A collection of suspense stories, puzzle stories, whodunits and tricky whydunits involving police detectives, private eyes, talented and sometimes lucky amateurs, armchair detectives, and ethnic detectives

Given its extraordinary span, its international scope, and its variant styles and groundbreaking stylists, A Century of Great Suspense Stories is a singular achievement. A bestselling master of suspense himself Jeffery Deaver had the enviable task of selecting from the thousands of stories written over the past one hundred years those which best represented the classic form, as well as the justly celebrated authors whose ironic twists and stunning payoffs left a lasting, vivid, and unnerving impression. The result is a triumph. In this ambitious anthology you’ll revel in the sardonic, overtly amoral plotting of Patricia Highsmith. You’ll rediscover the strangely poignant and surprising turns of Stanley Ellin, and the profoundly underrated Margaret Millar, a genius who mixed savage social satire with brooding horror. You’ll be treated to Stephen King at his chilling best. You’ll find yourself on the violent urban streets of Ross Macdonald and Mickey Spillane, and seeped in the ominous regional flavor of Sharyn McCrumb and Tony Hillerman. You’ll marvel at the cunning webs spun by Lawrence Block, Ruth Rendell, Anthony Boucher, and Sara Paretsky, all of whom defy expectations as they reinvent the genre. And you’ll understand the awesome reputations of those authors who set the standard, such as the legendary Harlan Ellison, Fredric Brown, the master of the twist ending, and James M. Cain, uncannily skilled at knowing what went on between men and women behind closed doors. (The darker the room the better.) Delivering everything from the one-two punch of the detective story to the ingeniously precise trappings of the police procedural, from the disquieting corners of the criminal mind to sheer dread-inducing horror, A Century of Great Suspense Stories is a rich anthology of this popular literary genre, a stunning tribute to the art of storytelling, and to the men and women who have done it best

In rural Idaho a man with amnesia is missing. He had a picture taken of himself in front of a cabin he built and sent it to his wife. He said he had bouts of amnesia following a car accident. A detective from the big city is on his way out to solve the case. Local sheriff Bill Catlin shows him country sheriffs know a thing or two

Surrounded by the bandit horde of smooth Ayala and the lustful “Wolf,” the unarmed Americans were helpless — save for Dan Harder’s bare hands

Ken Corning, fighting to break a murder frame, tangles with the killers

The White Rings fight a murder gang

Bob Zane was certain that somewhere the desert held the evidence—carved in sand—to bring a murderer to justice

Erle Stanley Gardner — creator of Perry Mason — was the bestselling author of detective fiction of all time. Many of his best early short novels originally appeared in the famous Black Mask magazine alongside Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Gardner’s most enduring hero was Ed Jenkins, also known as “the Phantom Crook.” So enduring was he that when the author considered discontinuing the exploits of this intrepid man, his fans overwhelmingly succeeded in ensuring his longevity. Working beyond the law, pursued by police and criminals, Jenkins’ undesired notoriety made him a prize target for blackmail, coercion and imprisonment. But those who tried to force his hand never knew the man he could be when his back was to the wall, fighting. This first ever collection of Ed Jenkins short novels represents the most thrilling adventures of Erle Stanley Gardner’s contribution to the hard-boiled detective genre

