People did not see eye to eye about Nadine Farr. Some called her sweet... some called her sour... some branded her a vicious murderess and blackmailer. But all agreed that she was a very good looking young woman, a real knockout.

Perry Mason reserved judgment and came up swinging on the count of ten in the most harrowing legal battles of his career.

First there was a corpse... but no corpus delicti. Then there was too much cyanide. Then Mason himself was accused of perjury.

Erle Stanley Gardner has contrived a brilliant puzzle for this 50th case of his famous lawyer-detective, and Perry Mason pulls out all the stops in a dazzling courtroom climax.

The new Perry Mason murder mystery has...terrible pace......stirring court-room drams......a duck that can’t swims...John L. Witherspoon was accustomed to having — and paying — his way. There was a definite reason why he didn’t approve his daughter Lois’ love affair, and he hired Perry Mason to break it up. If Mason would investigate an 18-year-old murder, Witherspoon was sure the results would change his daughter’s mind.Perry took the job because several things about the old case intrigued him. And because he had a hunch that the answer to it might save Lois’ happiness.Mason, Delia Street and Paul Drake went to El Templo, Witherspoon’s great California ranch; they went into action at once, and soon they smoked out a string of crooked plots, brought several shadowy figures into too strong a light, and ran plump into murder-up-to-date with Mason caught in the middle.

The receptionist told Perry Mason there were two men waiting in the outer office; one of them looked like a prosperous banker, the other a tramp. One wanted to see him about some corporation law, and the other had a damage claim. So Mason said, “I’ll see the tramp. Tell the banker I can’t be bothered with corporation law.”But it turned out it was the tramp who wanted to sec him about corporation law. And that, in turn, merged into the story of one of the famous Lost Mines of the desert region of Southern California; of a sinewy little desert prospector and his partner, who had struck it rich, “housed-up” and, losing his health, had forsaken the big red-tiled mansion in the fashionable district of San Roberto to spread his sleeping bag out in the cactus garden at the far corner of the grounds. And finally there was the mysterious drowsy mosquito — was it a harbinger of death?These characters, together with the lure of a fabulously rich gold deposit, discovered more than half a century ago, then lost, and lying untouched year after year, waiting only for chance and the ingenuity of Perry Mason to bring it back into the limelight, make for a fast moving, baffling Perry Mason yarn.

“What prominent lawyer received the mitten in front of his office building last night? Who was the mysterious blonde spitfire who swung one from the hip and left him groggy...?”

That gossip columnist knew that Perry Mason was the lawyer. But Mason himself didn’t know who the girl was... and he wanted to.

She had climbed down the fire escape from the Garvin Mining, Exploration and Development Company — right into Mason’s office on the floor below. After a story which neither believed, she ran away. And the next day Ed Garvin came to see the lawyer.

Garvin said he didn’t know the girl. He was just crazy about his new bride... but he did want Mason to find out whether or not he had two wives. He, himself, didn’t quite know.

Perry Mason takes the case that soon involves murder and reaches a climax in one of the most brilliant courtroom scenes of Mason’s career.

Perry Mason, Della Street and Paul Drake... faced with a puzzle to which their arch antagonist, Hamilton Burger, alone seemed to have the missing piece...

Muriell Gilman left her father at the breakfast table while she cooked seconds of sausages and eggs. When she returned, he had disappeared — seemingly into thin air.

She searched the house from cellar to attic. Then she went out to the workshop... there, scattered on the floor, were hundred-dollar bills, and in their midst — a spreading crimson stain... That’s when she telephoned Perry Mason.

Some of the characters: Nancy Gilman, a talented photographer who looked like a picture herself; Glamis Barlow, a chic blonde who loved to gamble and was definitely in the chips; Hartley Elliot, an up-and-coming beau of Glamis’, who, unlike his car, had a battery charged for action; Vera Martel, a shady detective interested in shady pasts.

A bright, shiny tin can in a dark, cobwebby corner of the cellar preserve shelf — unlabelled and empty!Mrs. Gentrie, the meticulous hose-wife, was annoyed but not too upset. Her sister-in-law Rebecca was exited and suspicious. Delman Steele, their new young boarder, was quietly interested...Then things began to happen. A man and his housekeeper were found missing from the house next door. Willful old Elston Karr, who used to run guns up the Yangtze and was now confined to a Wheel-chair in the flat above the missing man’s apartment, retained Mason to protect him from — well, Mason wasn’t quite sure himself. But his mind began to work fast.Then Mason heard about the empty tin can. It interested him — a lot.All our old friends are here, Della Street, Paul Drake, Lieutenant Tragg, in a mystery so fast and exiting that it has been called “even better than Gardner.”

The client was young, blonde and beautiful and she wanted to disappear.

The trouble was she wouldn’t say why, and she wouldn’t give her name. So Perry Mason agreed to a code of identification based on her measurements: 36-24-36.

But according to Della Street, the figures were padded, and as it turned out, so was everything the client said.

