The new Perry Mason murder mystery has ...terrible pace... ...stirring court-room drams... ...a duck that can’t swims... John L. Witherspoon was accustomed to having — and paying — his way. There was a definite reason why he didn’t approve his daughter Lois’ love affair, and he hired Perry Mason to break it up. If Mason would investigate an 18-year-old murder, Witherspoon was sure the results would change his daughter’s mind. Perry took the job because several things about the old case intrigued him. And because he had a hunch that the answer to it might save Lois’ happiness. Mason, Delia Street and Paul Drake went to El Templo, Witherspoon’s great California ranch; they went into action at once, and soon they smoked out a string of crooked plots, brought several shadowy figures into too strong a light, and ran plump into murder-up-to-date with Mason caught in the middle