Ērls Stenlijs Gārdners Divu sievu vīrs Arī advokāts Perijs Meisons ir tikai vīrietis, kad ierauga skaistu sievieti ar brīnišķīgu figūru un ļaujas viņas valdzinājumam, bet daiļā svešiniece aizbēg, atstājot viņu divdomīgā situācijā. Notiek slepkavība. Visi ir ieinteresētās personas, bet visiem ir arī pārliecinošs alibi. Kurš ir vainīgais? Kas ir noslēpumainā svešiniece? Advokāts ķeras pie darba... Ērls Stenlijs Gardners ir Amerikas kriminālromānu karalis. Būdams jurists, viņš savos romānos izmantojis intriģējošus, aizraujošus un satricinošus sižetus. Rosinošie, asprātīgie un pārsteigumiem pilnie Gārdnera kriminālromāni jau vairāk nekā sešdesmit gadus iepriecina noslēpumu mīļotājus. Jurists un populārs kriminālromānu autors Ērls Stenlijs Gārdners ir sarakstījis turpat 150 romānus, kas pārdoti vairāk nekā 300 miljonu eksemplāros. Šodien Gārdners atkal ir pie mums, jo tiek izdoti gan viņa iepriekš publicētie darbi, gan ari jauni, bet vienmēr populāri romāni, kuros darbojas neatkārtojamais Perijs Meisons. Riga Asja Erie Stanley Gardner A PERRY MASON MYSTERY THE CASE OF THE DUBIOUS BRIDEGROOM No angļu valodas tulkojusi Liene Akmens Mākslinieks Andris Lamsters © 1949 by Erie Stanley Gardner © Asja Riga 1998 © L Akmens, tulkojums latviešu valodā, 1998. gads © A. Lamsters, mākslinieciskais noformējums, 1998. gads Noskanējis grāmatu un  failu izveidojis Imants Ločmelis imantslochmelis@inbox.lv Yandex – GRĀMATAS - https://disk.yandex.ru/d/2JO3dvhReBIF-A

No suspense collection is complete without this anthology. Originally published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, the stories in this volume represent many of the biggest names in detective and suspense fiction: Ellery Queen, Harold Q. Masur, Celia Fremlin, Jack Ritchie, Patricia Highsmith and Bill Pronzini are only a few of the prize-winning authors in this amazing volume

a book to remember... In this book you will investigate crime with such Famous Detectives as Perry Mason Nero Wolfe Ellery Queen and read stories of detection and suspense by such Famous Mystery Writers as Agatha Christie John Dickson Carr George Harmon Coxe Charlotte Armstrong Hugh Pentecost and be surprised at tales of mystery and crime by such Famous Literary Figures as W. Somerset Maugham Ben Hecht, John Van Druten A book to remember, a book to read and reread — a book to treasure and keep permanently in your library

For just over fifty years, Ellery Queen has dominated the American detective and mystery story scene. His annual collections of short and not-so-short stories by the cream of writers in the field have appeared for nearly forty of those years. Including a complete short novel by Erle Stanley Gardner, The Clue of the Screaming Woman, and seventeen novelettes and short stories by masters of mystery Robert Bloch, Hugh Pentecost, Victor Canning, Lloyd Biggie, Jr. and Ellery Queen himself, amongst many others

4 novelets and 3 short stories by the creator of PERRY MASON and the best-selling American mystery writer of all time

Ken Corning, fighting young lawyer, tries to earn an honest living in a city of graft

Erle Stanley Gardner, the creator of Perry Mason, was one of the leading writers for Black Mask, the legendary hard-boiled crime fiction magazine. Although Perry Mason never appeared in its pages, Black Mask in the early 1930s published a series of six short novels by Erie Stanley Gardner starring a crusading lawyer named Ken Corning who fought against injustice in a corrupt city Representing clients framed by crooked police arid bribed city officials, Ken Corning protected the rights of the underdog while relentlessly pursuing the guilty through a maze of violent subterfuge and sinister intrigue. Now, for the first time, all six Ken Corning short novels are collected in book form in Honest Money. These are good tight mysteries with lots of action — the stuff that made Erie Stanley Gardner justly famous. As a collection, they rank right up there with both Dead Men’s Letters and The Blonde in Lower Six

 Erls Stenlijs Gārdners Izklaidīgās nimfas prāva garstāsts Tulkojusi Maija Kalna Mākslinieks Aldis Aleks Noskannējis grāmatu un FB2 failu izveidojis Imants Ločmelis

