A GOOD NIGHT’S SLAYING: The Case of the Sleepwalker’s Niece

‘That’s what I get for trying to be ethical and prevent a murder – a divorce case, which I don’t like; conference with a pettifogging lawyer, which is a routine I despise, and an agreement of property settlement, which is a damned chore!’

“(Della Street), stretching forth a coolly, capable hand, picked up the check and said, ‘I can see a five-thousand dollar retainer, which doesn’t grow on bushes.’”

Ah! This is the practical Della I know, the one who has been missing since we started our year-long sojourn into Perry Mason and Girls! Girls! Girls! This Della is always “moving with that unhurried efficiency which accomplishes things;” she knows what her boss needs the moment he needs it – if not before that. And in 1936’s The Case of the Sleepwalker’s Niece, the eighth adventure of the brilliant defense attorney, Della is constantly two steps ahead of knowing her boss’ needs for his latest case before he does. Erle Stanley Gardner is settling nicely into that central relationship that will comfort and delight us for 75+ more cases.

We start, as we so often do, with a restless Perry pacing about his office, turning down loser murder cases and other clients who fail to excite his desire for solving puzzles and rescuing underdogs. Mason’s law clerk Jackson brings in the latest challenge to his boss’ intellect, via the titular niece: Edna Hammer is “a blonde young woman in a knit sport outfit, which showed the contours of her figure almost as plainly as though it had been a swimming suit.” To a seething Della, she’s a client who is nineteen minutes late to her appointment and is thus wasting the Chief’s time. Mason ignores the curves and demands the facts from Edna about her uncle, Peter B. Kent, the titular sleepwalker.

And then Kent himself comes to call, manipulated by Edna’s skills as an astrologer (!), and pours his woes out to Mason. His wife, Doris Sully Kent, was in the process of making Kent the latest in a long line of divorces. Perhaps she wasn’t thrilled that, when they lived together in Chicago, Peter started sleepwalking, grabbed a knife, and attempted to enter his wife’s bedroom with it. However, upon hearing that Kent’s latest business venture has swelled his fortunes, she is trying to manipulate the California court to reverse the divorce decree so that she can return to her husband’s arms, declare him insane, and control his bank account.

Sounds like Doris is a ripe candidate for murder, right? But what about Frank B. Maddox, an eccentric inventor from Chicago whom Kent lifted from poverty and obscurity by partnering with him to manufacture Maddox’ valve-grinding tool. Now the inventor has come to California with a smarmy attorney, determined not only to wrest the business from his partner, but to sue Kent for damages for ostensibly endangering the success of his invention. And get this – it isn’t even Maddox’ invention to possess!! Sounds like another possible dead body in a hotel room to me!

Kent wants Mason to handle both his greedy wife and his grasping partner so that he can marry again, to a perfectly nice woman this time who is not after his money. Then he wants the attorney to help him settle his estate on his family: his curvaceous niece who is also about to be married, a resentful half-brother, and a loyal secretary. All these adversaries and heirs make for a lovely parcel of suspects – why, there’s even a butler! And Mason is only too happy to get involved in the tedious legal work of divorce proceedings, business ventures, and the drawing up of wills because the idea of a sleepwalker killing someone (“There’d be no malice, no premeditation”) fascinates him.

In the best country house manner, Mason wakes up as a guest of his client and discovers a corpse – only it’s not the victim you might expect. Did his client sleepwalk and make a mistaken kill? Was this person the intended victim all along? Or . . . is someone framing Peter B. Kent for murder, unconscious or otherwise!?!

Now we’re getting somewhere in our yearly theme! Edna, the sleepwalker’s niece, is a great character, eager to help Mason protect her uncle but burdened with a couple of secrets of her own that are doozies! And the plot is deliciously complex, as the business venture, the divorce and the murder case start to interweave, and Gardner adds a surprising twist or two out of seemingly innocuous events. As often happens in these early cases, we don’t reach the courtroom until the top of Chapter 19, where Hamilton Burger is patiently waiting to steal a win for once – and happily failing miserably. So, to sum up . . . great characters, great plot, some great teasing Perry and Della stuff as their relationship really heats up – oh, and a genuinely surprising but well-clued solution that would not go down badly in a Christie novel!

It all adds up to another terrific read! And I love the ending where, just as Mason is wrapping up his explanation of the case to Della, Jackson bursts into the office and says that a most unusual potential client is waiting outside: a stuttering bishop!!!

Oh, the 30’s were a wonderful decade for Mason fans!

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“The Case of the Sleepwalker’s Niece” was only the second episode of Perry Mason, premiering on September 28, 1957. I love these first season adventures, which play out like mini-noir films and feature Raymond Burr at his leanest and most energetic. The screenplay provides a pared-down version of the novel, with the character of the niece suffering the most: she is transformed from a luscious 30’s bombshell to a buttoned-down but spunky 50’s heroine, and all her great secrets are eliminated. However, we are gifted with a fine performance by Hillary Brooke as the vixenish Mrs. Cole, and the portrayal of the murderer and reveal of their guilt is well done.