The Case of the Silent Partner

Book excerpt: Successful florist Mildreth Faulkner finds that the flower business is no bed of roses when her arch-competitor, Harry Peavis, secretly buys stock in her small, family-owned corporation. While Peavis proposes a partnership, Mildreth suspects he's really plotting a power play. So to keep the scurrilous shareholder from muscling her out, she seeks Perry Mason's expertise. But even the legendary legal eagle may be stymied when Mildreth's company is plundered by her ne'er-do-well brother-in-law to pay off a gambling debt. The money trail leads to a nightclub hostess and her crooked boss. And when one is poisoned, and the other murdered, the trail of evidence leads right back to Mildreth. Mason knows the feisty florist is no shrinking violet...but does she have the pluck to be a cold-blooded killer?