Ērls S.Gārdners Jaunava krustcelēs Šarmants kā Šerloks Holmss, erudīts kā Puaro, neatlaidīgs kā mis Mārpla Perijs Meisons iemieso klasiski vīrišķīgā detektīvmeistara ideālu. Azartiskais detektīvs un izcilais advokāts spēj paredzēt vairākus gājienus uz priekšu, apsteidzot pat viskomplicētākā noziedznieka un blēža prātu. Jaunajā darbā Perijs Meisons spiests glābt savu prominento klientu, kas, pašam nemanot, sapinies tādas dūjiņas tīklos, kura izskatās pēc blonda jēriņa, bet kam ir vilcenes sakodiens… Jurists un pazīstamais detektīvromānu autors Ērls Stenlijs Gārdners sarakstījis vairāk nekā 150 romānu, kas pārdoti vairāk nekā 300 miljonos izdevumu visā pasaulē. Ē. S. Gārdnera radītā nesatricināmā Perija Meisona tēls joprojām turpina  savaldzināt gan detektīvžanra klasikas cienītājus, gan tos, kas kāro izbaudīt spožu un dēkainu kriminālromānu. Noskanējis grāmatu un failu izveidojis Imants Ločmelis. imantslochmelis@inbox.lv Kontinents Rīga No angļu valodas tulkojusi Liana Blumberga Vāka dizains Dairis Hofmanis © Ērls Stenlijs Gārdners, 1984 © Tulkojums latviešu valodā, mākslinieciskais noformējums, "Apgāds "Kontinents"", 2008

PERIL PRESS presents 3 short stories by Erle Stanley Gardner: The Case of the Invisible Circle The Case of the Knockout Bullet The Clue of the Onyx Ring

In their heyday, the true-crime pulp magazines spawned many of the masters of American detective fiction. These early gems have been unearthed and collected here for the first time

First came Perry Mason... then Douglas Selby the “D.A.”... and now TERRY CLANE, a new sleuth from America. Jacob Mandra had a million-dollar apartment on the fringe of Chinatown — and a reputation. Early one morning they found him dead. And a few hours later Terry Clane found himself in the District Attorney’s office — by request. Then the District Attorney began asking strange questions that Terry Clane didn’t care to answer, and when Terry finally sailed out of the D.A.’s office he realized that he and some of his friends were involved in the Mandra murder — up to their necks. But he was a brilliant young lawyer, had lived in the Far East, and knew how to apply Oriental wisdom to Occidental problems. Steeped in Chinese lore, he took life fatalistically and as a grand adventure. Terry Clane is one of the most exciting and successful characters Mr. Gardner has created. Using extraordinary methods to solve an extraordinary murder, he beats the D. A. to the punch in a mystery that is filled with surprise, cunning, and excitement. Mr. Gardner’s Chinatown background, incidentally, is authentic, and his plot is, as usual, as fast-moving and as tightly woven as any you will find in the galaxy of detective fiction

“You’ll have a tombstone on your chest, roses growin’ all around it, too, if you tie into that pair,” Mugs Magoo had warned Paul Pry. But the famous gang buster only laughed as he planned his next baffling deal — muscling artists were monkey meat to him

Jax Bowman and Jim Grood, avengers, fight a confidence man with his own weapons

Death in the desert is a grimmer thing than elsewhere—but in all ways the desert is a grim school for men, as Pete and his partner knew only too well

Gold is the pay dirt in all these rip-roaring western stories, more of Erle Stanley Gardner’s Whispering Sands series with their unique desert setting. Again the master storyteller features his rugged western hero, the philosophical prospector Bob Zane. In the title story Zane is true to form when he gets a spoiled rich kid to behave like a man and beat out claim jumpers in the desert. Men learn fast out there, or die, and Zane moves faster than any of them, rescuing a pretty hostage from Yaqui Indians, outwitting murderous gangsters in the Painted Desert, avoiding death from poisonous alkali springs, and hunting lost gold in Death Valley. Around camp at night, the sand whispers on the wind and the philosopher in Zane may start talking — but he always keeps his hand on his gun. The stories move at the headlong pace for which all Gardner adventures are famous, and Zane himself is an exceptional character who often reveals ideas that are clearly Gardner’s own about life, justice, and the debatable values of civilization. Says Zane: “The reason men don’t know the law of life is because they’re afraid to look Eternity in the face. Out in the desert they have to look at Eternity. It’s on all sides of them; they can’t turn their eyes away. That’s the spell of the desert.”

