Case of the Demure Defendant; Case of the Deadly Toy

 

I completely forgot to write about this one, I finished it last week sometime. And I'm pretty sure I've read it before, I remembered parts of it very well. 

Nadine Farr goes to a doctor for help with her nervous exhaustion. The doctor puts her under a truth serum and she confesses to poisoning her Uncle Mosher, who died a few months earlier. At the time, it was ruled a death by natural causes. Nadine is sure she put poison in his chocolate instead of the artificial sugar substitute. DA Burger really thinks he has Perry nailed to a wall when witnesses testify that he threw a bottle of sugar substitute into a lake to confuse the issues. The courtroom scenes were fun. 

I know I've read this one before too. Seven year old Robert's parents are divorced and he spends most of his time with his mother. When his father, Mervin, is shot dead, it's Mervin's ex-fiancée, Norda, who the DA blames (a side note--Gardner picks the *strangest* names sometimes. I've never in my life heard of the name "Norda". "Nora", yes, but Norda? Really? And Mervin? At any rate...) 

Robert has an unusual fascination with guns, and one of his babysitters lets him play with an unloaded pistol. The night Mervin is shot, Robert has what his mother and step-father convince him was just a bad dream. While sleeping out in at tent on the patio, Robert was woken up and startled, grabbed the gun from under his pillow and fired. Did he accidentally kill his own father? A lot of people seem to think so (that wasn't the solution, by the way). It was entertaining.