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Cool and Lam #13
Top of the Heap
A CLASSIC COOL AND LAM NOVEL FROM THE CREATOR OF PERRY MASON, ERLE STANLEY GARDNER
HBO series Perry Mason airs June 2020 starring Matthew Rhys in the titular role.
When the beautiful girlfriend of a notorious gangster vanishes, the last man to be seen with her needs an alibi – and fast. Enter Donald Lam of the Cool & Lam detective agency. Donald tracks down the two women with whom his client claims to have spent the night and the client declares the case closed.
But it’s not. Something about his client’s story doesn’t add up, and Donald can’t resist the temptation to keep digging. Before he knows it, he’s dug up connections to a mining scam, an illegal casino, and a double homicide – plus an opportunity for an enterprising private eye to make a small fortune, if he can just stay alive long enough to cash in on it!
HBO series Perry Mason airs June 2020 starring Matthew Rhys in the titular role.
When the beautiful girlfriend of a notorious gangster vanishes, the last man to be seen with her needs an alibi – and fast. Enter Donald Lam of the Cool & Lam detective agency. Donald tracks down the two women with whom his client claims to have spent the night and the client declares the case closed.
But it’s not. Something about his client’s story doesn’t add up, and Donald can’t resist the temptation to keep digging. Before he knows it, he’s dug up connections to a mining scam, an illegal casino, and a double homicide – plus an opportunity for an enterprising private eye to make a small fortune, if he can just stay alive long enough to cash in on it!
224 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1952
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November 27, 2017
I first encountered Erle Stanley Gardner, writing as A. A. Fair, while a young boy growing up in the wilderness of northwestern Montana. My father was a big fan of Gardner’s Perry Mason series, but occasionally he brought home one of the Fair books, and eventually he would pass it along to me if he deemed the subject matter appropriate for a lad of my tender years. Of course the ones I most looked forward to were the ones that he did not pass along and that I had to read on the sly.
I can’t remember into which category Top of The Heap might have fallen. There is a stripper in the book, along with a couple of other women of questionable virtue, and so I’m betting that this is one that Dad didn’t recommend.
The A. A. Fair series featured a team of detectives, Donald Lam and Bertha Cool. Lam was the brainy, pint-sized detective who did all of the work, while the bejeweled, avaricious, and considerably overweight Bertha, who had founded the agency, mainly sat behind the desk and gave her partner grief. Donald had a gift when it came to the fairer sex, and women usually fell for him fast and hard. As a small boy myself, I found it very encouraging to think that a guy who was only about five-six and 135 pounds could still do so well with the ladies.
Occasionally, though, Donald would encounter a “dame” who, for some inexplicable reason, was immune to his charms and needed to have the living bejesus scared out of her. At that point, he would call in the reinforcements, and Bertha would bestir herself and swing into action. Before long, the woman in question would be reduced to a sniveling mass of quivering flesh, willing and anxious to provide any information or assistance that the firm of Cool and Lam might require.
As I recall, these books usually followed a predictable pattern. A new client would appear in the office with a job for the agency. The client always had a story of some sort and usually offered a large bonus for quick results. Bertha, who handled the money and the administrative details, would grow wide-eyed at the apparent simplicity of the assignment and at the size of the potential bonus.
She would then call Donald in and give him instructions.
Donald, of course, would immediately recognize that the client was not on the level and that something much deeper was going on. Bertha would instruct him to ignore his doubts and do the job as quickly as possible so that the agency could collect the bonus. Donald would generally agree, but then once out of the office would follow his own intuition.
Inevitably, of course, the client was always lying; there was always something deeper and very sinister going on, and again, inevitably, someone would get murdered. Determined to ferret out the truth, Donald would always be up to his neck in trouble with the police and with a furious Bertha who was breathing down his neck, often threatening to dissolve the partnership and kick Donald out. But then in the nick of time, Donald would solve the case, often generating a bigger fee than Bertha had ever imagined, and in the end everyone was happy again until the next client walked into the office.
"Top of the Heap" falls into the middle of the series and follows the usual pattern. By now Donald has become a partner in the agency when a wealthy client appears. The client wants the firm to identify and find a couple of women the client met casually a few nights earlier so that they confirm that they were with him on the evening in question. Their evidence will provide the client with an alibi in a relatively minor matter and of course the client offers the usual large bonus for quick results.
