A Penguin Perry Mason

The terrified blonde with the black eye who appeared in Perry Mason's office one morning had obviously left some place in a great hurry, for under her fur coat she wore only a thin dressing gown and she was fighting mad . She wanted mason to take action against her employer's stepson, a particularly obnoxious young man who had knocked her down when she resisted his advances. The story she told led Perry and his resourceful secretary, Della Street, straight into an investigation of queer doings at the home of Jason Bartsler Perry was sympathetic. he took action at once - and got $1,500.00 for Diana and a $500.00 fee for himself. Case dismissed. But the very next night, the girl who shared Diana's apartment was found murdered. At the scene of the crime, the police found two vital clues: the murder weapon, a pistol covered with Diana's fingerprints, and her bag containing a receipt for his services, signed "Perry Mason per Della Street". Two more blondes serve to confuse the plot still further and matters are not helped by a slight case of baby snatching. Now Perry mason really had a case!

The Case of The Gold digger's Purse is a mystery of a wealthy man, Harrington Faulkner who is infatuated with his rare black gold fish called The Veiltail Moor Telescope. He wants to save his fishes from a deadly disease at any cost. Sally Madison, the gorgeous Gold Digger, has a boyfriend that has a cure for the disease which he invented which can cure the fish. In order to help her seriously ill boyfriend who is suffering from TB Sally sets up a deal with Harrington Faulkner. But her plans go haywire when the fish mysteriously disappear and Faulkner is murdered. Perry Mason is compelled to defend the client, Sally Madison, of whose innocence he is not confident in order to save Della Street, his secretary from going to jail.

Arthur Cartright's official complaint about a neighbor's noisy dog leads Perry Mason and his associate into a case involving a poisoned police dog, a missing wife, and murder

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.

You do not expect to find an empty closed tin between your tins of preserves. But that is what Mrs. Gentrie finds in her basement - and even though she tries to dismiss it, it seems to be important for her sister in law. Meanwhile a man is killed in the house next door (or so it looks - no body is recovered) and another neighbor calls Mason for something that he does not want to disclose. Perry is intrigued so he goes there - and hears a story of old partnership and China, a missing heir and a cranky old man. The client is absolutely annoying - both for the lawyer and for the reader. And something in the story sounds fishy. The code that is found in the empty tin does not help clarify things. Then a call comes. And Perry Mason ends up finding a body (but decides to leave Drake to report it - which the detective is not very happy about). Before long, Della and Mason will find another body and a link to arms smuggling in the Far East (with WWII already started outside of the US, that has long repercussions for the situation in the world). Add a love story (or 2), some innocent love and some not so innocent one, a heiress that resurfaces and dead men coming back from life complete the story of the mystery. Tragg and Mason work together to some extent but because of where Perry shows up and mainly when, they both play their own games. And that almost makes the problem unsolvable. At the end, the truth end up being in front of everyone's eyes - it comes down to one wrong assumption. It is a nicely constructed story - and I want to see where the stories will go when the war really starts.