This is the first Perry Mason story written by Erle Stanley Gardner, published in 1933. This is the first and only Perry Mason story I have read. I've heard that the tone of these earlier works are a little 'tougher' than the stories written in the following decades. The first half of the book certainly follows the hard-boiled tradition, as Mason acts a more like a private dick than a lawyer. But a lawyer he is, and the second half settles into a court-room drama. What does Perry Mason have up his sleeve that will rescue a young lady and her new husband from charges of murdering her uncle to ensure her inheritance?

An enjoyable, light read, although Gardner's writing is a little pedestrian and the build-up to the court case is a little long, with the trial itself resolved a little perfunctorily.

Frances was accustomed to doing things her way. However, under the terms of her father's spendthrift trust, she was powerless to marry until age 25 unless she risked being cut out completely. She retained Perry Mason to break the will, despite it's iron-clad terms which gave her uncle absolute power over the fortune in the trust.

The will did leave a loophole - if her uncle died before the terms expired, Frances would get the money absolutely. So it was completely in her favor when Frances's uncle was murdered - until she found herself as the prime suspect.

This was Mason's first recorded trial, though not the first book (The Case of the Velvet Claws was the first, and had no trial scene). He handles it expertly, but it all comes down to a typical Perry Mason trick to confuse a witness. It works, but not as well as some of his later works.

A masterful reading of a wonderful novel. Unfortunately, this abridgement cuts out so much that the storyline becomes almost nonsensical. In the original book Mason gets two eyewitnesses to change their story by convincing them that they were mistaken in what they thought they heard. In this condensed version, the eyewitnesses change their story after simply being asked, "Are you sure you are not mistaken?" The book was better.