“Next time I run across anyone who is borrowing a brunette, I’m going to let him keep her!”

There’s a comforting sameness at the beginning of a Perry Mason novel that is reminiscent of a Sherlock Holmes story. A client comes into the office to consult Mason on a problem. Like Baker Street sleuth, the lawyer is drawn to those who bring him the most singular problems. Mason is partial to murder, and he likes things when they’re weird or out of place. He shies away from “ordinary law” like probate cases – unless a man insists that Perry draft a will leaving his fortune to his enemy’s wife. That feels weird or out of place – so he grabs at it! 

But sameness can be boring, and Erle Stanley Gardner occasionally liked to mix things up by having a case cross Mason’s path outside of the office. It might happen on deck during a tropical cruise (with Della Street in his arms) or in a department store (with Della at his side) or on a fishing trip (no ladies allowed!).  

The Case of the Borrowed Brunette (1946) has an off-kilter opening like that: driving down a secluded Los Angeles street with – you guessed it! – Della at his side, Mason notices that at every street corner for blocks and blocks he can spot lovely young, similarly dressed brunettes just hanging out, showing off their charms. Curious, he stops his car beside one of these lovelies, a girl named Cora Felton, and she shows him the newspaper ad that prompted her attendance on Adams Street:

WANTED

Neat,  attractive  brunette, age  23 to  25;  height five feet 4 ½ inches; weight 111 pounds, waist 24 inches, bust 32. Weight and measurements must be exact.  Applicant must be free for colorful, adventurous work that will pay. $50 a day for a minimum of five days, maximum of six months.  May select one chaperone for period of employment at salary of $20 a day and expenses. Telephone Drexberry 5236 and ask for Mr. Hines.

As they are talking, a man who claims to be a representative for Mr. Hines comes by and regretfully informs Cora that she did not get the job. Mason offers to drive Cora home, and she invites the lawyer and his secretary in for a cocktail. Besides, she wants to see if her roommate and friend Eva Martell, who also replied to the ad, has also gotten the boot. But it turns out that Eva has booked the job and, accompanied by old family friend Adelle Winters who has agreed to serve as chaperone, is already on her way to a chance for big bucks! (And they are big: I looked it up, and $50 in 1946 currency is worth $815 today!) 

I don’t know about you, but to me the opening still smacks of Arthur Conan Doyle, specifically the very first Sherlock Holmes story I ever read, “The Red Headed League.” In that tale, a pawnbroker named Jabez Wilson answers an ad for a scribe to copy down the entire Encyclopedia Britannica by hand. The pay is four pounds a week, (this is 1891, and those four pounds today are worth 657 pounds!!!), and the only real requirement is that the new hire must be red-headed. Even at the age of eight or nine, I thought this requirement was pretty fishy, and I assume that Perry Mason has read his Doyle and thinks so, too, because when . Adelle Winters shows up at his office a few days later and shares her fears that she and Eva have gotten into some sort of funny business, Perry is all ears. Adelle is worried that they haven’t just barged into a scam: she thinks that the woman whom Eva has ben asked to impersonate has been murdered!  

Adelle isn’t correct on all the details, but soon enough there is a murder, and Perry must come to the rescue of the borrowed brunette and her chaperone. Eva Martell is, frankly, a bore on the page, but Adelle Winters is exactly the type of kooky client who makes a Perry Mason mystery fun to read. As a registered nurse who spent a career tending to terminal patients, she has grown easy with painting a rosy picture for her clients in order to keep their spirits up. In short, she is an expert liar.

“’ I want to believe your story, Mrs. Winters,’ Mason told her. ‘I’m anxious to believe you’re innocent. But the story you have just told doesn’t convince me, and I don’t see how you can possibly expect a jury to believe it.’

“’Oh, I can improve on it, Mr. Mason, if I have time,’ she assured him. 

“’You mean you were going to change that story?’ 

“’Sure – to make it better.’

“’ Regardless of the facts?’ 

“She snorted. ‘Facts don’t mean a damn thing. Lots of times, the truth isn’t very convincing. But I’m pretty good at fixing up stories, Mr. Mason, and I can improve this one considerably.’”

Adelle’s continuous stream of lies spells hot water for both her and her attorney, especially since it quickly becomes clear that Harry Gulling, the assistant D.A. d’histoire, is gunning for Mason. Gulling’s usual job is to act as front man for Hamilton Burger and to craft the strategies that the D.A. will use in court. But Gulling has been watching Perry Mason (the man, not the TV show!), and he is intent on getting the defense attorney disbarred and jailed for at least twenty-eight cases of legal malfeasance. (Yes, Borrowed Brunette is the 28^th Mason novel.) 

To be honest, I thought the murder case here was fairly ho-hum. The reason for the “borrowing” of Eva Martell doesn’t make a whole lot of sense and gets a lot of people in trouble (and one person dead!) But it’s always fun to watch Perry in action, and this time he’s really up against it, fighting for his career against Harry Gulling. About a quarter of the novel takes place in court, where Mason applies various points of law and does some quick deduction regarding a hotel’s garbage to get his clients off. Even when the D.A. has a witness sympathetic to the defense dead to rights on a charge of perjury, Mason shows his wizardry at cross-examination and turns the tables on the prosecution. 

“The Case of the Borrowed Brunette” appeared on January 10, 1959, as the thirteenth episode of the second season of Perry Mason. Several minor characters, including Eva’s roommate, were excised, and a new suspect – the victim’s beleaguered wife – was brought in to basically cover the functions of the missing characters. Other than that, the plot hews extremely closely to the book’s, including whole swaths of the original dialogue. It’s missing the tension generated in the book by the threats leveled against Mason himself, but the lawyer’s abilities are still on full display. While I have always preferred brunettes to blondes, I can’t say I liked this one nearly as much as The Case of the Black-Eyed Blonde. Let’s see what happens in our final installment when Perry takes on a restless redhead!