Ed Jenkins, dodging a murder rap, finds time to help another crook who is trying to go straight

The man who beats crooks at their own games... Follow the adventures of Paul Pry, a sophisticated, urbane genius whose greatest talent lies in uncovering the plots of criminals and snatching their booty when they least expect it. Pry and his cohort, the nefarious ex-cop Mugs Magoo, stay one step ahead of their villainous victims and foil their evil plots just when they are about to succeed. This long-awaited collection of Paul Pry stories shows Erle Stanley Gardner, who also created the celebrated Perry Mason series, at his best

Erle Stanley Gardner’s most popular pulp creation was undoubtedly Lester Leith, whose adventures are recorded in more than 60 novelets. Lester Leith was a Robin Hood of detectives who solved baffling mysteries in order to crack down on cracksmen. Instead of robbing the rich to help the poor, Lester Leith robbed crooks “of their ill-gotten spoils” and gave the proceeds to deserving charities — less “20 percent for costs of collection.” Lester Leith is pure nostalgia — and great fun. In this collection, Ellery Queen presents five of Lester Leith’s sparkling, audacious adventures

Otto Penzler rounds up the most cunning, ruthless, criminals in mystery fiction. The best mysteries — whether detective, historical, police procedural, cozy, or comedy-have one thing in common: a memorable culprit. For all the heroes in earnest pursuit, there are malefactors on the loose, determined to outfox their efforts and sow trouble in their wake. These are the rogues and villains who haunt our imaginations, but they often have more in common with their heroic counterparts than we might expect (and, as we shall see, some even moonlight as detectives or do-gooders themselves). The seventy-two handpicked stories in this collection introduce us to the miscreants who have schemed and slashed their way through the mystery canon over the past hundred and fifty years, captivating and confounding readers in the process. MEET DELINQUENT PSYCHES OF ALL STRIPES, INCLUDING gentleman thieves, calculating crooks, fearsome body snatchers, masters of disguise, morally-challenged lawyers, deceitful doctors, heinous hit men. charismatic con men, amoral adventurers, supernatural suspects, deviant detectives, vile villainesses, and cold-blooded killers IN UNFORGETTABLE TALES BY Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, Washington Irving, Jack London, L. T. Meade, 0. Henry, Sinclair Lewis, Edgar Wallace, Leslie Charteris, Erle Stanley Gardner, Edward 0. Hoch, David Morrell, Loren D. Estleman, and countless others

Pete Quint finds a hot market for air conditioning

An unstoppable anthology of crime stories culled from Black Mask magazine the legendary publication that turned a pulp phenomenon into literary mainstream. Black Mask was the apotheosis of noir. It was the magazine where the first hardboiled detective story, which was written by Carroll John Daly appeared. It was the slum in which such American literary titans like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler got their start, and it was the home of stories with titles like “Murder Is Bad Luck,” “Ten Carets of Lead,” and “Drop Dead Twice.” Collected here is best of the best, the hardest of the hardboiled, and the darkest of the dark of America’s finest crime fiction. This masterpiece collection represents a high watermark of America’s underbelly. Crime writing gets no better than this. Featuring • Deadly Diamonds • Dancing Rats • A Prize Fighter Fighting for His Life • A Parrot that Wouldn’t Talk Including • Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon as it was originally published • Lester Dent’s Luck in print for the first time

