The Case of the Careless Kitten - Joseph Santi

Santi, Joseph

Period 4, English

November 17, 2008

CARELESS KITTEN MYSTERY BLOG

The title of the book is The Case of the Careless Kitten by Earle Stanley Gardner. I came across this book because my parents were helping find a good mystery book for this blog and my mother thought that an Earle Stanley Gardner book would be a good read for me. He is a classic mystery writer of the '50's. I also wanted to read this book because of the creature that helped close the case. My process for choosing books is to pick one, which has something you like in it. For example, I like cats and the book I am reading is The Case of the Careless Kitten.

Ten years before the beginning of the story Franklin B. Shore, a loving uncle and husband, disappeared. In the present, Helen Kendall, Franklin's kind and considerate niece, is playing with a cat named "Amber Eyes." As Helen is playing with the cat, she gets lost in its amber eyes and starts to remember her Uncle Franklin. She remembers a side of him that people do not see. All of a sudden, the cat scratches her. Her Aunt Matilda Shore, a very controlling woman, comes down to see why she screamed. As Matilda is scolding Helen about the cat, the houseboy, Komo, who denies being Japanese even though the only person who believes him is Mrs. Shore, comes to tell Miss Kendall that there is a call for her on the main line. When Helen gets to the phone the man on the other end of the wire says that he is Franklin B. Shore. To prove this he tells Helen things only her uncle would know. He asks her to bring Perry Mason, who is the Dick Tracy of lawyers, to the Castle Gate Hotel and tell no one else. After the call is over, Helen's cat starts to convulse and have spasms. At this same moment, Gerald Shore, who is also a lawyer, but not as daring as Mason, arrives. After Gerald helps Helen take her cat to the veterinarian, they go to implore the help of Perry Mason. After Mason and his secretary, Della Street (a compassionate lady who likes Mason), agree to work the case, they go to the Castle Gate Hotel to meet Leech, the man who will lead them to Franklin Shore. When the group arrives at the hotel, they ask the clerk if a man by the name of Leech is there. The clerk says that Leech does have a room, but is not in at the moment. Before they leave, a messenger comes in the door to give Helen a message from Leech. The note tells Helen to go with Mason to a new location that is marked on a map attached to the note. When the group gets to the spot, they see a lone car. Mason volunteers to see if it is Leech. When he gets back, he tells then that whoever was in the car was murdered. Mason leaves the rest of them at his car while he reports the murder to the police. When Mason gets back to his car, a police car rolls up and Lt. Tragg (a veteran police detective who wants lawyers like Perry Mason to stay out of the investigation until it comes to the courtroom) gets out. So what will happen next in the story? I guess you need to read it!!

A quote that I think is very important to solving the case came from sub character Thomas Lunk. "There's a little on the floor, around the can, and it looks like the cat was chasing a mouse or something and jumped right into the pile of stuff (flour). That's the most careless, damn kitten I ever saw." The second sentence relates to the book's title, but the first is a bit harder to explain. When Mason comes to talk to Mrs. Shore's gardener Lunk, Lunk tells Mason that Franklin Shore was living with him in the back bedroom of his house and was sleeping when he left. However, when Mason saw the bed in the back it did not look like anyone had been sleeping there at all. It was stone cold! Much further, in the story, during the case, this comes up again, but with a new light on Lunk's claims. In addition, the police have gone through Lunk's house by then and what was found in the flour tin was very interesting. In it, they found a .38 caliber pistol and $23,555 in cash. Mason thought now that earlier the night he talked to Lunk that Lunk had gotten a phone call from someone telling him to get the gun from somewhere. Since Lunk got up from his bed in the front room, it was warm so the cat jumped up there. When Lunk returned, he went to the flour tin to put the gun away. During this, the cat jumped into the tin and Lunk hastily threw him out of it. Then, the cat trotted to the back bedroom. When the cat got there and realized that this bed was cold and there was a warm bed in the other room, it went there which proved that Franklin B. Shore was not living there. While talking to Lunk, Mason remembered that Lunk said Franklin took all his money, but then why would Lunk have $23,555 in the flour tin?

The rating system I will use for this book is plot development, character believability, adventure, and the likelihood of reading it again. Since the book's title is The Case of the Careless Kitten, I have decided to use catheads as an icon rating system, with the top value being five catheads out of five.

Plot development

Character believability

Adventure

Would I read this again? 5 out of 5 for all

In conclusion, I would like to recommend this book to people past the age of thirteen. The story is very compelling. You will never want to put this book down, even for a second. This is an amazing classical mystery with relatable characters, mysteries behind the mystery, and the magnificent ending. There are only a few warning about this book including death and near death circumstances, as well as animals in peril. All in all a great book!