Don’t look now — but there’s a mystery behind those funs. And there’s a horse behind that mystery... Take it from PERRY MASON and DELLA STREET, you’re about to witness the finest display of legal fireworks of the year — with Perry an accomplice in murder.It all starts quietly enough — with two cars side-swiping each other in the middle of the desert. And in the trunk of one of them, an indent jalopy, Perry Mason finds a fan-dancer’s wardrobe. (Item: 2 fans; Item: 1 pair of dancing shoes).The fans lead to one of the most beautiful clients Perry Mason has ever had... and to a body. A body on the end of a Japanese sword...They also lead to a beautiful mental teaser for you, with Gardner dropping his clues as fast as you can pick them — or his book — up. Here it is, a real legal twister!

When Morley Eden burst into Perry Mason’s office claiming that a beautiful brunette has placed a five-strand barbed-wire fence through the middle of his property — house, pool, grounds and all — Mason is intrigued. But when he jumps into this bizarre situation with both feet, he finds himself in no time at all up to his neck in some very hot water indeed.

Goldfish — a golddigger — and a valuable secret formula net Perry Mason the most baffling case of his career — and he nearly gets caught on his own hook...Humorless Harrington Faulkner was fit to be tied. That golddigger was making preposterous demands — but if he didn’t pay, his goldfish would die. And they were special goldfish — he’d developed the strain himself — Veil Tail Moor Telescopes, they were, the ‘fish of death’...Perry Mason thought he was a crank with a taller fish story than usual.And then the fish disappeared and a body was found on the bathroom floor — beside a shattered goldfish bowl...From then on Della Street and Perry Mason are in the case up to their necks, along with:SALLY MADISON: a beautiful girl with model proportions, definitely not as good as gold...TOM GRIDLEY: a chemist and an idealist — the inventor of formulas and trouble for Sally...JANE FAULKNER: the second Mrs. Faulkner, who turns out to be not as dumb as she looks...ELMER CARSON: cagey co-owner of Faulkner’s business with a proprietary interest in other things...GENEVIEVE FAULKNER: the first Mrs. Faulkner and the reason Harrington Faulkner was afraid of divorces...WILFRED DIXON: her business counsellor who knew how to bluff but didn’t like to be called...JAMES STAUNTON: a gentleman who underwrites more than insurance...

This sparkling mystery novel reveals a sensational new discovery in the field of scientific criminal investigation...It all began with an auction. If Perry Mason hadn’t made a casual, five-dollar bid he wouldn’t have bought the personal effects of Helen Cadmus, missing secretary presumed a suicide...If the personal effects hadn’t turned out to be diaries and a photograph album, Benjamin Addicks wouldn’t have come into the picture...If Benjamin Addicks hadn’t been an eccentric millionaire, he wouldn’t have been conducting psychological experiments on gorillas...And that brings us to the most spine-chilling scene ever encountered in a Gardner mystery: Perry Mason creeping through a silent house, stalked by A MURDEROUS, GRINNING GORILLA!

A shot...A splash...A shout...and Perry Mason finds himself treading the deepest water of his career. This time, he nearly goes wider...Things were tense aboard Parker Benton’s yacht. About the only thing the group had in common was the bad weather and a highly controversial business proposition. When that subject came up, tempers came out — and in no time at all the spine-chilling cry “Man O-ver-boar-r-d” cut through the fog...

It started as the case of the disappearing driver. Stephane Olger was hitchhiking to Los Angeles when the accident happened. When it was over she was found unconscious behind the wheel — alone. There was a manslaughter charge against her...

Perry Mason refused to believe the proof against his client. The district attorney was too smug. The evidence was too good.

Perry Mason refused to believe the proof against his client. The district attorney was too smug. The evidence was too good.

When a murdered man is found in the home of shady insurance adjuster Walter Prescott, a simple divorce case turns into a courtroom puzzler, as Perry Mason follows the clues to catch a killer.

A forged check... a runs way wife... a curiously lazy lover... these tantalizing and elusive clues lead PERRY MASON and DELLA STREET to one of their most baffling cases ever—It all began when the first check for $2500 arrived. It was made out to Perry Mason and signed “Lola Faxon Allred” and it had been attached to a letter which wasn’t there.Then the noon mail came in with another check — same amount, same signature and the same aura of mystery.

Perry Mason and Della Street are writing love letters this time — to a girl they’ve never seen. In fact they don’t even know her name.

But they’ve seen a letter she wrote to a Lonely Hearts Magazine. According to her, she’s both attractive and an heiress, an heiress who’s tired of people who love her for her money...

According to Perry Mason, she’s lying. And there’s something phony about the Lonely Hearts business — including Mr. Robert Caddo who runs it. But there’s nothing phony about the beautiful corpse that almost puts Perry behind bars for life.

It takes talent to kill two birds with one stone... but it takes genius (Erle Stanley Gardner variety) to make three bull’s-eyes with one arrow.

This Perry Mason mystery is a tantalizing triple-decker.

One threesome comprises three glamorous ladies — all long-legged models with ambitions that range from keeping the home fires burning to putting the home fires out.

Another trio is a far-from-pleasant collection of small metal objects called guns.

Finally, the favorite triumvirate of mystery readers around the world: Perry Mason, Della Street and Paul Drake. This is one of Mason’s most absorbing cases — meaning sensational action all the way, with a fabulous courtroom climax.