The Case of the Nervous Accomplice (1955) – Mason is hired by a woman whose husband is having an affair to wreck it, then defends her on a murder charge.

A tale of two sisters, family fortune, and murder: "Millions of Americans never seem to tire of Gardner's thrillers" (The New York Times). Beautiful Sylvia Bain Atwood is overseeing her ailing father's estate while her sister serves as his caregiver. But their father's fortune has shadowy roots—and now one of his creditors is blackmailing the family. When the situation escalates to murder, defense lawyer Perry Mason will have his hands full in this mystery in Edgar Award–winning author Erle Stanley Gardner's classic, long-running series, which has sold three hundred million copies and serves as the inspiration for the HBO show starring Matthew Rhys and Tatiana Maslany.

The Kid Clips a Coupon [Patent Leather Kid] · Erle Stanley GardnerDetective Fiction Weekly [v 84 #2, April 21, 1934] (Red Star News Company, 10¢, 144pp, pulp) In many of Erle Stanley Gardner's pulp tales, such as the Ed Jenkins and Patent Leather Kid stories, the protagonist is a sympathetic crook who preys on really bad crooks. He learns about some scheme of theirs, then puts in plan his own counter operation, one that will delicately interfere with their work, prevent harm to the innocent, expose them to the police, and grab their loot. Both scheme and counter-scheme are complex and detailed, with several ingenious features. Oftentimes, in actual execution, things go somewhat wrong, and require still further adjustments. The Lester Leith tales Gardner wrote in the 1930's and 40's seem completely different. Gardner's Lester Leith stories contain puzzle plots. At least 4 of the 5 that have been reprinted out of the circa 75 Gardner wrote for Detective Fiction Weekly, in The Amazing Adventures of Lester Leith, a 1980 collection edited by Ellery Queen. The puzzle plots are usually fairly well done; in and of themselves, they could support a 15 page story of the kind Agatha Christie was so good at. On top of this, Gardner consistently adds another feature: the development of an elaborate con by Lester Leith, designed to both solve the crime, and steal the ill gotten gains of the criminal. This con job is full of surreal and baroque elements; it tends to be wild, comic and bizarre. This con job is very different from the-interfere-in-the-criminals'-scheme approach that Gardner used in his Ed Jenkins tales, or in the Patent Leather Kid story, "The Kid Clips a Coupon" (1934). Rather, it is a full fledge con. The reader is privy to elements Leith will use in the scheme, but not the scheme itself, and now has a second puzzle to unravel: what is Leith up to? These two puzzles interact in interesting ways, as they are both gradually unraveled by the story. Leith often explains the deductive logic he used to deduce the criminal and understand his crime. This deduction seems almost as relentlessly logical as Sherlock Holmes or Ellery Queen, and shows a surprising commitment by Gardner to the full paradigm of the puzzle plot, not just a mystery, but also its fair play solution through deduction from clues. While there is a detective (Leith) solving the first crime; there is no detective figure solving the mystery of Leith's activities. These activities simply unroll in front of the reader's eyes. 

The Case of the Phantom Fortune (1964) – Mason is hired to protect a man's wife from an unknown blackmailer. However, while Mason's ingenious plan to ruin the blackmailer works, he ends up having to defend the man after he is prosecuted for murder.

The Case of the Negligent Nymph (1950) – A young woman swims to Mason's canoe to escape a vicious watchdog, then is accused of jewel theft and murder. But it is the dog who provides the key to the murder. Split from:Anthology containing: 33. The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom34. The Case of the Cautious Coquette35. The Case of the Negligent Nymph36. The Case of the One-Eyed Witness37. The Case of the Fiery Fingers38. The Case of the Angry Mourner39. The Case of the Moth-Eaten Mink40. The Case of the Grinning Gorilla

The Edgar Award–winning author's tale of a missing woman and a crime ring, featuring the lawyer and detective who inspired the HBO limited series. Defense lawyer Perry Mason needs a temporary typist, but the one he hires turns out to be more temporary than expected. When she disappears, leaving a couple of diamonds behind in her haste, Mason winds up taking on a new client: a gem importer in his office building who's been charged with smuggling and murder. But if Mason's going to untangle this case, finding the typist is key . . . This mystery is part of Edgar Award–winning author Erle Stanley Gardner's classic, long-running Perry Mason series, which has sold three hundred million copies and serves as the inspiration for the HBO show starring Matthew Rhys and Tatiana Maslany. "Millions of Americans never seem to tire of Gardner's thrillers." —The New York Times

The Case of the One-Eyed Witness (1950) – When a mysterious woman hires Mason over the telephone, he must defend her in a case that involves an adoption racket and her husband's murder. A woman in an eyepatch is a key witness.

The Case of the Substitute Face (1938) – During a dark and stormy night aboard ship, a man goes missing. A portrait photograph is mysteriously changed out of a frame. Mason must solve the mystery to save a life.DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAYWhen Perry Mason meets Mrs. Carl Newberry on a vacation cruise, she is a woman desperately interested in saving face. For she and her husband are newcomers to the ranks of the rich--and they're sparing no expense at helping their daughter, Belle, make a successful splash in the right social circles. But Mrs. Newberry suspects that her husband embezzled their new-gotten gain--and she turns to Mason for legal advice.When Mr. Newberry dies suddenly and his wife is left holding his hefty money belt, Perry wonders if his grieving client is really a black widow. . . .

The Case of the Fan Dancer's Horse (1947) – There are two gorgeous fan dancers with the same name, two blood-soaked ostrich fans, a samurai sword, and a horse with a very unusual addition to its saddle.

The Case of the Hesitant Hostess (1953) – A hostess at a nightclub seems determined to convince a jury that Mason's client committed armed robbery, so he goes over her story in painstaking detail on the stand.Perry Mason has no hesitation about defending penniless ex-salesman Albert Brogan against a charge of armed robbery. That's because nightclub hostess Inez Kaylor's testimony will guarantee that the accusations against the alleged hold-up mon won't hold up in court. But when the hostess has the bad manners to stand Mason up instead of taking the stand, Perry's defense may not have a leg to stand on.Failure to find the AWOL witness in forty-eight hours could cost an innocent mon his liberty and his life, when the prosecution serves up a shocking new charge of murder! But the high-tailing hostess has a host of her own secrets, and a cast of shady characters -- from Los Angeles to Las Vegas -- is determined to keep them (and her) hidden. It all adds up to a whirlwind working weekend for Mason: if he cant get the goods -- and the girl -- by Monday morning when the gavel falls, so will the ax...From the Inside FlapPerry Mason has no hesitation about defending penniless ex-salesman Albert Brogan against a charge of armed robbery. That's because nightclub hostess Inez Kaylor's testimony will guarantee that the accusations against the alleged hold-up mon won't hold up in court. But when the hostess has the bad manners to stand Mason up instead of taking the stand, Perry's defense may not have a leg to stand on.Failure to find the AWOL witness in forty-eight hours could cost an innocent mon his liberty and his life, when the prosecution serves up a shocking new charge of murder! But the high-tailing hostess has a host of her own secrets, and a cast of shady characters -- from Los Angeles to Las Vegas -- is determined to keep them (and her) hidden. It all adds up to a whirlwind working weekend for Mason: if he cant get the goods -- and the girl -- by Monday morning when the gavel falls, so will the ax...