This 1964 mystery is impressively serpentine. The story starts out far from where it eventually goes. Virginia Baxter is arrested when her suitcase is found to be full of dope. This will not be the last of her troubles. Happily she thinks of calling Perry Mason early on.
The story moves on to Lauretta Trent, a rich old woman with a house full of parasitic relatives. Perry Mason determines that one of her many heirs wants her dead. And he has to work hard to find the connection between Lauretta’s danger and Virginia’s.
Although there’s a courtroom scene in this book, the case is solved not in court, but over dinner with Della Street (Perry’s alluring secretary) and through late night detective work. This gives The Case of the Horrified Heirs a somewhat different feeling — and I really enjoyed the twisty plot.