FRIDAY’S FORGOTTEN BOOKS #498: THE COUNT OF 9 By Erle Stanley Gardner


I love the Robert McGinnis cover on this new HARD CASE CRIME reprint of Erle Stanley Gardner’s The Count of 9! Gardner wrote 30 books in the Donald Lam/Bertha Cool private eye series. The Count of Nine, the eighteenth book in the series (out of print for almost forty years), was published in 1958. A wealthy world traveler and collector hires Bertha Cool to screen attendees for his exclusive party. Bertha’s presence was supposed discourage gate-crashers. But during the party, two valuable artifacts–a blowgun and a jade Buddha statue–are stolen. Donald Lam figures out what happened, but suddenly his client is murdered–by a poisoned dart! In a locked room!

I’ve enjoyed all the Lam/Cool books I’ve read. Some say the Lam/Cool books are better than the Perry Mason series. I’m entertained by both. My review of the HARD CASE CRIME rediscovery of The Knife Slipped and be found here. The Count of 9 is a 10! GRADE: A

Art Scott wrote: “The contact sheet from that model shoot can be seen in The Paperback Covers of Robert McGinnis, pg. 104. Bob used pose #1, mirror-flipped, for this cover. Another pose was used for a Carter Brown title (The Ice-Cold Nude) published in 1962, which dates the shoot to nearly 60 years ago.”

16 thoughts on “FRIDAY’S FORGOTTEN BOOKS #498: THE COUNT OF 9 By Erle Stanley Gardner

  1. Steve Oerkfitz

    I’ll have to pick up one of these Lam/Cool books. The library has one-The Knife Slipped. I read a few Perry Mason books in the early sixties but not one of these. I remember them in the old Pocket book editions (if I remember correctly). My mother read a lot of Gardner.

    Reply
      1. Art Scott

        The contact sheet from that model shoot can be seen in The Paperback Covers of Robert McGinnis, pg. 104. Bob used pose #1, mirror-flipped, for this cover. Another pose was used for a Carter Brown title (The Ice-Cold Nude) published in 1962, which dates the shoot to nearly 60 years ago.

        Deb, McGinnis’s women have always been on the lean and leggy side, the Yin to, say, the voluptuous Yang of Robert Maguire’s. I do agree that lately they seem to be getting a bit skinnier .

        And yes, Jeff, I also mentally cast Ellen Nehr as Bertha. Who wouldn’t?

  2. Jeff Meyerson

    I don’t remember this title at all. Like you, I enjoy the Perry Mason as well as the Cool and Lam books – I always picture Ellen Nehr as Bertha! – and this cover even looks like the old Pocket Books style. I still have a half dozen Cool & Lam books on the shelf to be read, as well as the new one and the reprints I haven’t read.

    Reply
  3. Elgin Bleecker

    George – Opened your page, thought: Terrific cover. Then read your post and you had the same reaction. Hard Case and Stark House are doing a great service finding and reissuing out of print books.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Elgin, I’ve always loved the McGinnis covers on the HARD CASE CRIME books. They really capture the “look and feel” of paperbacks from the 1950s and 1960s!

      Reply
  4. maggie Mason

    I’ve never read any Erle Stanley Gardner books, but my mom was a big fan of Perry Mason books, and we watched the TV show.

    One of my mom’s good friends had been one of Erle’s secretaries prior to WWII when she left to work in the defense industry. She was mentioned in the Dorothy B. Hughes book on him, including a pix. She had lots of signed books and even a couple of manuscripts with notes. I think my mom probably borrowed books from her to read.

    Reply
  5. tracybham

    I do like this cover and thanks for the additional information related to the illustration. I need to read THE KNIFE SLIPPED soon. I read a couple of the early one recently so I could compare them.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Tracy, I like THE KNIFE SLIPPED because Bertha Cool plays a major role in solving the mystery. Sadly, in some of the Lam/Cool books, Bertha merely complains a lot.

      Reply

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