All aboard the S. S. Van Dine!

I’m afraid that readers of this blog will begin to think that I’m simply stealing my reading list off of other blogs. Once again, today’s book was inspired by a previous review—and yet again, it was Bill from Traditional Mysteries who inspired it. The book is Murder in Pastiche by Marion Mainwaring, and after the enticing review Bill wrote in January, the book flew near the top of my to-be-read pile… and now that it’s April, I figured it was about time to give it a read. (Yeah, I’m not sure how to explain the physics behind that… Apparently, the last few months on this blog have been a massive game of Jenga with my to-be-read pile, and nobody was aware of it.)

But I digress. We find ourselves on board the R. M. S. Florabunda as it sails from Liverpool to New York. And, by an astonishing coincidence, nine prominent detectives have all come on board the same ship! These sleuths are parodies of some of the most famous detectives of all-time: M. Atlas Poireau (Hercule Poirot), Sir Jon. Nappleby (Sir John Appleby), Jerry Pason (Perry Mason), Broderick Tourneur (Roderick Alleyn), Trajan Beare (Nero Wolfe), Miss Fan Sliver (Miss Silver), Spike Bludgeon (Mike Hammer), Mallory King (Ellery Queen), and Lord Simon Quinsey (Lord Peter Wimsey). With any one of these detectives on board, a mystery is bound to explode— but with nine? That’s just tempting fate.

It calls the D.A.

Perry Mason is sitting in his office when a woman comes in. She seems very distressed and tries to extract information from Mason on behalf of “a friend” of hers. Mason sees through the ruse and challenges her on it. But the reaction is quite unexpected—the woman gets up and walks out of the office!

This leaves Perry Mason rather upset. He knows the woman is in some sort of serious trouble, and he decides he will help her—this decision is made when he finds out that the woman had left a $50 retainer with his secretary! Luckily, the damsel in distress forgot her purse behind in the office, and thus begins a trail as Perry Mason finds his client and then must help her when she gets involved in a murder!