In Two Clues Erle Stanley Gardner creates a character of instantaneous appeal in a slow-spoken genial sheriff who is more tracker than detective. The ambitious District Attorney or the campaigning publisher of the Rockville Gazette, with their faith in fingerprints and lie-detectors, might think Bill Eldon dated, but he knows Rockville district inside out.

In 'The Case of the Runaway Blonde' the body of a girl is found on a freshly ploughed strip of land. And in 'The Case of the Hungry Horse' a young woman has apparently been kicked to death in a dark stable ...

This is Bill's territory, and it is his feel for cornspun characters, cattle and crops - and not the manoeuvres of the smart lawyers and politicos - that crucial to deciphering both cases.