Erle Stanley Gardner Books in Order

Arlene Ferris resists the unwanted advances of her employer's powerful son, only to become accused of killing him. Perry Mason's faith in his client faces a difficult test when the physical evidence appears to support the murder charge.

Donald Lam investigates leaks of confidential business information while Bertha Cool urges him to avoid dangerous assignments. A murder at a motel connects their respectable client to another investigation involving a prowler who watches the guests.

A routine investigation of an insurance claim leads Donald Lam and Bertha Cool toward murder. Lam poses as a former convict to infiltrate a criminal gang, risking his safety as the assignment grows beyond a simple car accident.

Gwynn Elston discovers that her best friend's husband already has another wife and family. When he is found murdered, the revelation places her under suspicion, and Perry Mason must defend her against a charge of killing him.

Secretary Susan Fisher seeks Perry Mason's help after finding her employer's young son with a box full of cash. A wealthy mine owner's safety becomes part of a case that leaves Mason facing apparently overwhelming evidence against his client.

Dianne Alder is paid to gain weight for a modeling contract that also claims half her income. Perry Mason suspects another motive behind the arrangement, then must defend her when a murder turns suspicion toward his unusual client.

Nancy Banks asks Perry Mason to cash winning betting tickets linked to money her brother embezzled. A dispute over the proceeds becomes a murder case, with evidence suggesting someone has manipulated the apparent time of death.

Dorrie Ambler asks Perry Mason to document her identity because she resembles a wealthy heiress. What begins with an examination of an identifying scar grows into a murder investigation, where distinguishing the two women becomes crucial.

Art student Maxine Lindsay learns that a millionaire's new painting may be a forgery, drawing her into threats and deception. Perry Mason becomes involved when her mentor is found murdered with her gun, turning disputed art into a criminal case.

Carleton Allen hires Bertha Cool and Donald Lam after a night with another woman coincides with a motel murder. Lam doubts his account, but the tempting fee pulls the detectives into a dangerous tangle of blackmail and deception.

Donald Lam and Bertha Cool agree to provide continuous protection for a secretary receiving threatening messages. The arrangement raises Lam's suspicions, and investigating the people behind it brings the detectives into a case involving murder and conflicting stories.

Gardner recounts his travels through Baja California in search of whales off its coast. The account follows his adventures in the region, combining encounters with marine wildlife and the experiences of exploring a remote desert landscape.

Linda Calhoun fears her wealthy aunt's new suitor intends to kill her for money. Perry Mason investigates, but when the couple elopes and the suitor is murdered, he must defend the woman he had hoped to protect.

A wealthy man asks Perry Mason to protect his stepdaughter from blackmail involving his past. Murder aboard a yacht and evidence recovered from the sea complicate a case shaped by family secrets and conflicting efforts to protect loved ones.

Gardner explores the western American desert with companions using helicopters, motorcycles and four-wheel-drive vehicles. Their expeditions seek lost mines, semiprecious stones and traces of old forts, revealing the practical challenges and discoveries of traveling through difficult country.

Adelle Hastings is seeking an amicable divorce when her missing purse is recovered with a fired revolver inside. Her husband's murder turns the weapon into evidence against her, leaving Perry Mason to investigate how the purse became a trap.

Virginia Baxter can authenticate a wealthy widow's will, but someone tries to implicate her in drug smuggling. When the widow is murdered, Perry Mason must unravel a scheme involving poisoning, inheritance and evidence pointing toward his client.

Horace Warren pays Perry Mason to observe guests at a dinner and investigate a fingerprint. Suspecting his wife is being blackmailed, he draws Mason into a mystery where her concealed past may explain the present threat.

Homer Breckinridge hires Donald Lam to examine an insurance claim, delighting Bertha Cool with the prospect of respectable work. Lam soon discovers the investigation is dangerous, putting him at risk while he tries to understand what lies behind it.

Clayton Dawson hires Donald Lam and Bertha Cool to protect his family's reputation by watching an unruly daughter. The apparently limited assignment soon brings murder and blackmail, forcing Lam to confront dangers hidden beneath the client's request.

Daphne Shelby brings Perry Mason a check from her uncle, who wants her to withdraw the money immediately. Finding the account empty turns a simple banking request into an investigation of what has happened during Daphne's absence.

A young trustee struggles to manage a headstrong woman's inheritance while his feelings for her complicate the arrangement. Perry Mason works to defend him against allegations of embezzlement, but a murder makes the financial dispute far more dangerous.

Waitress Katherine Ellis discovers that her aunt's claims of poverty do not fit the cash hidden at home. Accused first of theft and then of assaulting her aunt, Katherine needs Perry Mason to unravel the family's suspicious arrangements.

Bertha Cool accepts a profitable blackmail assignment despite Donald Lam's misgivings. Worthless photographs, a fatal dinner, and a series of double-crosses turn the investigation into a murder case with Lam himself positioned as the obvious suspect.

Former beauty queen Ellen Adair seeks Perry Mason's help as a secret from her past becomes central to an inheritance dispute. When a nurse with damaging information is murdered, Ellen's effort to secure her son's future puts her under suspicion.

