Thursday, May 26, 2016

The Case of the Fan Dancer's Horse by Erle Stanley Gardner (WDL Books, 1959)


If you find a couple of ostrich-plume fans and a pair of white dancing slippers and advertise it in a "Found" column, you don't expect to receive a reply about a lost horse.  Yet that was what happened to Perry Mason after he and Della Street had witnessed a car accident.  It was amusing, intriguing, yet very deadly - particularly deadly.

But then he is visited by John Callender, who says he is acting on behalf of "Cherie Chi-Chi", a fan dancer.  And hot on his heels comes Mr. Arthur Sheldon, also trying to claim possession of the horse.

So it appears there is a horse!  That maybe... but there is certainly one of the most beautiful clients Perry Mason has ever had, and presently, there is also a corpse, attached to a Japanese sword.
The fan dancer is very much in evidence on the cover.  Not so her horse!

(Actually, the case involves two fan dancers, and the fan dancers' fans play a more of a role in the plot than the horse.  Never mind--The Case of the Fan Dancer's Horse is a thoroughly entertaining little mystery.  It's one of the earlier Perry Mason books too, so it isn't quite as by-the-numbers as later works in this series!)

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