Steven Helmer Publications

Synopsis: Twenty years earlier, Ellen Calvert won a beauty contest, trip to California and a screen test. However, in addition to her movie career not taking off, she became pregnant via an affair with the son of a wealthy business owner in her midwestern hometown. When she was given $1000 to have an abortion, she instead decided to change her last name to Adair and disappear, arranging for her son to be secretly adopted by a couple she did housecleaning for. When people from her hometown begin searching for her, she seeks advice from lawyer Perry Mason. Then, when she learns the father is dead and her son stands to inherit millions, she asks Mason for help in that endeavor. Unfortunately for Mason, the lone witness that can verify Ellen's story is found dead and the evidence points to his client as the murderer. Review: After taking a short break from Perry Mason books to focus on the books I received as birthday gifts, I checked The Case of the Queenly Contestant out from my ...

Synopsis: This non-fiction book shares details of the various gun battles that took place in the American West, focusing both on outlaws and lawmen that either become legendary or were largely forgotten. Review: I came across this book at our local library a couple weeks ago and, even though it was a subject I didn't have much interest in, decided to check it out anyway. As it turns out, I enjoyed this book a lot more than expected. The author does a good job of mixing historical fact with storytelling, making it seem almost as though he was watching the gunbattles in person and making the various participants seem very much alive. This made the book a lot easier to read than if it was just a bunch of facts being written out on the page. I found I was impressed with the way the author also managed to be mostly unbiased when discussing the outlaws, focusing on their actions without necessarily painting them as heroes (as a lot of movies and books will do). In other words, even whe...

Synopsis: While investigating a hit-and-run case for a client, Perry Mason receives an anonymous tip indicating the evidence he was searching for was located in the apartment of Lucille Barton. When the tipster provides him with a key and suggests he enters while Lucille is away, Mason suspects a trap and proceeds with caution. However, that doesn't stop him from getting involved in yet another murder case and, this time, his fingerprint is on the murder weapon. Review: It usually takes me less than a week to get through a Perry Mason mystery. This particular one, however, took quite a bit longer than that. I did finally finish it last night and, while I didn't hate it, I also wouldn't list it as one of my favorites. I think my biggest problem with this mystery was the decision to make Mason one of the primary suspects in the murder case. This resulted in quite a bit of filler, mostly geared toward Mason trying to cast doubt on a witnesses' identification, and caused...