The Case of the Grinning Gorilla by Erle Stanley Gardner review

First published in 1952, this is another in the Perry Mason series of books.  This one is more or less from the middle of the series, so Perry isn't quite as abrasive as he was in the early ones.

I really loved the title of this book.  I've read several of the Perry Mason books and have enjoyed them, and when I saw this was on sale, I scooped it up last month--even though I've been trying to curtail my book purchases.

I've been trying to make my TBR pile smaller, and my goal was not to buy more books than I read from the pile.  So far this year I believe I've read 24 or 25 books from my TBR pile, but I've purchased....more than that in January alone.

But in my defense--they were cheap or free, or they were books in a series I love, or by an author I love, or sounded really good and were recommended by someone on the Cozy mystery group on Goodreads.   Actually, I blame Goodreads.com for introducing me to more books, authors and series that I really, really want to read!  And so I get them, and then when I read them, I want to read more.

Back to the book, The Case of the Grinning Gorilla.  Perry stops by an auction, and to help out he bids on a box of personal items of Helen Cadmus.  To his surprise, his $5 bid wins the box.  It turns out that Helen Cadmus was the secretary to Benjamin Addicks, an eccentric millionaire, and had committed suicide by jumping overboard from his yacht.  The box contains her diaries, and this stirs up interest in several different quarters.

Perry decides that he should find out what is in the diaries to make them so important, and discovers that the woman who wrote the diaries didn't seem the suicidal type.  He also finds out things about Addicks, including his personal zoo of gorillas and chimps, and his goal to hypnotize the animals.

Before long, Perry is involved in another interesting case that goes from theft to murder to being picked up by the police to confronting a grinning gorilla.   There is lots of excitement, and it keeps you interested and reading, even if the premise is a little strange.



This is part of my 2014 Vintage Mystery BINGO Challenge--Golden--N--Book with animal in Title