Although Donald advises against it, Bertha eagerly agrees to take the case. Donald quickly discovers that the client is a fraud and that he desperately needs an alibi for something much larger than the minor matter he alleges. The book takes off from there and involves gangsters, crooked gamblers, lonely women, wealthy bankers, suspicious miners and two or three murders in a plot that’s almost too convoluted to follow, let alone describe.
Suffice it to say that the fun in these books always lay in watching Donald Lam work, rather than in the plots themselves. As in the Perry Mason series, Gardner here too often wove together impossible and totally implausible plots and then had either Mason or Lam sort things out in the last few pages in a way that left the reader shaking his head trying to follow it all.
"Top of the Heap" was an early entry in the Hard Case Crime series, and I would certainly argue that Donald Lam and Bertha Cool deserved at least one spot in the series, if not two or three. But I’m not sure why the editor chose this particular book. It’s not bad but, if I’m remembering correctly, there were others in the series that were better. In particular, much of this book takes place in San Francisco, rather than in Los Angeles where the agency and virtually all of the other books were located. Lam is largely on his own in this book without the usual cast of characters that appears in most of the others, and Bertha Cool’s role is much smaller here than in most of the other books in the series.
The A. A. Fair books have been out of print for years and are virtually impossible to find anymore (unless, of course, you inherited your father’s collection), and "Top of the Heap" may be the only entry that is readily available. Fans of crime fiction, particularly those who enjoy pulp fiction would probably enjoy reading this book as an example of a series that was once enormously popular, even though it is now hopelessly dated.
I can’t remember into which category Top of The Heap might have fallen. There is a stripper in the book, along with a couple of other women of questionable virtue, and so I’m betting that this is one that Dad didn’t recommend.
The A. A. Fair series featured a team of detectives, Donald Lam and Bertha Cool. Lam was the brainy, pint-sized detective who did all of the work, while the bejeweled, avaricious, and considerably overweight Bertha, who had founded the agency, mainly sat behind the desk and gave her partner grief. Donald had a gift when it came to the fairer sex, and women usually fell for him fast and hard. As a small boy myself, I found it very encouraging to think that a guy who was only about five-six and 135 pounds could still do so well with the ladies.
Occasionally, though, Donald would encounter a “dame” who, for some inexplicable reason, was immune to his charms and needed to have the living bejesus scared out of her. At that point, he would call in the reinforcements, and Bertha would bestir herself and swing into action. Before long, the woman in question would be reduced to a sniveling mass of quivering flesh, willing and anxious to provide any information or assistance that the firm of Cool and Lam might require.
As I recall, these books usually followed a predictable pattern. A new client would appear in the office with a job for the agency. The client always had a story of some sort and usually offered a large bonus for quick results. Bertha, who handled the money and the administrative details, would grow wide-eyed at the apparent simplicity of the assignment and at the size of the potential bonus.
She would then call Donald in and give him instructions.
Donald, of course, would immediately recognize that the client was not on the level and that something much deeper was going on. Bertha would instruct him to ignore his doubts and do the job as quickly as possible so that the agency could collect the bonus. Donald would generally agree, but then once out of the office would follow his own intuition.
Inevitably, of course, the client was always lying; there was always something deeper and very sinister going on, and again, inevitably, someone would get murdered. Determined to ferret out the truth, Donald would always be up to his neck in trouble with the police and with a furious Bertha who was breathing down his neck, often threatening to dissolve the partnership and kick Donald out. But then in the nick of time, Donald would solve the case, often generating a bigger fee than Bertha had ever imagined, and in the end everyone was happy again until the next client walked into the office.
"Top of the Heap" falls into the middle of the series and follows the usual pattern. By now Donald has become a partner in the agency when a wealthy client appears. The client wants the firm to identify and find a couple of women the client met casually a few nights earlier so that they confirm that they were with him on the evening in question. Their evidence will provide the client with an alibi in a relatively minor matter and of course the client offers the usual large bonus for quick results.
Although Donald advises against it, Bertha eagerly agrees to take the case. Donald quickly discovers that the client is a fraud and that he desperately needs an alibi for something much larger than the minor matter he alleges. The book takes off from there and involves gangsters, crooked gamblers, lonely women, wealthy bankers, suspicious miners and two or three murders in a plot that’s almost too convoluted to follow, let alone describe.
Suffice it to say that the fun in these books always lay in watching Donald Lam work, rather than in the plots themselves. As in the Perry Mason series, Gardner here too often wove together impossible and totally implausible plots and then had either Mason or Lam sort things out in the last few pages in a way that left the reader shaking his head trying to follow it all.