The BIGGEST, the BOLDEST, the MOST COMPREHENSIVE collection of PULP WRITING ever assembled! Weighing in at over a thousand pages, containing over forty-seven stories and two novels, this book is big baby, bigger and more powerful than a freight train — a bullet couldn’t pass through it. Here are the best stories and every major writer who ever appeared in celebrated Pulps like Black Mask, Dime Detective, Detective Fiction Weekly, and more. These are the classic tales that created the genre and gave birth to hard-hitting detectives who smoke criminals like packs of cigarettes; sultry dames whose looks are as lethal as a dagger to the chest; and gin-soaked hideouts where conversations are just preludes to murder. This is crime fiction at its gritty best. Including: • Three stories by Raymond Chandler, Cornell Woolrich, Erle Stanley Gardner, and Dashiell Hammett. • Complete novels from Carroll John Daly, the man who invented the hard-boiled detective, and Fredrick Nebel, one of the masters of the form. • A never before published Dashiell Hammett story. • Every other major pulp writer of the time, including Paul Cain, Steve Fisher, James M. Cain, Horace McCoy, and many, many more of whom you’ve probably never heard. • Three deadly sections — The Crimefighters, The Villains, and The Dames — with three unstoppable introductions by Harlan Coben, Harlan Ellison, and Laura Lippman. Featuring: • Plenty of reasons for murder, all of them good. • A kid so smart — he’ll die of it. • A soft-hearted loan shark’s legman learning — the hard way — never to buy a strange blonde a hamburger. • The uncanny “Moon Man” and his mad-money victims

Erle Stanley Gardner, creator of Perry Mason and the world’s bestselling mystery writer, wrote for the leading magazines such as Argosy and Black Mask alongside Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Following the success of Dead Mens Letters featuring the exploits of Gardner s most enduring pre-Perry Mason hero Ed Jenkins — also known as “The Phantom Crook” — this collection continues with the intrepid man caring less for the letter of the law than for what he doggedly believes to be right. But to achieve his ends, Jenkins is forced to confront police and criminals while avoiding the pitfalls of blackmail, coercion and incarceration. In The Blonde in Lower Six, a full length novel, and three other short novels contained in this volume, Ed Jenkins still remains his own man to those who try to force his hand. The pre-Perry Mason Erle Stanley Gardner was one of the most popular authors of his day and the accounts of Ed Jenkins were among his very best early work. The Ed Jenkins sagas, collected in one volume for the first time, represent the author s most thrilling adventures in the hard-boiled genre

Erle Stanley Gardner turns to a hair-raising tale about the hero of “Murder Up My Sleeve” — quiet, amazingly perceptive Terry Clane, who bids fair to rank with those other two favorites, Perry Mason and Doug Selby... Terry Clane, just back from China where he has been working on a secret government mission, runs into murder when he walks down the gangway at San Francisco. Whisked straight from the dock to police headquarters, Terry puts to good use all the powers of intense concentration he has learned in the Orient in order to beat the lie detector with its uncanny mind-reading.　 Terry quickly senses that despite his absence the police think he knows too much about the escape of a man convicted of murder. The fugitive has disappeared and Cynthia Renton, original, impetuous painter who was once Terry’s fiancée, has disappear too. Was Cynthia implicated in the escape? Where would she hide a fugitive from justice? Terry’s mind flew to Sou Ha, the sparkling vivacious daughter of his wisest Chinese friend, in her hidden, luxurious home in San Francisco’s Chinatown. How far would Sou Ha’s loyalty to Terry take her? Sight of the old Chinese figure of Chow Kok Koh, riding backward on his white mule, sent the lie detector needles shooting up. Terry had given that figure to Cynthia. What was it doing now, stained with blood, a clue in a brutal murder? A plot that never lets down from beginning to end, human and fascinating characters, a Story told with authentic punch, all prove that the maestro has done it again. From the appointment in the lonely warehouse to the explosive climax, it’s top mystery fare

It was beautiful bait: two lovely thousand-dollar bills and a torn half of a ten-thousand-dollar note. Perry Mason swallowed it, hook, line, and sinker. They had gone to a lot of trouble. They had Mason’s private number, woke him up and persuaded him to meet them at his office in the middle of the night. There he found a man and a girl; a man who knew exactly what he wanted but wouldn’t explain; a girl who wore a man’s overcoat, a mask — and wouldn’t speak. It was the girl who kept the other half of the ten-grand note. When and if they needed Perry Mason he’d get her half. Not until then would he know who his client was. Perry suspected he was being played for a sucker, but he was too interested to swim away. The next morning, he felt the hook. It was murder, a murder obviously linked to his mysterious visitors. And the barb on the hook was that Perry couldn’t discover who his client was or what he was supposed to do. Della Street’s mocking jibes were hard to take. A racing Gardner story full of action, suspense and one of the most original plots Gardner has ever created

A beautiful young woman seeks the help of the world-famous lawyer to free her frail, wealthy uncle from the clutches of a conniving half brother. But the police believe she may be a murderer. Could they be right? Or will Perry Mason and his clever assistants, Paul Drake and Della Street be able to prove her innocence?

