The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope by C. W. Grafton

Gil Henry, a young lawyer, was approached by a new client, Ruth McClure. Right off, she said that she wanted him to find out what shares of stock in Harper Products were worth.  He started to look at the stock listings, but she told him that she didn't want to know the market price which was 23 dollars, but wanted to know what the stock was actually worth. It seems that her father, John McClure,  had been a foreman for Harper Products for many years, and that he had died in an accident 10 days earlier. She had been approached by William Jasper Harper, the head of the company, who wanted to give her one hundred and ten dollars a share for her hundred shares of stock and all the papers which her father had related to the company. She could not understand why she had been offered such a generous price for the shares which she had inherited from her father.

Gil was a member of the firm of Mead, Opdyke, Smallwood, Garrison and Henry. He went to the senior partner, James Mead, to get approval for taking this case. He knew that James Mead had been seeing a lot of Janice Harper, the daughter of William Jasper Harper. Mead said that taking the case was ok.

When Gil got back to his residence at the YMCA, he received a call from Ruth McClure who said that someone had searched her house while she was away. She asked if Gil could come that evening to Harpersville where she lived. This was the start of the dangerous events which would happen in the previously uneventful life of short and pudgy lawyer, Gil Henry. He rented a car and on the way to Harpersville someone shot at and blew out his car tire, and the car ran off of the road. Bruised in the accident, Gil walked to Harpersville. At Ruth's house he met her adopted brother, Tim McClure, and learned more about the family finances. Her father had been making thirty five dollars a week for many years, and yet had managed to put both Ruth and Tim through college, and buy them a nice car. Obviously, there was another source of income which they did not know about. He also met their neighbor, Miss Katie, an older woman with a very disfigured face, who seemed to making a living from selling the eggs of the few chickens that she owned. She also seemed to be getting little financial gifts from William Jasper Harper.

Gil's investigation would take him to Louisville where he would steal the annual financial reports of Harper products. On his return to Harpersville, he found out that William Jasper Harper was dead, shot in the head. The whole situation became more and more complex, more murders happened,  and the dangers and the injuries of Gil would increase before he solved the murders, unraveled the mysterious finances of John McClure, and found out the true value of the stock in Harper Products.

This is a very readable book, and Grafton keeps the action going at a rapid pace.  His lawyer detective Gil Henry is a very sympathetic character. If you are familiar with the stock market, you may figure out what the motives for the crimes are before the end of the book.

Cornelius Warren Grafton (1909 - 1982) was born and grew up in China. He studied law in South Carolina, and served in World War II in the India-Burma Theater. He was a practicing lawyer in Louisville, Kentucky. He married Vivian Harnsberger and had two daughters, Ann and Sue.  His daughter Sue became a very successful mystery novelist.

This book was published in 1943. Grafton would write one more Gil Henry book in 1944. Grafton's books are out of print, but used copies are available.