Before there was Perry Mason, there was Ken Corning. In 1932
and '33, Gardner published a series of six stories in BLACK
MASK about lawyer Ken Corning and his battle with the corrupt
political machine that runs the fictional York City. Corning
has nearly all of the mannerisms exhibited by Mason in the
early novels, has a wisecracking but faithful secretary/Girl
Friday, Helen Vail (who is almost always referred to by both
names, just as Della Street was always Della Street), always
defends innocent clients, manipulates events and people in
order to prove the innocence of his clients, and is usually
two or three steps ahead of not only the cops and the bad
guys, but the reader as well. The stories are:
"Honest Money", November '32
"The Top Comes Off", December '32
"Close Call", January '33
"Making the Breaks", June '33
"Devil's Fire", July '33
"Blackmail With Lead", August '33
All six were reprinted by Carroll & Graf in 1991 in a
volume entitled HONEST MONEY. I just read it and found it
very entertaining. It's hard to pin down the appeal of
Gardner's work. Characterization and description are very
skimpy, his style is fast-paced but flat, and while there are
a few car chases and fist fights, there's not much action in
these stories. Gardner also has a habit of throwing a lot of
characters at the reader without much to distinguish them. I
think it comes down to plotting and pace. From the first
line, Gardner has things moving, and the reader had darn well
better pay attention and keep up or get lost.
Which isn't to say that Gardner can't write a nice paragraph
here and there. Here's the opening of "Devil's Fire":
"Ken Corning pushed his way through the gawking pedestrians
who still loitered on the sidewalk. They had formed in a
white-faced ring about the red pool which spread along the
cold surface of the gray cement, reflecting the street lights
until they seemed like glowing rubies."
One more note: I halfway expected these stories to be linked
like the stories that made up RED HARVEST and THE DAIN CURSE,
but while they have the same background, they're pretty much
stand-alones. Gardner would have had trouble cobbling them
into anything that resembled a novel.
Carroll & Graf reprinted several volumes of Gardner's
early work, and I suspect they're all worth looking for. I
wouldn't want to read a steady diet of it, but I like dipping
into it from time to time.
James
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