Cool and Lam – serie

At the time of his death, Erle Stanley Gardner was the best-selling American author of the 20th century, and world famous as the creator of crusading attorney Perry Mason. Gardner also created the hardboiled detective team of Cool and Lam, stars of 29 novels published between 1939 and 1970 -- and one that's never been published until now.Lost for more than 75 years, THE KNIFE SLIPPED was meant to be the second book in the series but shelved when Gardner's publisher objected to (among other things) Bertha Cool's tendency to "talk tough, swear, smoke cigarettes, and try to gyp people." But this tale of adultery and corruption, of double-crosses and triple identities -- however shocking for 1939 -- shines today as a glorious present from the past, a return to the heyday of private eyes and shady dames, of powerful criminals, crooked cops, blazing dialogue, and delicious plot twists.

The story of how a man can commit a brutal murder, confess, and get away with it!The killer was guilty without a shred of doubt. The police had him behind bars. The district attorney had plenty of evidence. But - no court in the state could convict him!The Bigger They Come features that fast-moving, skull-cracking team: Bertha Cool, a two-hundred pound "lady" who uses the language of a longshoreman. And Donald Lam, a pint-sized process server who would have been in the morgue long ago except that he can think faster than the next man ... or woman.

Strange bedfellows can be political poison, and the candidate had picked himself a dilly. She was ruthless and corrupt and had enough on him to smear his shining armour with front page mud. Donald Lam and Bertha Cool told him not to worry. Women were Donald's speciality, the more dangerous the better. But when the lovely lady turned up dead, the case took an ugly twist. Suddenly Lam and Cool were in the middle of a red-hot race where bullets, not ballots, counted.

How did Donald Lam get all the dames? He was just a brainy little guy, but he had the damnedest way with women...The blondes melted like wax. "You're the first guy who's given me a break" said one. "Kiss me." Lam kissed her. "To hell with that stuff," she said. "Really kiss me." She was only the first - but even the busiest lady's man has to take time out for murder, especially when he's been too chummy with a corpse and the cops are out for blood...his blood.

Bertha Cool has just been released from a sanitarium where she has been recovering from flu and pneumonia, but soon she and Donald Lam are on the hunt for a missing bride-to-be.They become tangled in case filled with slot-machine skullduggery, a double-crossing client, murder and a spot of financial finagling before they eventually achieve their goal.

Dr. Hilton Devarest was a whiz at curing patients, but his private life was sick, sick, sick. He lived with a wife who was as warped as she was repulsive, a secretary who enjoyed fun and games with the doctor every morning before breakfast, a niece who believed nice girls finished nowhere, and a nephew whose only means of support was making women happy. Donal Lam and Bertha Cool got involved with the not-so-good doctor when he hired them to find some stolen jewels. But soon they were in the fight of their lives against a killer who thought murder was the best medicine, and was out to treat them to an overdose of death...

A cool girl hunt is what the blind man wanted. He was searching for a pretty young woman, soft spoken and slender, whom he'd never seen but knew had vanished, and he was willing to pay Bertha Cool anything to find her.The whole thing seemed impossible and sounded suspicious, but the man's money was right - even if his motives weren't - and given the choice Bertha always followed the dollar sign.Only this time, the dollar sign pointed to murder and fingered Bertha Cool as a red hot suspect.

It was just a routine case. All Bertha Cool had to do was help a fellow in a jam - a $20,000 jam. But it didn't stay a routine case for long. All of a sudden Bertha's client had a fistful of anonymous letters, a missing wife, and a body in his basement. Bertha Cool had her hands full. The only problem was, her hands were tied - and the murderer's were very, very busy.

It started as a routine tail - shadowing an oily hustler who'd been courting a well-healed matron. But the assignment soon led Donald Lam to a sleazy hotel room with a sexy barfly. And now she's left him high and dry with a pair of corpses dumped in his lap. Suddenly he's the cops' prime suspect. And it'll take some fancy footwork to sidestep the law - and the real killer, who intends to leave Bertha Cool partnerless.

Mira Woodford was a beautiful girl who believed that the best things in life were expensive. She bartered her youthful charms for the rewards of being an old man's bride, and her investment paid off in millions when she suddenly became his widow.When Bertha Cool sent Donald Lam to find out if Mira's kisses had turned to poison for the rich little poor girl's late husband, one look at Mira made Donald eager to see for himself how deadly her embrace really was. But though Mira was lovely and willing, her past was ugly and threatening - and when passion and blackmail went hand in hand, murder could not be far behind.

You might call Bertha Cool the broad beam of the Cool and Lam Detective Agency. As this story begins, all 200-odd pounds of her are quivering happily at the thought of a fat fee to come.All Bertha has to do is guard the priceless treasures of wealthy explorer Dean Crockett II, who is about to throw a fabulous party. But somebody's hand is quicker even than Bertha's gimlet eye, and one valuable jade Buddha and a primitive blowgun disappear.That's when brainy bantam-weight Donald Lam steps in, and the pace sets off fiercely, before reaching a sensational, unexpected climax.

Two incidents involving a Peeping Tom are reported from the Swim and Tan Motel to the detective agency belonging to Donald Lam and Bertha Cool. Bertha, meanwhile, has warned Donald to steer clear of the dangerous jobs and stick to aiding solid, sane citizens like Montrose L. Carson. And all Carson wants is the name of the informer in his office who is passing on confidential material to a business rival, Herbert Dowling.But when Dowling is murdered at the Swim and Tan Motel, it looks as though Bertha has picked the wrong client, and Donald the right girl when he chooses a lively bait to catch the Peeping Tom ... and the murderer.

Money in the bank had always been a persuasive factor in Bertha Cool's life - and Lamont Hawley represented a lot of it. He also represented an insurance company that smelled a rat about a traffic-accident claim. The trouble was the claimant had drifted away - a beautiful blonde who had been co-operative and level-headed. In fact, too level-headed ... she sounded almost professional.Donald Lam didn't like it. Why should a large insurance company need an outside investigator? But Bertha's eyes see $$$ so Donald gets cracking, and within no time he is the prime suspect. For what on earth is a body doing in the trunk of Donald's car?

Blackmail was a dirty business and Donald Lam liked to stay clear of it. But for his partner, Bertha Cool, no business was too dirty to handle at the right price. And the price for this job was certainly right.What was wrong, though, was a payoff for pictures that weren't worth a dime, a free dinner that cost the blackmailer his life, and more than a couple of double-crosses that framed Donald Lam quite neatly for a charge of murder ...