Erle Stanley Gardner

Contains two books of Perry Mason novels.

This is a recent reissue/collection of a set of short stories Gardner sold to pulp magazines in the early 30's. From Google Books: "Paul Pry, one of Gardner’s least-known and strangest characters is showcased here. He picks ‘Mugs’ Magoo out of the gutter and forma a partnership which makes the big shots of the underworld look pathetic."

Perry hires a temporary secretary and lives to regret it.

When a wealthy man is murdered, his son asks Perry Mason to help find the murderer and keep the widow from taking control of the estate. The only witness to the murder is a parrot. The plot gets complicated when a second parrot is discovered which seems to name the killer, "Helen," -- the widow's name, but another Helen shows up, claiming she was recently married to the deceased man. Circumstantial evidence points to the second Helen as the killer, and Perry Mason sets out to clear her and locate the real murderer.

The case involves a woman named Mildred Faulkner who owns and operates three successful flower shops. Her partner in the stores is her sister, Carlotta, but Carlotta has been ill and out of action for several months, leaving Mildred to run things by herself. Mildred and Carlotta own all the stock in the corporation, save for a few shares that they gave to an early employee. Now, one of their competitors has managed to get his hands on those shares and intends to use them to chisel his way into their business. Obviously concerned, Mildred goes to see Carlotta. Her sister's affairs are now being handled by her husband, Bob, who Mildred never liked. Bob is an irresponsible lout who plays the horses and who may be playing around on his sick wife, but Carlotta is blinded by love and can't see through Bob the way Mildred does. Mildred tells Bob that she want's Carlotta's stock certificates so that she can take all the certificates to a lawyer and attempt to deal with the threat to her company. But Bob weasels around and Mildred suddenly realizes that he may have turned Carlotta's certificates over to a gambler as collateral for a debt. Now thoroughly panicked, Mildred contacts Perry Mason and gets him on the case. But before you can say, "Della Street," somebody's dead and Mildred is in even more trouble than she could have possibly imagined. We can only hope that Mason will be able to save the day.

Poker-faced Nellie Conway, the nurses bed-ridden Elizabeth Bain, brings trouble when she calls on Perry Mason with a glass phial containing four pills which she suspects are poison. Her employer, Nathan Bain, she says, had promised her money to give them to his wife. But when Mason has one of the pills analyzed it is found to consist of acetylsalicylic—in other words good old-fashioned aspirin. Is Perry Mason’s client a hoaxer, a psychopath, or something trickier? Nathan Bain’s next move is to accuse Nellie of theft and provide proof by shining ultra-violet light on her fingers. The case which began like a joke suddenly becomes sinister. Perry gets his client out of this spot but trails her to New Orleans where he has a hard job disentangling fact from theory on the subject of Mrs. Bain. One flying trip to New Orleans. One charge of vagrancy--against Perry Mason. Plus two dramatic courtroom scenes climaxed by one of the most spectacular grandstand plays of Mason's distinguished career--add up to Grade-A mystery fare

One of the best series Erle Stanley Gardner wrote was the quasi-Western series collectively known as “The Whispering Sands” series for Argosy Magazine between 1930-1934. Most of these stories have been collected in two volumes:Whispering Sands: Stories of Gold Fever and the Western Desert (1981) and Pay Dirt and Other Whispering Sands Stories of Gold Fever and The Western Desert (Morrow, 1983). Of the eighteen stories collected (out of the twenty-one), all but two featuring Bob Zane, a knowledgeable desert prospector, an amalgamation of the author’s own personality and the type of man Gardner knew from his travels. These tales might be seen as Westerns by some readers but as the books’ over-long titles state they are actually “Stories of Gold Fever and the Western Desert”. Which isn’t to say “The Whispering Sands” stories wouldn’t appeal to Western fans, but that Gardner has mixed a wonderful blend of the Western, Mystery and Adventure genres into these stories. The fiction most similar is perhaps Jack London’s stories of the Klondike, in that Gardner captures a place and how it affects people in the same way. Gardner states his theme in each story (which he never intended to be read in a volume but in different issue of a magazine), telling about the “sand whispers”: "Of course, those whispers, aren’t really voices. I know as well as you do that they’re the noises made by the sand scurrying along on the wings of the desert winds and rustling against the cacti and the sage. And then, when the wind gets stronger, you an hear the sound of sand rustling against sand, the strangest whisper of all".

When a restless and sexually adventurous tycoon sets himself up for blackmail, Perry Mason finds an eyeful of glamour means a fistful of trouble... Was the shapely shadow that followed Morley Theilman, his beautiful ex-showgirl wife...his attractive ex-wife who still carried a torch...or his pretty secretary disguised as a Plain Jane? And which of these lovelies would kill the goose that laid the golden egg? In the courtroom the DA is poised for the knockout but Perry beats the punch with some fast legal footwork...