"Top of the Heap" was an early entry in the Hard Case Crime series, and I would certainly argue that Donald Lam and Bertha Cool deserved at least one spot in the series, if not two or three. But I’m not sure why the editor chose this particular book. It’s not bad but, if I’m remembering correctly, there were others in the series that were better. In particular, much of this book takes place in San Francisco, rather than in Los Angeles where the agency and virtually all of the other books were located. Lam is largely on his own in this book without the usual cast of characters that appears in most of the others, and Bertha Cool’s role is much smaller here than in most of the other books in the series.
The A. A. Fair books have been out of print for years and are virtually impossible to find anymore (unless, of course, you inherited your father’s collection), and "Top of the Heap" may be the only entry that is readily available. Fans of crime fiction, particularly those who enjoy pulp fiction would probably enjoy reading this book as an example of a series that was once enormously popular, even though it is now hopelessly dated.
July 8, 2025
"Isn't this something of a wild goose chase?" -- Elsie Brand, loyal 'gal Friday' secretary
"It's ALL a wild goose chase. Let's start looking. We might even find the golden egg." -- Donald Lam
Although writer Erie Stanley Gardner is best-known for creating fictional attorney Perry Mason, he was also prolific in authoring - under the pseudonym 'A.A. Fair' - a less-remembered but still long-running (thirty books over thirty eventful years, from 1939 to 1969) private detective series focusing on the operative Donald Lam from the Bertha Cool's Los Angeles-based P.I. agency. I received a free copy - thank you, Titan Publishing, at the recent Philadelphia-hosted American Library Association exhibition / conference - from the Hard Case Crime imprint of the run's thirteenth paperback, and jumping in to start at the approximate middle of said series did not cause any sort of confusion. While this is standard hardboiled fare for its time period (the early 1950's), I enjoyed the twisty plot construction - a wealthy young man ostensibly requests the agency to learn of the identities of two young women he met during an inebriated visit to L.A., which is soon revealed to be a set-up to establish an alibi for another incident involving murder - and Lam's cool competency as a quietly determined private eye. He may not be the toughest guy in the room, but he works to crack the case as a conscientious investigator. I was severely less impressed with the Bertha Cool character - who is fortunately only featured in the opening and closing scenes - as she was unfunny and grating.
"It's ALL a wild goose chase. Let's start looking. We might even find the golden egg." -- Donald Lam
Although writer Erie Stanley Gardner is best-known for creating fictional attorney Perry Mason, he was also prolific in authoring - under the pseudonym 'A.A. Fair' - a less-remembered but still long-running (thirty books over thirty eventful years, from 1939 to 1969) private detective series focusing on the operative Donald Lam from the Bertha Cool's Los Angeles-based P.I. agency. I received a free copy - thank you, Titan Publishing, at the recent Philadelphia-hosted American Library Association exhibition / conference - from the Hard Case Crime imprint of the run's thirteenth paperback, and jumping in to start at the approximate middle of said series did not cause any sort of confusion. While this is standard hardboiled fare for its time period (the early 1950's), I enjoyed the twisty plot construction - a wealthy young man ostensibly requests the agency to learn of the identities of two young women he met during an inebriated visit to L.A., which is soon revealed to be a set-up to establish an alibi for another incident involving murder - and Lam's cool competency as a quietly determined private eye. He may not be the toughest guy in the room, but he works to crack the case as a conscientious investigator. I was severely less impressed with the Bertha Cool character - who is fortunately only featured in the opening and closing scenes - as she was unfunny and grating.
September 27, 2011
Come for the complex, enigma-laden, riddle-wrapped mystery, and stay for the juicy, pulp-filled patois of a couple of very slick talking dicks in this hard-boiled classic. Story, characters, tone, dialogue…whichever way you prefer your noir to swing, this third entry in the Hard Case Crime series is packing enough to satisfy.
Donald Lam and Bertha Cool are two people with really cool names. They’re also partners in an LA private investigation firm called Cool and Lam. Bertha generally sits behind her desk being angry while Donald goes out and does the leg work for the pair.
The son of a wealthy San Francisco banker hires the pair to locate two women he was with the night a ruthless wise-guy’s squeeze got iced. Junior wants these women to alibi him if and when he gets implicated in the murder since he was the last one seen with the recently expired. Junior is a giant tool.
