title: The Case of the Velvet Claws
author:  Erle Stanley Gardner 
description: I started reading Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason mysteries over thirty years ago, long before I ever imagined that I would be working in New York publishing -- and specifically for the longtime paperback reprinter of Mr. Gardner. Like so many other people my age, I also grew up with the Perry Mason television series starring Raymond Burr. And Raymond Burr has always been (and always will be) in my mind's eye as I read the novels. Considering how popular the legal thriller genre became with Grisham, Turow, et al., I guess we owe Erle Stanley Gardner (also a lawyer-turned-novelist) a debt of gratitude for starting the franchise so many years ago. (THE CASE OF THE VELVET CLAWS was Perry Mason's debut, back in 1933.) Mr. Gardner died in 1970, and Raymond Burr in 1993; but in the novels (now recently reissued in colorful vintage packages by Ballantine), Perry Mason lives!<br /><br />--Joe Blades, Associate Publisher
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
    
  
  SHARPENED CLAWS
  
  
  A NOVEL
  
    
  
    
  
  PEYTON BOGUE
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Copyright © 2020 Peyton Bogue
  
  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part
  in any form.  
    
  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real
  people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places,
  and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblances to
  actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.  
    
  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or
  transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
  recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.  
    
  For further inquiries, please address all correspondence to
  contact@peytonboguebooks.com  
    
  ISBN-13: 9798696262161  
    
  Front cover designed by Paweł Czerwiński  
  Back cover designed by Emma Tamashiro  
    
  Library of Congress Control Nu