Four early short stories from the author of "Perry Mason" : The Case of the Crimson Kiss: Perry Mason deciphers (among other things) the mystery of the "crimson kiss" on the forehead of a murder victim... Fingers of Fong finds Dick Sprague matching wits with a Chinese murderer... In The Valley of Little Fears, a man and a dog have to come to terms with their fears and cowardice - and, perhaps, more... Crooked Lighning tells the tale of a gem agent pitted against a gem thief called Crooked Lightning. With the special Gardner twist in the tail... And At Arm's Length: Of Jerry Marr, a private detective who has to "create" his clients in an economic depression. Whose "tough-mindedness in his approach and brilliance in his deduction ... suggest a step in the evolution of Perry Mason."

Another case of embezzlement and blackmail - it seems that the brother of Perry's client was being blackmailed and may have been an embezzler. However, he was struck by an auto and in a coma. Perry's client is operating in the dark and since she insists on following her instincts rather than legal advice, it puts Perry behind the eight ball trying to defend her. Perry Mason's beautiful new client isn't giving anything away, not even her name, and he suspects that what she does choose to reveal is mostly lies. Certainly the bag full of cash she carries isn't shopping money. All the mystery woman asks is that Mason make himself available for a few days in case she needs him--for what purpose, she remains silent as the grave. In fact, his headstrong client, who identifies herself only as "36-24-36," is headed for disaster--not only into a blackmailer's clutches but into a lethal trap from which not even Perry Mason's brilliant courtroom sorcery may be able to extricate her.

BLACK WIDOW There's no love lost between Delane Arlington's fiancée and his frosty family. The wealthy widower's heirs are extremely eager to keep their lovestruck uncle from tying the knot - and thus cutting off their route to easy street. That's what brings Selma Anson, Arlington's beleaguered bride-to-be, to Perry Mason's office. Wise investment of her late husband's insurance made Selma a well-off widow. But her prospective new groom's avaricious nieces and nephews have her pegged as a gold digger - and a gravedigger! They're determined to prove that Selma poisoned her first husband. Mason is equally determined to prove them liars. But when damning evidence turns up - and Selma takes off - it could make Perry's defense deadly difficult...

Mason is hired to stop a news story about an old beauty pageant. Twenty years ago, Ellen Adair took first prize in a beauty contest. Yet she hides a secret from those glory days. It seems Ellen was involved in an illicit affair with the son of a rich tycoon--a liaison that yielded an illegitimate heir. Now that the father's fortune is up for grabs, Ellen is ready to spill the beans so her son can collect the cash. But certain other parties--with their eyes on the same multi million-dollar prize--are out to prove that the so-called "heir" is nothing but a sham. A blackmailing nurse knows the truth, and has the proof. But when she turns up murdered, all eyes turn toward Ellen. Unless Perry Mason can crown the real killer, the queen's throne could turn into a real hot seat...

Cool & Lam Mystery #26 (1965) Neither Clayton Dawson nor his tale of wild-child daughter Phyllis and a hypothetical hit-and-run while driving drunk quite rings true. And Dawson makes no secret of the fact that full disclosure on his part could put Cool and Lam in a legal bind. In the course of his visit, however, Dawson has piqued Donald Lam's professional pride to the point where there's no question of declining the case. Except, sometimes, even the brainiest of investigators can underestimate the duplicity of his clients. Not to mention their associates. Suddenly, Lam's PI license and his freedom are both on the line.

No wonder Katherine Ellis (a.k.a. Kit) is worried. She comes to stay with her Aunt Sophia, her only living relation, thinking that her aunt is wealthy. When Aunt Sophia says she is broke, Kit must take a job as a waitress. Then Aunt Sophia has her shifty friend Stuart Baxley accuse Kit of stealing a hundred-dollar bill from the hatbox Aunt Sophia keeps in her closet. But Kit, who helps with the housekeeping, knows the closet once contained dozens of hatboxes and that the others have all disappeared. Enter Perry Mason, Los Angeles's most famous lawyer, who knows a person in distress when he sees one. He offers to help Kit. Just in time, it turns out, because someone has assaulted Aunt Sophia, and the police have only one suspect--Kit. Join the incomparable Perry Mason and his talented associates--secretary Della Street, private investigator Paul Drake--as they untangle The Case of the Worried Waitress.

An erstwhile young man has his hands full as trustee of a wild young woman's inheritance. But his love and her money don't mix. Perry Mason may be able to prove his client is no embezzler--but what happens when murder rears its head?