First came Perry Mason... then Douglas Selby the “D.A.”... and now TERRY CLANE, a new sleuth from America. Jacob Mandra had a million-dollar apartment on the fringe of Chinatown — and a reputation. Early one morning they found him dead. And a few hours later Terry Clane found himself in the District Attorney’s office — by request. Then the District Attorney began asking strange questions that Terry Clane didn’t care to answer, and when Terry finally sailed out of the D.A.’s office he realized that he and some of his friends were involved in the Mandra murder — up to their necks. But he was a brilliant young lawyer, had lived in the Far East, and knew how to apply Oriental wisdom to Occidental problems. Steeped in Chinese lore, he took life fatalistically and as a grand adventure. Terry Clane is one of the most exciting and successful characters Mr. Gardner has created. Using extraordinary methods to solve an extraordinary murder, he beats the D. A. to the punch in a mystery that is filled with surprise, cunning, and excitement. Mr. Gardner’s Chinatown background, incidentally, is authentic, and his plot is, as usual, as fast-moving and as tightly woven as any you will find in the galaxy of detective fiction