This is one of the early Perry Mason novels by Erle Stanley Gardner, first published in 1942. This has an unusual setting for Perry Mason, as he and Della are taking a short vacation in the Palm Springs area.
While sitting in the hotel lobby, Mason is approached by wealthy John L.Witherspoon with a problem he hopes Mason can help him with. His daughter has a boyfriend she wants to marry, and Witherspoon has had him investigated. His daughter, Lois, and her boyfriend, Marvin, believe that Marvin was kidnapped from somewhere back East by the people he believed to be his parents, Sarah and Horace Adams, because on her deathbed, Sarah confesses to Marvin.
However, Witherspoon's investigation shows that Marvin was not kidnapped, but his father, Horace Adams, had been convicted of murdering his business partner. Witherspoon is of the opinion that murdering people can be an inherited trait, and so doesn't want his daughter to marry the son of a murderer, and is determined to do whatever is necessary to stop that from happening.
While at the Witherspoon's home, Marvin had shown a trick where he causes a duck to drown (using a new invention--detergent!), although Marvin does not let the duck actually drown. This seems to support the theory that he could have murderous genes.
Mason tries to discover if Adams was, in fact, the murderer, or merely the victim of a poor defense counsel. During this investigation, another, current, murder is discovered, and it ends up with Witherspoon being a suspect. As is usual, Mason figures out who had caused the death of not only the current victim, but also the previous victim.
An enjoyable read, although like many of the early Mason books, he seems more ready to bend, if not break, the laws to get to the truth.
This is part of my 2014 Vintage Mystery BINGO Challenge--Golden--D--Mystery that involves water.
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