Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Horrified Heirs by Erle Stanley Gardner


Rating – 6 / 10

What I like most about these mysteries is that they are a little different from the normal pulp fiction novels like Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys. Perry Mason is a lawyer and the courtroom battles are way too good. I just love the cross-examination of various witnesses and the way Mason gets to his conclusions by twisting the words of the witnesses. Also, in most of these Perry Mason mysteries, the culprit/killer is a very prominent person who was in focus almost all of the time. What I mean to say is that unlike other books in which the killer is someone whom one could never have expected, the killer here is mostly the one who is one of the suspects of the murder (and of course, he is not Mason’s client).
This story revolved around the murder of Mrs. Lauretta Trent whose property is up for grabs and the heirs are fighting for it. In the middle of all those heirs, a typist Ms. Virginia Baxter is stuck and is accused of the murder. She somehow escapes a lot of charges and later it is found out that it was the heirs who had committed the murder (just as one would have thought initially!).

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