Published in 1934, this is one of the early Perry Mason books. As is other of the early novels, Perry is a bit less polished than he is in the later stories. He is more willing to take chances and push the legality of the things he does, and seems a bit more aggressive than in the later books.
In this story, a woman comes to Perry to get some help for a "friend" of hers. She needs to know how long a man needs to be missing before his wife can have him declared dead so she can marry again. Perry tries to force the woman to admit that there is no friend, but is talking about herself. She gets annoyed and leaves, but forgets her purse, which contains a gun. Perry gets worried, and sets out to discover everything he and Paul Drake, his friendly private detective, can find out.
Turns out that the woman, Rhoda, was married to a man who made a habit of marrying naive young women and walking off with their money and not coming back. Rhoda, a nurse, has just married one of her patients, the son of a wealthy man, when her first husband shows up to blackmail her. Conveniently, he ends up murdered, with Rhoda the prime suspect.
Perry has to outwit the District Attorney to prove his client innocent, which, of course, he does in his usual flashy manner.
Enjoyed the book quite a bit. Looking forward to reading more of the Mason books.
This is part of my 2014 Vintage Mystery BINGO Challenge--Golden--O--Book with woman in title.
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