Creator of Perry Mason, Cool & Lam (A. A. Fair), and Doug Selby (1889 - 1970)
The self-taught trial lawyer who revolutionized American detective fiction. Master of forensic deduction, procedural realism, and unforgettable courtroom cross-examinations.
A married woman using a false name comes to Perry Mason after being photographed leaving a raided speakeasy. When her blackmailer husband is shot dead, she attempts to frame Mason for the murder.
A sullen heiress seeks Mason's advice to retain her inheritance without complying with her late uncle's restrictive marriage conditions. When her guardian is found beaten to death, Fran is charged with murder.
A crooked promoter runs fraudulent beauty contests across the country promoting girls with beautiful legs, taking their money and vanishing. When he is discovered stabbed with a carving knife, Marjorie is the prime suspect.
An eccentric neighbor complains of a neighbor's continuously howling dog, calling it an omen of death, and asks Mason to draft a will leaving his fortune to his neighbor's wife. Shortly after, a man is found shot dead.
Donald Lam, a disbarred young attorney weighing under a hundred pounds, applies for a job at the B. Cool Detective Agency. Bertha Cool, an overweight, profane woman whose fee is 5 a day and expenses, sends him to serve a subpoena on a witness in an Arizona murder case.
Bertha Cool is hired by a shadowy client who calls himself Smith to locate the long-lost wife of an aspiring city politician. Donald traces her to a small valley town where a corrupt municipal machine tries to run him out of town.
A wealthy scion is being fleeced by a high-stakes crooked bridge and poker syndicate. Donald is hired to figure out how the cards are marked, but walks into an oil stock fraud and a murder.
A prospective bride disappears from a luxury California resort hours before her wedding, taking an expensive diamond ring. Donald trails her into the neon casino underworld of Reno, Nevada.
In 1948, Erle Stanley Gardner organized the nation's leading medical examiners, forensic pathologists, private investigators, and polygraph inventors into a pro-bono tribunal. Operating through Argosy Magazine, the panel reviewed cases of impoverished prisoners who had exhausted all appeals, freeing dozens of innocent men from death row and life imprisonment.
Perry Mason, Della Street, Paul Drake, Hamilton Burger, Lt. Tragg, Bertha Cool, Donald Lam, and Doug Selby.
Explore Profiles →The 9-novel Madison County courtroom series pitting honest young prosecutor Doug Selby against slippery defense attorney A.B. Carr.
Examine Selby Files →Track your reading progress across all 120 novels. Progress is saved locally in your browser with JSON export/import.
Open Casebook Shelf →From defending marginalized immigrants in Oxnard to dictating millions of words a year at his Temecula ranch.
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