The Case of the Howling Dog
Cover Artist: not identifiedBy: Gardner, Erle Stanley
Publisher: Pocket Books, Inc. (116) - 6th printing
Place of Publication:New York, NY
Catalog #: Kelley Box 251: PS3513 .A6322 C24875 1942
Contributor: M. Moran
General
Era: 1930sAuthor as on Cover: Erle Stanley Gardner
Publication:1942
Original Date: 1934
Setting: urban; a large city in California
Plot Summary
Attorney Perry Mason is hired by a distraught young man named Arthur Cartright to handle his will, leaving his money to a neighbor, Mrs. Clinton Foley, and to defend the beneficiary if it is necessary. He also wants to complain about Mr. Foley's howling dog. Cartright disappears, and the woman named as his beneficiary is accused of the murder of the husband who deserted her. Mason, with the assistance of detective Paul Drake and secretary Della Street, successfully pursues a verdict of "not guilty" for his client.Major Characters
Perry Mason adult male, broad shoulders, a lawyer who describes himself as "a paid gladiator. I have to go in and fight, that's what they hire me for....Everything I got in the world I got through fighting." Throughout this case, Mason comes close to the line dividing legal and illegal actions. Paul Drake and Della Street warn him over and over that he's skating on thin ice, but brash and bold, Mason continues on his way. He constantly paces restlessly, and at one point, he says, "I got a couple of hours sleep and a good Turkish bath and a shave. That's all I need while I'm working on a case."Paul Drake adult male, detective who assists Mason with his cases; described as being the opposite of Mason, often with a grin on his face or a "lazy twinkle" in his eye. He is a "tall man, with drooping shoulders, a head that was thrust forward, eyes that held an expression of droll humor. Long experience with the vagaries of human nature had made him take everything, from murder down, with a serene tranquility." Although Drake warns Mason about his activities, he seems to admire the other man. As a detective, Drake has other men in his employ, and does a lot of investigating with the telephone.
Della Street adult female, savvy legal secretary; she often looks at her boss with "eyes wide and starry." She is in her late twenties, and obviously awed by and smitten with her boss
Clinton Foley: (a.k.a. Forbes), adult male, rich, 30s, womanizer who has run off with a friend's wife, deserting his own wife, and brought along his former secretary to be his housekeeper and mistress
Thelma Benton adult female, was Foley/Forbes' secretary, runs away with him to be housekeeper for him and Paula Cartright
Bessie Forbes adult female, Mason's client, she is accused of killing the husband who deserted her
Arthur Cartright adult male, "broad-shouldered, rather heavy-set man, of about thirty-two, with haunted brown eyes" whose hands tremble. He approaches Mason with the expression of "a very sick man looking at a competent physician;" disappears from the story after setting it in motion