Donald quickly finds the girls and seemingly wraps the matter up, entitling Cool and Lam to a big, fat bonus of $500 (this is 1950’s when that meant something). Of course, things are never that easy and Donald quickly finds himself in the middle of a conspiracy that would give Oliver Stone a priapism. The complexity of this thing is really a work of art has more layers than an everlasting gobstopper. You’ve got strippers and sleeping pills, boats and bodies, wise-guys and turf wars, life insurance and last wills, bank loans and bankruptcies, gold mines and gambling outfits, stock schemes and sales calls and murders and mistresses aplenty.
Sound good?
Oh, and if you are in need of an injection of that slick, hard-boiled jargon, you will be riding the dragon throughout:
Overall, this was a good, solid read and the central mystery was wonderfully convoluted and clever. I didn’t like Donald and Bertha as much as the main characters in the first two installments which is why it’s being dinged a star on its total. Still, certainly worth reading and one that has me happily moving onto the next book in the series. 3.0 to 3.5 Stars. Recommended.
Donald Lam and Bertha Cool are two people with really cool names. They’re also partners in an LA private investigation firm called Cool and Lam. Bertha generally sits behind her desk being angry while Donald goes out and does the leg work for the pair.
The son of a wealthy San Francisco banker hires the pair to locate two women he was with the night a ruthless wise-guy’s squeeze got iced. Junior wants these women to alibi him if and when he gets implicated in the murder since he was the last one seen with the recently expired. Junior is a giant tool.
Donald quickly finds the girls and seemingly wraps the matter up, entitling Cool and Lam to a big, fat bonus of $500 (this is 1950’s when that meant something). Of course, things are never that easy and Donald quickly finds himself in the middle of a conspiracy that would give Oliver Stone a priapism. The complexity of this thing is really a work of art has more layers than an everlasting gobstopper. You’ve got strippers and sleeping pills, boats and bodies, wise-guys and turf wars, life insurance and last wills, bank loans and bankruptcies, gold mines and gambling outfits, stock schemes and sales calls and murders and mistresses aplenty.
Sound good?
Oh, and if you are in need of an injection of that slick, hard-boiled jargon, you will be riding the dragon throughout:
He said it with the air of a man who always demands the best, and then settles for what he can get.That last one belongs in the Hall of Fame of Coolness.
…
‘You talk big as hell for a little guy.’
‘That makes for a fair average.’
…
‘Now listen, Lam,’ he said, ‘you’re a nice egg but you’ve got yourself poured into the wrong pan.’
Overall, this was a good, solid read and the central mystery was wonderfully convoluted and clever. I didn’t like Donald and Bertha as much as the main characters in the first two installments which is why it’s being dinged a star on its total. Still, certainly worth reading and one that has me happily moving onto the next book in the series. 3.0 to 3.5 Stars. Recommended.
Want to read
October 6, 2018This hardcover first edition is a Morrow mystery published in 1952 and is 243 pages originally cost $2.50 .
Dust Jacket by Ellen McQuarie.
Dust Jacket by Ellen McQuarie.
August 1, 2010
Donald Lam of the Cool and Lam detective agency is hired to find two women for John Carver Billings The Second in order to provide him an alibi in the disappearance of a mobster's girlfriend. Lam soon figures out that the evidence proving Billings's alibi has been fabricated and wants to find out why, leading him into a web of intrigue involving murder, a mining scam, and illegal gambling.
So I liked this one but it's not at the top of my Hard Case list. The plot was great but the dialogue got on my nerves after awhile. It seemed like everyone spoke in detective lingo. This was particularly annoying when Lam was talking to the widow Bishop and Billings's lady friends. The mining scam seemed overly complex. Other than that, I thought it was really entertaining.
So I liked this one but it's not at the top of my Hard Case list. The plot was great but the dialogue got on my nerves after awhile. It seemed like everyone spoke in detective lingo. This was particularly annoying when Lam was talking to the widow Bishop and Billings's lady friends. The mining scam seemed overly complex. Other than that, I thought it was really entertaining.
May 29, 2017
Erle Stanley Gardner is a lawyer who ran his law practice in Ventura, California. However, given how prolific a writer he was, it is not clear how he ever found time to practice law. He is best known as the author of the Perry Mason series, but Gardner also wrote a mere 30 books in the Cool and Lam series under the pen name A.A. Fair. Bertha Cool and Donald Lam are partners in the private eye business. Top of the Heap was originally published in 1952 and has now been re-issued as part of the Hard Case Crime series. It is a truly excellent hardboiled detective novel. It does not focus on flowery descriptions, but is filled with action from page one right through to the end.
