SHILLS CAN'T CASH CHIPS
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From Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner - during his life, the best-selling American author of all time -- comes a lost classic of detective fiction featuring private eyes Donald Lam (once played by Frank Sinatra!) and Bertha Cool. "What I can say is that for those who like their crime fiction to be high-octane, this novel is a stunner." The Daily Mail HBO series Perry Mason, based on characters from Erle Stanley Gardner's novels, airs June 2020 starring Matthew Rhys in the titular role. HAS DONALD LAM GONE OVER TO THE DARK SIDE? From the world-famous creator of PERRY MASON, Erle Stanley Gardner - at his death the best-selling American writer of all time - comes another baffling case for the Cool & Lam detective agency. Return to the 1960s as a simple insurance investigation into a car accident puts Bertha Cool and Donald Lam on the trail of murder - and Donald hip-deep in danger when he poses as an ex-con to infiltrate a criminal gang. It's Gardner's twistiest caper ever, and a fitting conclusion to Hard Case Crime's revival of this classic (and long unavailable) detective series.
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20 primary books21 released books#22 in Cool and Lam
Cool and Lam is a 21-book series with 20 primary works first released in 1939 with contributions by Erle Stanley Gardner and A.A. Fair.
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A flat, dull mystery that makes little sense, with characters who act like dullards more often than not, are saddled with limp dialogue and spout inane catchphrases like “Fry me for an oyster”, and who fall for ludicrous setups. There's a reason no one has published this one in 45 years, and while I generally have very good experiences with Hard Case titles, bringing some books back into print simply because they can should hardly be the benchmark. When crime readers think of famous detectives/lawyers/characters from yesteryear, they rightly think of Marlowe or Spade or Archer or Perry Mason (a creation of the author of this work) or perhaps Parker or even Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. No one thinks of Cool and Lam. And there's a reason for that.