“I count eight,” said Perry Mason, meaning brunettes. They were almost identical brunettes, at that, all standing at consecutive corners on the south side of the street, and they added up to such a beautiful dark mystery that even Perry Mason, famous connoisseur of fine murders that he is, was so fascinated he almost began a new career — behind bars. Mathematically Eva Martell was perfect: her height was five feet four and one-half inches, her weight one hundred and eleven, her waist twenty-four, her bust thirty-two. Because of these dimensions, curiously enough, she attracted dead bodies... She has also attracted one of Gardner’s top voltage plots, the kind that keeps Perry Mason and Della Street sizzling around in bizarre clues, counter clues and extra-legal activities. The kind that keeps Gardner readers up till dawn convinced that at last they are going to out-mastermind him. Gardner knows how to make his characters come to life. He also knows how to kill them off under completely baffling circumstances. He doesn’t believe in tricking his readers; it might be dangerous. So he gives you all the evidence with machine- gun rapidity — and lets you trick yourself. Even the most successful lawyers and criminologists come to a bad end the minute they tangle with a Gardner plot. Which is what makes him so successful. With this thought in mind we leave you, on the brink of one more Perry Mason mystery that anyone can figure out — wrong

Mason (with Della Street and Paul Drake, of course) takes on a super-baffling case involving — among other strange things— A shattering car wreck in which apparently no one was injured... A glamorous widow who should have had a husband but didn’t... An alarm clock that ticked away cheerfully under ground... A bank clerk who boasted brazenly about a $90,000 embezzlement... A girl who was always on hand when Perry Mason wanted her miles away, but was always missing when he needed her most... A client on trial for murder who wouldn’t even talk to Mason... A blood-stained bullet about which there was something very phoney... A photographer who could make a camera do everything but climb a tree... A gold mine without any gold... AND, last but not least — Perry Mason, all but hoist with his own petard

A Perry Mason Mystery... featuring the famous lawyer-detective in a bewildering case. Not one but TWO courtroom sessions — each with a different defendant — make this one of the most intriguing novels Erle Stanley Gardner has yet created. It all begins with a minor automobile accident featuring a building contractor and a glamorous photographer’s model. From then on it is a matter of snap decisions, snap judgments, and some telling snap-shots — one of them candid, and one of them fatal. When Mason gets in the act, Hamilton Burger figures the D.A.’s office can make a killing of its own — and bring in Mason’s head on a platter! Start on page one, play it to win, and you’ll be in on one of the most fabulous photo-finishes of Perry Mason’s career

Two poisonings and two shootings at the Shore mansion on the thirteenth of October are no mere coincidence. Nor is the presence, in the neighborhood, of that celebrated man-about-murder, Perry Mason. Warned by the local police to stay off the Shore case, Mason refuses to do so Result? His secretary, Della Street, is indicted on a charge of hiding a witness. And Mason is held as her accessory! Watch the Mighty Mason extricate himself from this legal noose while solving the Shore mystery with his usual finesse

After his employer dies in a fire, a caretaker hires Mason to allow him to keep his cat against the wishes of the men who inherit. When the caretaker is killed, Mason defends the woman accused of his murder

Perry Mason knew it was murder. But when the police got there it looked like suicide — except for the tall man in the tan-colored topcoat... and a most interesting fingerprint on the gun. Mason was after a hit-and-run driver and he set a trap. Into the trap walked a girl with innocent blue eyes and wheat-colored hair. Then, within twenty-four hours, Mason realized that someone was after him, and that he was holding a great big bag. At first Della Street and Paul Drake ribbed him about the girl, but it wasn’t funny when the police started building up a case not against the murderer, but against Perry Mason himself. The D.A. was licking his chops. But Mason had other ideas. With a few breaks he could rip the D.A.’s case wide open — he hoped!

