Yes! Yes! Yes!!! I confess it!! I love you, Perry Mason! More than that, I need you!! I need my monthly fix of history’s best defense attorney to cope with this life. Your formula works for me: take one downtrodden client and shove them through the doors of Mason’s office, where secretary Della Street and Gertie the receptionist are there to make them feel at home. Run down the hall and find private detective Paul Drake, who will put an endless supply of operatives on the case. And don’t feel bad if you’re grilled by Lieutenant Tragg or sneered at by District Attorney Hamilton Burger: it’s all part of the game, a game that always ends with the jury saying, “Not Guilty!!”

Rest assured, my fellow Mason fans, the journey will continue this year! If you’ve followed along with me so far, you know that I enjoy jumping around the canon rather than reading fifty years of titles in chronological order – especially since things take a steep dive in quality toward the end! The idea of exploring Perry Mason through titular themes came about a couple of years ago. First, we kept the list all in the family, and last year, we crossed Black Mask with National Geographic and came up with the Mason Menagerie. So what’s it going to be in 1926???

The answer is simple, baby! It’s  . . . 

Erle Stanley Gardner’s obsession with women was purely professional. He was a man’s man who, as far as I can tell, never played around. He stayed faithful to his wife of fifty-six years until she died – easy to do when you stay separated from each other for thirty of those years! And then Gardner did what Perry Mason fans had been demanding for years of their fictional hero – he married his secretary and enjoyed almost two years of wedded bliss with this babe before he died at 80 (she was 62). 

If you look at the eighty-six Mason titles, forty-one of them refer to a female (or, ahem, part of a female). And nearly every cover of every title has a dame on it! Yes, as the sensationalist novelist Mauvis Meade tells us in The Case of the Mythical Monkeys, sex sells – and Gardner and his publishers knew this! Naturally, I’m not going to read all forty-one female-centric titles this year! That’s waaaay too much cheesecake for me! (And some of them I’ve already read!) No, I’m forcing myself to narrow the list down to twelve (well, twelve and a bonus!); keeping an eye on quality, I’m going to restrict my choices to pre-1960 titles.

Here, then, in chronological order, is Perry Mason, the 2026 Girls! Girls!! Girls!!! Edition:

January:        The Case of the Sulky Girl (1933)

I’m excited, and a little sad, that this year’s theme will finish off all the 30’s titles. This is the second Perry Mason mystery, and the sulky girl in question is an heiress whose guardian keeps getting in the way of her happiness. Exit guardian! Enter Mr. Mason to protect the girl’s beau from conviction.

February:      The Case of the Lucky Legs (1934)

Moving on to the third case for our hero, we have a con man, a bunch of lovelies and their angry boyfriends, and a case where it looks like Perry may have made a big mistake!! Can he extricate himself in time to save his client? (Do you really have any doubt about that???)

March:           The Case of the Sleepwalker’s Niece (1936)

Did the beautiful woman kill the wrong man while walking in her sleep? Who cares? Perry kisses Della in this one, and everybody swoons!!

April:              The Case of the Dangerous Dowager (1937)

Another spoiled babe, another murder on board a floating vessel, which usually serves Gardner well. (This time it’s a gambling ship!) The most intriguing note lies with the dowager herself, a wealthy and powerful woman with an appetite for fine cigars.

May:               The Case of the Vagabond Virgin (1948)

I love 1940’s Perry Mason, but unfortunately, I’ve already read most of the pertinent titles. Barzun and Taylor single this one out in A Catalogue of Crime: “Despite the fact that compelling evidence of virginity is not offered, the lady vagabond is well done, and the plot is better-than-average Gardner; indeed, it is surprisingly good when one considers the deluge that had already gone over the dam by 1948.” It’s also an object lesson in the folly of picking up hitchhikers, even winsome ones!

Bonus:           ?????????

A special treat from the late 1940’s for all you PM completists out there!

June:               The Case of the Cautious Coquette (1949)

More car trouble: a young man is struck in a hit-and-run incident, and witnesses identify two different drivers. For a while there, Perry, Della, and Paul seem to be trapped in a screwball comedy! What to do about that pesky body in the garage!!!

July:                The Case of the Negligent Nymph (1950)

Picture this: Mason is out enjoying the country air in his canoe, when a beautiful girl swims over and begs for protection from a vicious watchdog. Naturally, she ends up accused of murder. And in a stunning twist, the central clue lies in the hefty paws of the dog!!

August:          The Case of the Green-Eyed Sister (1953)

A family is put in jeopardy by a blackmailer. Did the green-eyed sister do him in? Another read I’m looking forward to thanks to Barzun and Taylor’s assessment: “One of the tightest-knit and richest in gimmicks and characters. (Mason’s) fiddling with tape recorders is excellent, and the dialogues in and out of court show what can be done with backchat to create drama.”

September:   The Case of the Terrified Typist (1956)

Who knows how intriguing this tale of another secretary in jeopardy will be? The important thing about this title is that it is supposedly the only time in history that Perry Mason lost a case!! I’m fascinated to see how this plays out!

October:        The Case of the Long-Legged Models (1958)

I don’t know exactly how many models will feature in this one, but I assume its one of these lovelies who becomes Mason’s client – and is accused of two separate murders!!

November:    The Case of the Calendar Girl (1958)

This premise is intriguing: Mason saves his client from a murder charge by shifting the blame onto a model (wonder if it’s a leftover from the previous title!!) – and when she is charged with the crime, Mason decides to defend her!!!

December:    The Case of the Singing Skirt (1959)

How many of Perry’s clients get fired after being framed for a crime and then land in court? The premise may not be new, but Barzun and Taylor promise intrigue: “The court scene is excellent; the characters, though thin as usual, are amply credible; and the pace never flags.”

Things are gonna get pretty hot here at Ah, Sweet Mystery on the 17^th of every month. (I post on that date because ESG was born on the 17^th of July!) Stick around as we explore the sultry side of Perry Mason – that is, if you can stand the heat!