Bertha Cool welcomes a client seeking an investigation into suspected insurance fraud, but Donald Lam doubts the assignment is straightforward. Searching for evidence draws him into a trap whose apparent respectability conceals a threat to the detectives themselves.

Selma Anson's planned marriage alarms her wealthy fiancé's heirs, who accuse her of poisoning her first husband. Perry Mason must separate their financial motives from the evidence as his client's disappearance makes defending her increasingly difficult.

Gardner recounts houseboat journeys through the Sacramento Delta, exploring its inland waterways and changing opportunities for recreation. Personal observations and photographs describe the region's variety, reflecting his enthusiasm for a landscape best experienced from the water.

A woman carrying a bag of cash asks Perry Mason to remain available but refuses to explain why or even reveal her name. Her secrecy and disregard for legal advice draw him into a dangerous web of blackmail.

A wealthy client's search for a missing man conceals a different interest in a missing woman. Donald Lam and Bertha Cool follow the apparently minor assignment into a larger mystery involving deception and an unusual smuggling operation.

This collection combines a Perry Mason mystery about a murder victim's unexplained crimson kiss with other early crime stories. Murder, jewel theft, and questions of fear and courage place different investigators and adventurers against deceptive opponents.

Perry Mason searches for a newly married woman whose disappearance follows a jewelry theft and soon brings a murder accusation. Collected alongside other short mysteries, the title story turns a husband's request for help into a dangerous investigation.

Morley Eden's dream home becomes a battleground when his contractor's former wife claims half the property and divides it with barbed wire. Perry Mason intervenes in the bizarre ownership dispute, only to find it connected to murder.

Four crime stories center on stolen jewels and the people drawn into their pursuit. In the title mystery, Perry Mason's fishing weekend is interrupted by a robbery investigation that leads him to defend a man accused of the crime.

Mae Farr asks Perry Mason to protect her from wealthy playboy Penn Wentworth, who claims she forged his signature. When Wentworth is shot dead, Mason must defend a client whose account of their relationship conflicts with the accusations against her.

Five stories follow Lester Leith, who solves crimes to recover thieves' spoils and donate the proceeds to charity after taking his fee. His unconventional methods pit a clever opportunist against criminals while keeping the police interested in his activities.

Seven early science fiction tales explore inventions and discoveries that challenge ordinary human limits. Space travel, invisibility, and intelligent ants protecting gold provide settings for adventures in which scientific possibilities create unexpected danger and opportunities for exploitation.

Adventure stories follow desert traveler Bob Zane through a Southwestern world shaped by gold fever and unfamiliar hazards. Prospectors and outsiders face deception, violence, and the consequences of misjudging a landscape whose dangers demand knowledge and caution.

Bob Zane narrates desert adventures involving gold seekers, treachery, and disputes over property and justice. These collected stories place experienced prospectors alongside vulnerable newcomers, showing how greed and ignorance can turn the search for fortune into danger.

Six connected stories follow Ed Jenkins, the fugitive known as the Phantom Crook. Wanted by authorities, he pursues his own code of justice through chases, escapes, and encounters with criminals while remaining outside the protection of respectable society.

This collection follows suave adventurer Paul Pry and Mugs Magoo, a one-armed former policeman with a photographic memory. Their unusual partnership brings them into crimes and schemes where sharp observation and resourcefulness matter more than conventional police methods.

Four stories feature Ed Jenkins, the Phantom Crook, pursuing his own version of justice in San Francisco's Chinatown. Operating outside the law, he confronts criminal schemes in adventures that combine mystery with the risks of life as an outlaw.

Six stories follow defense attorney Ken Corning and secretary Helen Vail as they confront corrupt political interests in York City. Murder accusations, unreliable witnesses, and manipulated investigations force them to pursue justice within a system working against their clients.

Paul Pry recruits former policeman Mugs Magoo into a partnership that investigates unusual crimes and retrieves stolen property for rewards. Their schemes rely on Pry's opportunism and Magoo's photographic memory, bringing them into conflict with underworld figures.

Patricia Craig’s international detective-story anthology spans classic and modern crime fiction from Britain, the United States, Europe, Japan, and beyond. The selection includes police procedurals, amateur sleuths, women detectives, and locked-room puzzles, with a story by Garry Disher.

Eleven collected pulp stories feature unconventional investigators and adventurers seeking justice beyond ordinary legal methods. A diplomatic rescue, an amateur thief's search for excitement, and a resourceful attorney's maneuvers illustrate different encounters with deception, crime, and danger.

Wealthy yacht owner Sidney Zoom ventures out to help people failed by the legal system. Assisted by secretary Vera Thurmond and his dog Rip, he uses inventive, barely lawful schemes to defend the vulnerable and challenge their oppressors.

A wealthy socialite disguises himself as the Patent Leather Kid to pursue adventure through crime in the Depression-era underworld. These stories pit his intelligence and appetite for risk against gangsters and an inspector determined to understand his motives.