"Peter Brunold has a bloodshot glass eye to use the "morning after". It is distinctive, closely identified with him, and thus quite a handicap when a corpse is found clutching a bloodshot glass eye. Later, another corpse is found, with another bloodshot glass eye in hand. Perry Mason is in almost as much jeopardy as his client: the lawyer's fingerprints have been found on one of the alleged murder weapons."

In this novelette Perry Mason clears his client, despite damning evidence in the victim’s lovenest, through the lipstick kiss impression on the dead man’s forehead

Arthur Bickler was mad. The truck marked Skinner Hills Karakul Company was responsible for the accident. What’s more, the driver unceremoniously had snatched away his notebook in which he had written down the license number of the truck. He certainly thought he was entitled to $750 damages. Jackson thought he might get $500. Perry Mason compromised for $2000... He smelled more than sheep in them that hills... The first person Perry Mason ferreted out was Daphne Milfield, obviously a blonde bomber in spire of the swollen eyes. Then there was suave Harry Van Nuys — a bit too solicitous about his friend’s wife. And Carol Burbank, a streamlined beauty who knew she had brains — and used them. From then on it’s a matter of ships and shoes and candlewax — and for a time Della Street, paul Drake, and Perry mason wished they had left their clothes on the hickory limb and not gone near the water

In this novelette Perry Mason solves the case of the death of a blackmailer and the disappearance of an amnesiac wife

A woman claiming not to be a bride consults Mason about her 'friend' whose husband, long thought to have died in a plane crash, turns up alive

GUN OVERBOARD When Matilda Benson solicits the help of Perry Mason, her request seems simple enough: cruise to a gambling ship moored just beyond the twelve-mile limit and buy back the IOUs signed by Miss Benson's niece. But after Mason reaches the floating casino, he discovers problems aplenty--most notably the ship's owner with a bullet hole through his head. Strangely enough, Matilda and her niece are also on board that night . . . when someone tosses a gun over the railing. Does Perry Mason's client have something to hide? With the support of his trusty secretary, Della Street, and the ever-helpful Paul Drake, Mason dives into an ocean of menace

A recipe to delight every gourmet of mystery fiction... Take a proxy fight and a series of mysterious phone calls from an unknown female who said her name was Rosalind. Add a couple of guns and a very dead blonde in a bare hotel room. Season with Perry Mason’s brilliant analytical mind... and some fast action by Della Street and Paul Drake. Pop it all into the courtroom... and you will have a murder case that is almost too hot to handle. At least that is the way Hamilton Burger, the district attorney, felt about it. It’s a sensational pièce de résistance that calls for whirlwind action by three of the best cooks in the business, Perry Mason, Della Street, and Paul Drake

The team of Mason. Street and Drake was never in better form. Perry Mason and Della Street were both out to lunch. Gertie, the receptionist and telephone operator, was indulging in her favorite noontime occupation munching chocolates and reading a love store — when the door burst open and a woman rushed in. Gertie got her name, all right, dimly registered the fact that she was not only very attractive but very upset at having to wait for Mason, and Gertie even looked up when the woman left before he returned. But vicarious romance was the rule of that day — much to the annoyance of Lt. Tragg when he later tried to piece together what had happened. And although his plan for surprising Gertie into an identification of the lady was ingenious, Perry’s counter-measure was even more so

Perry Mason has cause to ponder the old adage “Like Father, like son” in this explosive drama of murder among California’s upper crust... featuring a small boy ho just loves guns — preferably those that go Bang! The curtain rises on Mervin Selkirk’s scandalous divorce. Then, with the battle for custody of seven-year-old Robert still pending, Selkirk’s fiancée, Norda Allison, learns of some unfortunate qualities in her intended. Exit romance; enter letters — crude, threatening ones addressed to Norda. That’s when Selkirk’s ex-wife and her second husband come on stage, his powerful father lurks behind scenes, and Perry Mason makes his entrance as star in a daring — and deadly — role

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