The Clue of the Forgotten Murder by Erle Stanley Gardner (WDL Books, 1960)

 

The story begins when a cop investigated a man and a woman suspected of a gas station stick-up.  The man turned out to be Frank B. Cathay, prominent banker on a binge.  The girl disappeared.

The story deepened when a private eye was shot on a downtown street, presumably by a gangster.

The story got hot when Charles Morden, a reporter from "The Blade" investigating the case, was murdered.

Immediately Dan Bleeker, publisher of "The Blade", called in Griff, the famous criminologist.  Then the story really boiled!

One of Gardner's more confusing stories.  By the end of the book I was not only unsure who the criminal was, but I was also confused about the nature of his crime!   The detective--I mean criminologist--investigating this tangled mess of a case didn't follow up clues so much as as "play human checkers" with the suspects as pieces.

I'm also confused about the dame on the cover of this edition.  I'm pretty sure she didn't actually appear in the book.