The Case of the Phantom Fortune

The 'Foreword' is dedicated to Shigeo Ogata MD, a professor of Legal Medicine in Kyoto Japan. His research on an unknown dead woman led to her recognition, and the to the man who killed her. This story begins with a new client, Horace Warren, who wants Perry Mason to attend a dinner and observe a person to judge his character. There is discussion of fingerprint identification. Warren wants his wife Lorna protected from a blackmailer; her past is a mystery (Chapter 1). Perry and Della join other guests at this dinner party, and are introduced (Chapter 3). [Is this 'hiding in plain sight'?] The fingerprints of the guests are recorded and checked out. They find one person had been arrested, but acquitted; it is Lorna Warren (she had worked for a man convicted of fraud). The police are interested in Collister Damon Gideon because they believe he has hidden funds. Smooth-talking Gideon shows up at Perry?s office, he knows about Lorna (Chapter 6). [This also explains how agents shadow a person of interest.] Gideon wants a 'donation' to help him disappear. But Perry has some trump cards he can use against Gideon (Chapter 7). Perry baits a hook to catch Gideon (Chapter 8). But Gideon disappears while being followed by six operatives (Chapter 9)! Perry's plan to scare Gideon away develops a flaw (Chapter 10). But Perry thinks of a sure-fire scheme to thwart this blackmailer (Chapter 11). But there is a surprise here when Lt. Tragg arrests Perry's client for Gideon's murder (Chapter 12). Now Horace Warren comes clean and tells all to Perry after he's arrested (Chapter 14). The police go to question Mrs. Warren, but Perry got there first and tells her to answer "no comment" (Chapter 15). Perry's scheme to scare Gideon away appears to back-fire (Chapter 16). District Attorney Hamilton Burger will complain to the Bar Association (Chapter 17). Perry finds out what happened to the fortune in the suitcase in Lorna's closet (Chapter 18). If both Horace and Lorna deny shooting Gideon, then who did? Chapter 19 discusses the recurring theme about the unreliability of eyewitness identification of a stranger viewed for a few seconds under stress. Perry may be charged with witness tampering for having a private detective question witnesses with the sketch of Gideon. One problem is the incomplete search of the crime scene. Then new evidence is found with a second search, but this crime scene had not been guarded (Chapter 20). The effect of this new evidence is the dismissal of the murder charge against Horace Warren (Chapter 21). In the last chapter, as in other cases, Perry Mason provides a solution to the mysteries. The past of Mrs. Warren is kept secret. Any person could make deposits to an account that wasn't theirs in those days. Perry deduces the solution from the facts given in earlier chapters. [I did wonder about that strange event after the hold-up.] I couldn't put this book down!

Horace Wallen retained Perry Mason to protect his wife from somebody who was trying to blackmail her. He provided a single clue, a fingerprint. Mason investigates, only to find that Lorna Wallen, the wife of Horace, made the fingerprint in question.Mason reveals what he knows about the ways to deal with a blackmailer; pay off (never works; the blackmailer always wants more), go to the police (wise in some cases), or kill the SOB. So he gets a police sketch of the blackmailer in question, then pays off to allow him to ditch the shadows of both the feds, and the government. After the blackmailer ditches his witnesses / alibis, Mason simply has his sketch shown to witnesses of major crimes, and scores a match. When shaken down for a "final payment", Mason just tells him that a police sketch identified him as an attempted killer. The end result- the blackmailer is killed, but Mason's client is picked as the killer. To win the case, Mason has to find the evidence require to both clear his client... and that of a witness tampering charge. He does both, in his usual manner.