The Case of the Gilded Lily

A chain of crime...which is the weakest link? That's what Perry Mason has to discover in The Case of the Gilded Lily.

Delbert and Harry Elston had this in common: neither of them ever seemed to be around.

Elston and Binney Denham had something more concrete in common - namely, a safety deposit box - but that appeared to be the extent of their partnership, because Denham and Geraldine Corning were the ones working together on this deal. And it was indicative of Geraldine's talent that she and Stewart G. Bedford got along so well, considering the fact that Bedford and Ann Roann were married.

But Ann Roann was not above suspicion and since she and Elsa Griffen wanted the same thing, Elsa wasn't the one to lay that suspicion to rest. And so, at the end of the chain, a corpse!

"The Case of the Gilded Lily is, as memory serves, unique among Erle Stanley Gardner's novels in that it starts off as a straight suspense story...with no reference to Perry Mason till a quarter of the way through the book. The tempo is less forceful than in Gardner's best; but Mason executes some neat maneuvers with 'lifted' fingerprints and produces a solution that surprised me." -Anthony Boucher, The New York Times

"This one starts in an office, but not Perry Mason's...Aside from this novelty, the yarn is regular Gardner, whisking from rich men's homes to Southern California's motels and back to court. But whose soul is so dead that it doesn't respond to that moment when the D.A.'s case is blown sky-high?" -L.G. Offord, San Francisco Chronicle

"On beam as usual." -Sergeant Cuff, Saturday Review

Bentley Library-Bound Standard Fiction Reprints are printed on high-quality 55-lb. book paper. The bindings are sewn, not glued, and each book is covered with a sturdy water-resistant Pyroxylin library binding. This high-quality construction ensures that these books will last for many years.

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