The Case of the Howling Dog

"The Case of the Howling Dog" is a pretty early Mason. A man named Arthur Cartwright comes to visit Mason about two things. One is his will. He wants to leave all his money and property to the woman who is living with his next door neighbor as his wife, but he wants to know if it matters if the woman is *really* the guy's wife or not. Right off the bat, that's odd. His second concern is his neighbor's dog. It's howling, and driving Mr. Cartwright bonkers (and yes, this is the same neighbor that's "married" to the woman he's leaving all his things to when he dies, so again, double odd). Mason is of course intrigued by the whole thing and gets himself neck deep in the case. Clinton Foley, the neighbor, swears his dog didn't howl, his housekeeper swears the dog didn't howl, the cook swears the dog didn't howl, etc. So is Perry's client a nut? Maybe, but he goes missing, along with Clinton Foley's "wife", not long before Clinton and the howling dog are both shot down dead. Of all the suspects, the police light on Clinton Foley's ACTUAL wife, Bessie Forbes. Seems they all used to live up in Santa Barbara, and Foley ran off with Cartwright's wife, changed his name from Forbes to Foley, and took up residence in L.A. Cartwright tracked him down and moved in next door. Bessie eventually tracked him down too and paid him a visit. Did she actually kill him? It's hard to say, Gardner kind of made it sound like she might have. There was a funny scene in the book where Perry has to hide out, so he holes up in the apartment next to Della's. She wakes him up on her way to work and tells him the water's boiling, ready for the eggs she set out, the coffee is done, the toaster is ready for the bread and there's bacon in the oven. She leaves with a warning not to look at the papers before he's had his breakfast. Of course Mason (typical man) disregards her warning and starts his eggs and then opens the paper. He overcooks his eggs, burns his toast twice, and forgets all about the bacon so he has to go out to breakfast. What on earth would you do without Della, Perry? Honestly.