The undertaker's widow

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Erle Stanley Gardner

A suspicious personal ad conceals nefarious intent--and eventually lands in the lap of Perry Mason. It appears that Marilyn Marlow inherited a small fortune from her mother, who got the sum from her wealthy employer. But now the old man's relatives are contesting the will. Whoever sways Rose Keeling, the key witness to the signing of the will, is sure to be the victor. Enter the personal ad. Marilyn intends to find Rose a Mr. Right--in order to get the goods on her. But when Rose is murdered, Perry Mason sets out to find a gentleman caller who had a date with death.

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Brian Haig

JAG lawyer Sean Drummond has gotten himself in way over his head -- with a case that challenges his deepest fears and a co-counselor who challenges just about everything else. Assigned to South Korea as an advocate for a gay officer accused of brutally killing the son of a South Korean war hero, Drummond is teamed up with an old law-school nemesis. Katherine Carson is a curvy, liberal, William Kunstler-like attorney with a reputation for manipulating the media on behalf of her mostly gay clients. Drummond is as distraught to be working with a woman who knows how to push all his buttons as he is to be defending this client. However, it's just this lack of political correctness that makes him the one man the CIA can trust with its disturbing secrets, and Drummond quickly learns that what appears to be an open-and-shut case is really just the top layer of a deep conspiracy.

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William Lashner

Hard-luck Philadelphia lawyer Victor Carl is just itching for the opportunity to sell out. Then good fortune comes knocking at his door in the guise of William Prescott III, a blue-blood attorney from one of the city's most prestigious firms. Prescott wants Victor to represent a councilman's aide who is on trial, along with his boss, for extortion, arson, and murder. It's the juiciest, highest-profile courtroom extravaganza in years -- and all Carl has to do is show up, shut up, and follow Prescott's lead.But it soon becomes clear that somene's setting him and his client up to take a long, hard fall. Victor Carl may be desperate and unethical but he's no one's patsy. And to survive in this legal snake pit of secrets, lies, and lethal double-crosses, he's going to play the game his way.

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[story written by Sharon Jennings

After recovering his mother's lost purse, Franklin decides to put his newfound detective skills to work for his friends. Can he solve the mysterious case of the missing baseball? This Level 2 first reader contains longer stories, varied sentences, increased vocabulary, more difficult visual clues and some repetition.