New Madison City district attorney solves the murder of a man found in a hotel room, along with his sheriff Rex Brandon and the newspaper reporter, Sylvia Martin, who loves him. Kinda reminds your of Perry Mason, Paul Drake and Della Street, huh? Well, it's by Erle Stanley Gardner, so it should. An easy, interesting read with a lot of action, a last minute solution and explanation thereof...like Perry in court and back at his office explaining to a bewildered Della and Paul. More fodder to Erle Stanley Gardner fans. Go for it. The first in a 7 book series. ( )

Don't judge a book by its cover, the saying goes, and it was advice I should have taken. I was attracted to read this book because of the appearance of my edition -- which was published by the Franklin Library in 1989. It is beautifully bound, with a cover of thick, black, gold-embossed boards and gold-edged pages. And the book opens to a well-done drawing of the crime scene.

Here's some background to the book series of which it is a part. In 1937, after four years of writing Perry Mason mystery novels, Gardner invented a new character series. His protagonist, "Doug Selby," is a new District Attorney, an dogged and imaginative solver of crimes in the fictional town of Madison City, California. The "Doug Selby" series eventually totaled nine books (most of which were serialized in magazines).

The D.A. Calls it Murder is the first book of the series. Among its elements are these: a contested inheritance, a Hollywood actress with a shady past, a poisoned dog, a dead minister (also poisoned), two cases of mistaken identity, a possible embezzlement, mysterious photographs, a mysterious envelope with 5 one-thousand dollar bills, a movie screenplay, an intrepid newspaper reporter, and an unscrupulous politician. Coincidences abound amidst the red herrings.

Frankly (in my opinion), this book is pretty bad. The plot has too many pieces and too many coincidences and the dialogue is sometimes cringe-worthy. Both of the women offer themselves to Selby for a relationship, for reasons that escaped me. The tale was at times unintentionally amusing due to its dated nature. One person is "madder than a wet hen"; a couple of times the investigators "smell a rat"; Selby prefers a woman who is a "straight shooter" rather than a "four flusher"; and when the (female) news reporter sits with her feet up on the desk, she exposes "a generous expanse of shapely calf." That's "calf," not "thigh," and that phrase is as risqué as the book ever gets.

Ultimately, the story is far too implausible and complex and just doesn't hang together. Perhaps Gardner was still learning his craft. For uncritical readers of "men's magazines" in the 1930s, this story probably sufficed, but 80 years later, there are better things to read. The real mystery is why Franklin chose this book to republish as opposed to other things by its famous author. ( )

The first in a short series by Erle Stanley Gardner. Taking the opposite side from his defense attorney Perry Mason, in these stories the hero is a D.A However, he is fighting reformer --just elected in this first book in a victory over a corrupt entrenched machine, and still facing serious opposition. In this case a man -supposedly a minister --is found dead, apparently from an overdose of sleeping powder, in a local hotel. However, when the minister's wife is brought in to identify him, she says the victim is not her husband. ( )

A pretty good read -- a different character for ESG, Doug Selby, D.A. I still like Perry better though. Doug wasn't so hard-boiled and savvy as Perry. ( )

Un caso para el fiscal Doug Selby, cuyas acusaciones y actuación en el Ministerio Fiscal es tan doctrinal, ingeniosa y sorprendente como las defensas de Perry Mason. Cuando en el transcurso de la causa, Douglas se ve acorralado por sus enemigos y todo parece demostrar la inocencia del culpable, es cuando lucha mejor y su actuación es magnífica. El lector descubre entonces que todas sus suposiciones fueron falsas y que no dio importancia a hechos insignificantes en apariencia, pero que, resultaron capitales para el descubrimiento del asesino.