Ultimately, there is a lot of stuff that Lam uncovers, including a number of bodies, gangsters, gambling houses, point shaving, a former stripper now a rich widow, and phantom gold mines that are used to funnel money from gambling winnings.
This work feels in many ways typical of many of the hardboiled detective novels of the 1950s with a lone man going against criminals and the law, convinced of the justice of his own cause. Few books flow this smoothly and quickly with little pause in the action. Given the enormous output of Gardner over the years, it is surprising how good his work really was.
I highly recommend this one. It is, indeed, the top of the heap.
February 20, 2015
A Great Installment to Hard Case Crime - 4 Stars
After being quite disappointed with the second installment of the series, Top of the Heap provides a large helping of the pulp crime fiction that drew me to the series. Written by Erle Stanley Gardner near the end of the Pulp era, Top of the Heap is a true hard boiled crime novel. With this installment, you will get plenty of hard-boiled and less vivacious curves then in other installments.
Plot Summary
Donald Lam PI, is a partner in the Firm of Cool and Lam. We are immediately introduced to him and his partner as they work together to vet a potential client. They soon have a cash retainer in hand and the potential of more if there is success. The client seems quite interested in confirming an alibi for the night that a prominent moll went missing. Lam smells a rat and feels like he is being used to cover up a crime. His partner doesn't care as she only sees the cold hard cash. Lam lets his curiosity get the best of him and he finds himself uncovering complicated web of deceit and crime that no only leads him in directions he did not expect but also puts himself in danger.
My Thoughts
I was actually a bit surprised by this novel. When I pick up a book in this series, I expect a short and easy read to clean my palate before another book. What surprised me about this installment was the depth of the plot. The plot was rather intelligent and involved. Given the fact it was only 222 pages, I was impressed with how the author managed to squeeze so much plot into such a small space.
That did cause a few issues thought. The biggest was the ultimate resolution. The big plot and the short page count resulted is and big info dump conclusion. Much of the resolutions was worked out by the coolheaded PI and some elements were not developed for the reader to figure out. While this was a bit disappointing, I didn't feel like it was detrimental to the book overall.
I eluded earlier to the fact I found the plot to be rather intelligent. I meant it in the sense that involved some good old fashioned blue collar crime and a healthy dose of white collar crime. There is a line of the investigation that involves stocks and some sly financial dealings. I found this vein to be interesting and a bit more complex than the normal run of the mill crime.
Can this be read as a Standalone Novel Yes. The books in the Hard Case Crime Series can generally be read in any order you wish. This book is actually part of separate series written by the author and coopted in the Hard Case Crime series. I was not aware of this fact until after I read the novel. It was a non issue and I did not feel like I missed anything.
Final Thoughts
Another great installment in the Hard Case Crime Series written by a true Hard Boiled Crime author. For a quick read and an interesting story, I recommend you pick up this volume.
Content Advisories
It is difficult to find commentary on the sex/violence/language content of book if you are interested. I make an effort to give you the information so you can make an informed decision before reading. *Disclaimer* I do not take note or count the occurrences of adult language as I read. I am simply giving approximations. When reviewing language, mild obscenities are words like, shit, hell or damn. Religious exclamations are words such as Christ or Jesus when used as profanity.
Scale 1 - Lowest 5 - Highest
Sex - 1.5
Unlike the first couple in the series, this one did not included much in the way of buxom beauties and sultry broads. There were a couple of instances where sex was implied
Language
Mild Obscenities - 104 F-Words - 0 Religious Exclamations - 0
Violence - 2
There are several murders and bit of roughing up in the book. The murders are not seen first hand and form the backstory. The descriptions are not graphic.
August 3, 2018
This is my first book from Cool and Lam... seems like pretty standard fare for a private dectective story... with the twist that the 'senior' partner of the two is a woman (who didn't really do anything but worry and yell in this one).
The case was an interesting one with alot of twists and turns that weren't TOO predictiable. Donald Lam was a pretty fun character, even if he was a little too successful with the ladies and getting people to talk than made sense. Then there was the fact that he made a huge wad of cash on what was essentially insider trading. He spread it around, sure, but still... maybe that wasn't a thing when this was written.
The unique part was having some of the legal bits of money laundering laid out, that was really interesting. Definitely a worthwhile series that I wouldn't hesitate to visit again.
The case was an interesting one with alot of twists and turns that weren't TOO predictiable. Donald Lam was a pretty fun character, even if he was a little too successful with the ladies and getting people to talk than made sense. Then there was the fact that he made a huge wad of cash on what was essentially insider trading. He spread it around, sure, but still... maybe that wasn't a thing when this was written.
