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: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Velvet Claws
  
  
  Velvet Claws
  
  
  CLEO CORDELL
  
  Black Lace novels are sexual fantasies. In real life, make sure you practise
  safe sex.
  
  
  First published in 1994 by
  
  
  Black Lace
  
  
  332 Ladbroke Grove
  
  
  London
  
  
  W10 5 AH
  
  
  Copyright © Cleo Cordell 1994
  
  
  Typeset by CentraCet Limited, Cambridge Printed and bound by Cox & Wyman Ltd,
  Reading, Berks
  
  
  ISBN 0 352 32926 2
  
  
  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade
  or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the
  publisher's prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than
  that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this
  condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
  
  
  Chapter One
  
  
  n the conservatory, where Chinese lanterns glowed amongst the lush foliage,
  Gwendoline overheard her brother talking to one of the party guests.
  
  
  She knew she should not eavesdrop. Apart from it being very bad manners, the
  men were talking