''Tantalising on every page and brilliant'' Scott Turow, bestselling author of Presumed Innocent

She pulled herself out of the water and into a canoe and gasped, ''I don''t know who you are ... but you''d better paddle like hell!'' Flashlights appeared on the shore. Someone shouted ''There she is!'' but Perry Mason was doing as he was told for a change, paddling into the night, with a strange girl, towards the hottest water he had ever been in.

By morning, Mason was in all the papers - wanted for robbery. By afternoon, he had a second client - in jail. Then murder arrived and he was precipitated into the tensest battle of his career.