The Case of the Buried Clock

Rating:
Summary: Mason's case was almost hopeless
Review: The buried clock was 25 minutes slow... or was it 35 minutes fast? Mason's explanation of the time difference was that it was keeping sidereal, or star time, which gains 4 minutes a day. He played it up big in the newspapers
to create a juristication battle between two counties, but the clock disappeared, the juristication was settled, and Mason's client went on trial for the murder of her embezzling husband.

The circumstantial evidence was tight, and Mason's only hope was to try and introduce the clock, once again found buried and set on sidereal time. However, there was no legal doctrine he could find to introduce it into evidence... until Mason realized he'd walked into his own baited trap.

Rating:
Summary: Mason's case was almost hopeless
Review: The buried clock was 25 minutes slow... or was it 35 minutes fast? Mason's explanation of the time difference was that it was keeping sidereal, or star time, which gains 4 minutes a day. He played it up big in the newspapers
to create a juristication battle between two counties, but the clock disappeared, the juristication was settled, and Mason's client went on trial for the murder of her embezzling husband.

The circumstantial evidence was tight, and Mason's only hope was to try and introduce the clock, once again found buried and set on sidereal time. However, there was no legal doctrine he could find to introduce it into evidence... until Mason realized he'd walked into his own baited trap.

Rating:
Summary: Another Mystery from the Master
Review: This story is set not in Perry Mason's urban California, but in the rural hills where author Gardner loved to live. No dates are mentioned, but the presence of a wounded soldier says WW II. Tire rationing is mentioned, plus the implications of owning two new tires. Doctors made house calls. Vincent Blane, store owner and banker, has two daughters. One is married to Jake Hardisty, the other is seeing Harley Raymond, a Purple Heart winner. We find out that Jack Hardisty has stolen a huge sum of money from his father-in-law's bank. Adele Blane and Harley are at the cabin when Jack arrives; they leave. When Harley returns, he later finds Jack's body in a bedroom. No murder weapon, or money. Other people are brought into this story, neighbors who could be suspects. The police are called and begin their investigation. Perry Mason is hired to defend Millicent, Jack's widow, who had been seen near the cabin and has no alibi. Her .38 revolver was found near the cabin. Was it the murder weapon?

When the trial begins, the autopsy surgeon testifies that scopolamine was found in Jake's body. It is used as a "truth serum". The estimated time of death was between 7:30pm and 10:00pm. Can the age of a person be determined from a "spectacle lens"? Were the other people who were around at the time of the murder just innocently passing by? Finding two revolvers complicates the case, as well as the buried alarm clock. But Perry Mason figures out what really happened. A negative in a camera is not definitive proof, unless you can be sure when it was taken. The trial is adjourned, and Millicent is not convicted. Can an alarm clock do more than tell time?