Book excerpt: Criminal lawyer and bestselling mystery author Erle Stanley Gardner wrote nearly 150 novels that have sold 300 million copies worldwide. Now, the American Bar Association is bringing back his most famous and enduring novels featuring criminal defense lawyer and sleuth Perry Mason in striking trade paperback editions. After Peter Laxter dies in a fire, his will guarantees his faithful caretaker a job and a place to live. The will, however, does not specify what happens to Laxter s cat and both the caretaker and Laxter s grandson want it. When Perry Mason takes the caretaker s case, he quickly finds there s much more at stake than an old man s cat more than a million dollars more, to be exact."