Street and Paul Drake. You think of them in black and white and let's be honest, a tad stiff. That's the TV show. In the books this threesome is pretty hot. So, Perry still always wins, but it's how he does it that will make you read more and more of these titles. He's smart, Paul is cool, and Della does a lot more than just hand Perry his files. Amelia Zalcman, Director, Contracts Administration Reader Reviews 2 of 4 people found the following review helpful: Not the best of Perry Mason, November 16, 1998 Reviewer: philm4 from Los Angeles The title character of Erle Stanley Gardner's "The Case of the Stuttering Bishop" enters Perry Mason's office one day and presents an enigmatic story about the granddaughter of a wealthy man. The girl's mother gave up the child for adoption long before, but now the granddaughter is coming forward to claim a share of her grandfather's estate. At the same time, an imposter has come forward--or so says the stuttering bishop. But is he for real, or is he merely an imposter, too? Before Mason can determine the answer to that question, the bishop is attacked in his hotel room and then disappears, apparently into thin air, while boarding a ship. At the same time, Mason is trying to track down the various parties and to determine who's who. When the wealthy grandfather is murdered, though, it appears that Mason has his first guilty client. Unlike many Perry Mason novels, "The Case of the Stuttering Bishop" does not end up in a dramatic court confrontation, and it therefore deviates somewhat from form. The case here is also significantly more convoluted than that in many of the Perry Mason novels. Because of this change of form, I found the novel less satisfying than the other Perry Mason novels I've read. The name Perry Mason, after all, connotes brilliant lawyering, and the emphasis on the detective work here left me disappointed.
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