Most people know Erle Stanley Gardner from his famous Perry Mason series. But, under the pseudonym of “A. A. Fair,” Gardner wrote another series featuring bossy Bertha Cool and clever Donald Lam, partners in a private detective agency. Hard Case Crime has reprinted three of the mysteries in the Lam/Cool series–The Count of 9, Turn on the Heat, and The Knife Slipped (you can read my reviews here, here, and here)–and now another: Shills Can’t Cash Chips.
Shills Can’t Cash Chips is the 22nd book in the series and was first published in 1961. Bertha Cool takes on a case where an insurance company wants to locate a woman who was involved in an automobile accident. Donald Lam investigates and discovers a complex scheme. When one of the principal parties to the “accident” is murdered, Lam finds himself the primary suspect and has to solve the crime in order to escape prison.
I’ve read over a dozen Lam/Cool mysteries. In general, they are lighter fare than the Perry Mason books with some humor and some screw-ball antics thrown in. If you’re looking for some entertaining mysteries, I recommend the Lam/Cool series and especially this newly reprinted volume. GRADE: B+
Even though my mom was a fan, I’ve never read them. I’ll have to give the lam/cool series a try. I recorded the new Perry Mason series, but haven’t yet watched it
Maggie, I started watching the New PERRY MASON series, but stalled when a major character was dispatched. This new Perry Mason is nothing like Erle Stanley Gardner’s character. Or the TV character.
I really enjoyed the new Perry Mason series, but don’t expect much of a similarity to the old tv show.
Steve, I plan to finish watch the new PERRY MASON but I hit a snag in the last episode I watched.
My Mom was a fan too. I have read one PM but none of this series.
Patti, the Cool/Lam books are lighter fare than the Perry Masons. A lot of screwball elements show up in these books.
Despite the fact that ESG’s books have been around even longer than I have, they just never impressed me. Long ago I read a few Masons, and a couple in the Cool/Lam series, but never felt moved to read any more of them. I do feel a considerable amount of nostalgia, though, for the early days of Hard Case Crime in the early 2000s. Their wonderful mass market line was my introduction to people like Day Keene and Gil Brewer before I became a fan of Stark House (or maybe before it even existed). Since they stopped doing those books and started up with trade paperbacks and a few hardcovers, Hard Case just hasn’t been the same.
Michael, Hard Case Crime has released some new novels as well as reprinting some older titles like SHILLS CAN’T CASH CHIPS. And, I’m a fan of STARK HOUSE, too.
I also started reading the Mason books because my mother read them. I remember her having a 3-in-1 hardback which I raced through. When I was working in Greenwich Village in the early ’70s, I found a cache of old Masons in one of the last existing secondhand bookstores on lower Fourth Avenue. I did get some early Masons, plus some of his non-series (usually not as good) stuff, some of the D.A. Doug Selby books, and the Terry Clane and Gramps Wiggins books. The most fascinating stuff to me was, someone had pasted in old reviews, pieces of dust jackets, etc. It might not have been in “collectible” condition, but it was a great time capsule, probably from the ’40s. The Cool & Lam books I read in paperback for the most part (other than a late one I got from the Detective Book Club), but I still have plenty left to read,
Jeff, I have plenty of Erle Stanley Gardner to read, too. ESG was a very prolific writer who produced several series. He also wrote a ton of short stories. I plan to read a couple of his collections for WEDNESDAY’S SHORT STORIES in 2021.
Just checking on Wikipedia. The first two Mason novels were published in 1933. In the 1920s and 1930s, Gardner published over 500 pulp stories! In the years leading up to Mason’s debut, he published 57 stories in 1930, 78 in 1931. 60 in 1932, and 68 in 1933! That is well over a story every week.
Jeff, I knew ESG published a lot of short stories, but those numbers are staggering! Nice piece of literary research!
You seem to go for wacky and screw-ball stuff, George. No thanks. I have read two Cool and Lam and didn’t ike them, but I do like the Mason novels and have read a couple dozen of them. I’m a fan of the original TV series.
Like Rick I enjoyed the tv series many years ago, didn’t read the novels though.
All those tv series (later Dallas etc) gave us Germans a strange picture of life in the USA – probably very far from reality …
Rick, Erle Stanley Gardner worked with the company that made the TV episodes of PERRY MASON for CBS. ESG also played a judge in the very last episode of Perry Mason, The Case of the Final Fade-Out.
I enjoyed the original tv series as a kid. But I find it pretty much unwatchable now. A lot has to do with the cheapness of the sets and static camerawork. This applies to most tv from the 50’s and 60’s. Too many shows tried to pass stage sets as outdoors and it looks phony.
Steve, production values were skimpy back in the 1950s and early 1960s for American TV shows. Once color TV arrived, the production values improved…and so did the ratings.
My father used to buy paperbacks of both Erle Stanley Gardner series so I read a few of both. Liked the Pery Masons more. I do have a few that I have picked up over the years, but doubt if I will read them. As for Hard Case Crime, I have most of the early paperbacks and still buy any of its vorks when I come across them in used bookstore or thrift shops.
Kent, like you I think the PERRY MASON series is stronger than the COOL/LAM series. But, both are fun to read.