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"The Case of the Irate Witness," the mystery which is the star of this collection of 4 novelettes, is the only one that the incomparable Erle Stanley Gardner ever wrote featuring Perry Mason in short story form. Each of the stories revolves around the subject of stolen jewels and each story is a gem in itself.

Take a no-holds-barred proxy war for a rich Texas oil company, with Jerry Conway, its young president, fighting for survival. Add a beautiful woman in a mudpack and not much else who gives up a freshly fired .38 to Conway before she shows him the door. Top it off with the body of another young woman with a bullet in her chest fired by the same gun, and you have the recipe for the perfect murder - and the perfect frame-up.

Ellen Robb does more than just sing for her supper - she also dances and sells cigarettes in a two-bit gambling parlor in a one-horse town. But when she hits a sour note with her scheming employer by refusing to help fleece a fat-cat customer in a crooked card game, she finds herself out of all three jobs. That's when she sings her song of woe to Perry Mason, who promises to turn her blues into greenbacks with the help of his crack team, Della Street, and Paul Drake, and a hefty lawsuit.

Perry Mason had no hesitation in defending Albert Brogan, a broke ex-salesman against a charge of robbery. He's counting on the testimony of the nightclub hostess Martha Lavina to clear him. She had most of the requirements for a good professional hostess, and one was an innocent face. That, plus various other attractions, made her a formidable challenge as she faced Perry Mason on the witness stand.

Do birds of a feather plot murder together? When notorious playboy Arthur Cushing is murdered, Belle Adrian suspects that her daughter, Carlotta, is the killer, and Carlotta suspects her mother of the crime.

Thirty days ago, I received an internship with a design firm in LA. One day ago, I kissed a hot businessman in a swanky bar and then left him with a fake name and number. Today, that sexy stranger is my new boss, and he's not too happy when he finds out my real identity. But that doesn't change the fire that lit between us, and now I have six weeks of trying to resist Brody Jensen. He might be out of my league, but I'd be out of my mind not to give in to the chemistry threatening to consume us.

Young Marjorie Clune's best asset is her greatest misfortune: a pair of exquisite legs. They attract the perfect heel, a self-professed movie promoter named Frank Patton, whose scam seems even more flawless than Marjorie's lissome limbs. When the hype clears, the local chamber of commerce is many dollars poorer, Marjorie's been hung out to dry - and Patton's been found with the knife of Marjorie's lover implanted in his chest....

Nash Bostwick is the sexy, playboy lead guitarist of the world renowned band, Meltdown. He doesn't do love, because love only leads to pain. Then he meets Rowan.... Rowan Burns is running. Her secrets are deep and her past is deadly. She doesn't have time for love, nor does she want it. Then she meets Nash.... When Nash and Rowan finally take a chance on love, a family tragedy threatens to derail Nash's career. In his search for answers he pushes Rowan away. By the time Nash realizes what he's done, it might just be too late....

I escaped a brutal past. Created a life I loved. But when your fake proposal with your one-night stand ends up plastered all over the internet, suddenly you're right back where you started. Fighting for my life and the future I deserved. Only this time, I wasn't sure I'd survive.

All I need is a place to hide for a few weeks. The paparazzi were on my case 24/7 and I needed a bit of breathing room—an escape from the madness—before the media frenzy begins. Sure, I could have gone to a secluded cabin in the woods—but I didn't want to be bored out of my mind. I'd seen enough wide open spaces as a kid from Texas to last me a lifetime. So instead, I let my sports agent hook me up with a modest house in the burbs where we didn't think anyone would find me hiding in plain sight.

Millie has just served a long sentence for a murder she didn’t commit. It’s her identical twin sister Eve who was the killer...and the person who framed her. Millie is willing to forgive Eve and hopes they can still be loving sisters. But when she is released, instead of welcoming her, Eve coldly rejects her. Now Millie only wants one thing: revenge.

Trinity was just trying to get to Temecula to see her cousin and start her new life. What she didn’t do was plan accordingly, and she ran out of gas in the middle of the desert on her way. When an insanely hot biker takes pity on her, or rather insists on helping her, her brain says no, but her body says yes.

When a fleet of unmanned aerial drones disappears, the U.S. Vice President turns to Matt Garrett, still nursing the wounds he suffered in the Philippines. As Matt leaps into action, a terrorist commandeers Garrett's jet and a former Iraqi General with a startling link to Garrett's brother emerges from hiding. Matt discovers that international terrorists have kidnapped the world's leading expert on nanotechnology, who has enabled the missing Predators to locate, track, swarm, and kill...all by themselves.

Joan Kirby doesn't believe her husband's story about picking up a stranded woman in the middle of the night and dropping her off at a hotel. She asks Perry Mason to cross-examine him. Mason uncovers a much murkier trail involving murder, illegal adoption, stolen narcotics and blackmail.

Justice Wallington knows how to harness his strength and intimidating size - skills he put to good use first in the MMA cage and now as a bodyguard at the Body Armor agency. But no opponent has ever left him feeling as off balance as his new client, heiress Fallon Wade. Far from a spoiled princess, she's sweet and intriguingly innocent. It's a risk-free assignment - until he's required to fake a relationship with her in order to blend in.

Aspiring actress Stephane Olger just wants to be in pictures. But she may end up in mug shots instead when she gets herself caught up in a crime. Shortly after quitting her job and moving to Hollywood, she is picked up by a well-dressed man while hitchhiking. The man loses control of the car and they end up in a horrible accident. Both Stephane and the driver escape unscathed but the strange man flees the scene leaving Stephane to face a charge of manslaughter.

After catching his shady son-in-law, Jack Hardisty, in the act of embezzling, wealthy banker Vincente Blane plans to hang him out to dry. Then murder turns Blane's restful mountain retreat into Hardisty's final resting place. When the evidence points to wronged wife Millicent, her father makes a point of calling in Perry Mason. And it's up to the legendary legal eagle to unravel the case's most baffling mystery: a buried clock at the murder scene.

Platinum blonde Veronica Dale is arrested on a charge of vagrancy. Yet, she has a hotel reservation in her name. Addison, head of a department store, booked the room for her and is now being blackmailed. Perry Mason can't decide who is hiding what. Then comes murder - and one of Perry Mason's toughest trials.

Leese Phelps's road hasn't been an easy one, but it's brought him to the perfect job - working for the elite Body Armor security agency. And what his newest assignment lacks in size, she makes up for in fire and backbone. But being drawn to Catalina Nicholson is a dangerous complication, especially since it could be the very man who hired Leese who's threatening her. What Catalina knows could get her killed. But who'd believe the sordid truth about her powerful stepfather?

Successful florist Mildred Faulkner finds that the flower business is no bed of roses when arch-competitor Harry Peavis secretly buys stock in her small, family-owned business. To keep from being muscled out of her own company, Mildred goes to Perry Mason. But the legal eagle is stymied when Mildred's company is plundered by her brother-in-law to pay off gambling debts. The money trail leads to a nightclub hostess and her boss. When both are found dead, the trail of evidence leads back to Mildred.