Bestseller Mystery #B29

# Murder Up My Sleeve

This excerpt presents the opening of Erle Stanley Gardner's "Murder Up My Sleeve," reprinted from a 1937 bestseller in condensed form. The mystery centers on Terry Clane, a thirty-year-old lawyer and former diplomat with unconventional experience in China and a Chinese monastery. Called in by District Attorney Parker Dixon for questioning at 4:30 a.m., Clane becomes the focus of an investigation involving Alma Renton, an artist. Dixon probes Clane's movements the previous evening—his attendance at a dinner-dance, the drive through Chinatown, and his time at Renton's apartment. A handkerchief marked with an "R" surfaces as evidence. The interrogation reveals Renton's complicated affairs: her widowhood from Robert Helford (whom Clane knew), and her connection to George Levering, an idle society man dependent on her loans. Clane deflects with wit and evasion throughout, while Dixon gradually narrows focus toward establishing the timing and significance of Clane's encounter with Renton.