The first Perry Mason book to feature Lieutenant Tragg -- an intelligent, sympathetic police investigator -- taking over from the ignorant bully Sergeant Holcomb.
Mildreth Faulkner and her sister Carla have split 90% of the shares in a flower shop business between them, with the remaining 10% going to an employee. Carla is ill, and her husband Bob, a gambler, is inveigled out of her shares by a crooked syndicate. The shares are on their way to Harry Peavis, who wants to take over the shops, when the go-between, Harvey Lynk, is killed and the share certificate disappears. Later one of Lynk's employees is found suffering from barbiturate poisoning. When the heat is turned on Bob and Carla, Mildreth hires Mason on her sister's behalf.
A fairly early Mason, with courtroom shenanigans taking a back seat to Mason's tireless investigations. There is little to distinguish the male characters, and a Dramatis Personae -- usually provided in Gardner's books, but omitted in this edition -- would have been useful. The Tragg of the books is described as 'about Mason's age and size', very different to the character played by Ray Collins in the TV show. It's nice to see him on the ball from the very start, and there are even a few moments when Gardner seems to be trying him out for a series of his own. It is Mason, however, who takes full control of the denouement.
Undistinguished but well up to Gardner's usual high standard.
Jon.
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