The Case of the Fan-Dancer's Horse

**"Put this ad in the paper, Della," said Perry Mason.** "Make it in general terms: 'If the fan-dancer who has lost certain property will communicate with Box so-and-so, she can have her property restored to her.' Have any replies forwarded to this office." The "property" Perry Mason was referring to was a pair of dancer's shows and two ostrich-feather fans, which he and Della had taken from a wrecked car. The first answer was a letter from one Cherie Chi-Chi who said that her agent would arrange to recover the horse. When John Callender arrived with a note from Cherie and an offer of $500 for Mason's trouble, the lawyer asked him to describe the property. Callender described a horse, in detail. "The property that I found does not exactly answer that description," said Mason. Callender got mad and charged Mason with an attempt at extortion. Just as he was going through the door he stopped, all affability once more. "Of course, Mason," he said, "I didn't describe the bullet wound." 'Bullet wound? Where?" Mason invited. "On the horse." Mason shook his head, and Callender stalked out. Just then the telephone rang. Della picked it up. "All right, Gertie, what is it?" Della turned to Perry Mason with a wicked grin. "There's another man out there," she said. "He wants to see you--about a horse." Thus began one of Perry Mason's most intricate cases, involving two fan-dancers with the same name, a husband, a lover, a suitor, a corpse, and, above all, a horse.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Fiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.