Erle Stanley Gardner

Marilyn Marlow has inherited a good deal of money from her mother. But the money originated with another will-that of her mother's wealthy employer. Now his relatives are contesting the will, and it's Rose Keeling, the key witness to its signing, whose mind they will need to sway. When Rose is murdered, sleuthing lawyer Perry Mason must navigate a twisted case involving a personal ad that casts a cloud of suspicion over his client, Miss Marlow, in...

"Erle Stanley Gardner was not just the creator of Perry Mason -- at the time of his death, he was the best-selling American author of all time, with hundreds of millions of books in print. Among those books were the 29 cases of the brash, irresistible detective team of Bertha Cool and Donald Lam. Last year, Hard Case Crime brought out the first new Cool and Lam novel in decades, THE KNIFE SLIPPED, lost for 77 years after Gardner's publisher refused...

"Lost for more than 75 years, The Knife Slipped was meant to be the second book in the series, but shelved when Gardner's publisher objected to (among other things) Bertha Cool's tendency to "talk tough, swear, smoke cigarettes, and try to gyp people." But this tale of adultery and corruption, of double-crosses and triple identities--however shocking for 1939--shines today as a glorious present from the past, a return to the heyday of private eyes...