This one rests on the rather dubious premise that two people living in adjacent houses can't find any better way to communicate than by scratching coded messages inside empty preserve tins and sealing them up. I think Gardner was being rather overwhelmed by technology here, but once we swallow the notion the rest follows fairly smoothly. The Gentrie family rent a room to the mysterious Delman Steele and a garage to the equally mysterious Red Hocksley, who lives in an adjacent house. It is in the basement connecting the garage and the Gentrie house that the mysterious empty tin is found. Suspicion falls on the Gentries when shots are heard from the adjacent house and Hocksley and his housekeeper both disappear. Elston Karr, the tenant above Hocksley, hires Mason to protect his interests; he wants peace and quiet while he sets about locating the daughter of his deceased partner Wickford.
The TV show based on this story threw out about four-fifths of the plot, including the empty tin, and I think they were right to do so. I lost track fairly early in the piece when it became clear that everybody was lying about something. But the story revives when Perry imitates Tragg's brother so that he and Della can do some housebreaking down in San Francisco. I got the impression that Gardner was trying to cram too much into this and it would have been better spread over two or three books; there also isn't much of Mason's distinctive legal style. I give this one a C.
Jon.
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