The unique part was having some of the legal bits of money laundering laid out, that was really interesting. Definitely a worthwhile series that I wouldn't hesitate to visit again.
May 10, 2009
The following is an imagined conversation regarding the selection of Top of the Heap for the Hard Case Crime series:
"Okay, we've selected the first two Hard Case Crime novels...we need something next that will elevate our reputation and readership."
"How 'bout a big name?"
"That's the idea! But whose work could we get with a limited budget?"
"Guys who wrote a ton of novels always have a few lying around waiting to be published...Erle Stanley Gardner, for example."
"Alright, call up his people and see if we can get something on the cheap."
---
"Well, they're going to let us have one..."
"You don't sound very excited about it."
"Well, boss, it's not very good."
"It can't be that bad...but I'm guessing it's no Perry Mason."
"No, it's a D. Lam and B. Cool novel."
"Hey, that's something! What's the problem?"
"It doesn't make any sense...and not in that Big Sleep way either. I mean, it's about stocks and investments and crooked accounting. I spent more time trying to figure out what the hell was going in the book than it took me to read it. And I'm a CPA!"
"Well, you know what they say, you can't make an omelet without using a few rotten eggs!"
"I'm pretty sure that's not how that goes."
"Okay, we've selected the first two Hard Case Crime novels...we need something next that will elevate our reputation and readership."
"How 'bout a big name?"
"That's the idea! But whose work could we get with a limited budget?"
"Guys who wrote a ton of novels always have a few lying around waiting to be published...Erle Stanley Gardner, for example."
"Alright, call up his people and see if we can get something on the cheap."
---
"Well, they're going to let us have one..."
"You don't sound very excited about it."
"Well, boss, it's not very good."
"It can't be that bad...but I'm guessing it's no Perry Mason."
"No, it's a D. Lam and B. Cool novel."
"Hey, that's something! What's the problem?"
"It doesn't make any sense...and not in that Big Sleep way either. I mean, it's about stocks and investments and crooked accounting. I spent more time trying to figure out what the hell was going in the book than it took me to read it. And I'm a CPA!"
"Well, you know what they say, you can't make an omelet without using a few rotten eggs!"
"I'm pretty sure that's not how that goes."
August 25, 2013
Scandalously this is the first of my Hard Case Crime series collection that I've read in a year. After the success of last year's 20 hour international flight Hard Case Crime-a-thon I decided to do it again for this years trip.
Erle Stanley Gardner, read from Perth to Dubai.
Considering that he's famous for his Perry Mason whodunnits this was a pretty solid attempt at classic hardboiled detective fiction. The character of Donald Lam is pretty archetypal and his adventures could sit right alongside Mike Hammer or Mike Shayne, only with a slightly less abrasive tone, far less misogyny and not as bloody in the beatings department.
The major drawback for me with this one is that Gardner tells his story through pages and pages of expositional dialogue, that aside I think I'll be much less hesitant in trying others of his republished in the Hard Case line in future.
Erle Stanley Gardner, read from Perth to Dubai.
Considering that he's famous for his Perry Mason whodunnits this was a pretty solid attempt at classic hardboiled detective fiction. The character of Donald Lam is pretty archetypal and his adventures could sit right alongside Mike Hammer or Mike Shayne, only with a slightly less abrasive tone, far less misogyny and not as bloody in the beatings department.
The major drawback for me with this one is that Gardner tells his story through pages and pages of expositional dialogue, that aside I think I'll be much less hesitant in trying others of his republished in the Hard Case line in future.
July 5, 2012
Det. Donald Lam is hired to locate two women who could verify the whereabouts of a man thought to be involved in the disappearance of well known, San Francisco socialite. Unsatisfied with the outcome coupled with a feeling that his client’s story stinks, Lam lets his instincts take him further down the rabbit hole. Was Lam right to pursue his gut or will he lose everything in the process?
Hardcase had a lot to live up to in providing the reader with an adequate follow up to both Grifter's Game and Fade To Blonde - but I’m not sure this was the best choice. There were aspects about this that I really liked, most notably Donald Lam himself. His dialogue was snappy and at times, pretty funny. What can I say, I love my detectives to show some backbone as well as having razor sharp wit.
Lam is a smart guy, his decisions and assumptions seem to come out on the right side of things more often than not. He must have one hell of a poker face because he’s an expert in the field of bluffing. He could probably tell you that the sky is green and you’d second guess yourself.
Some of the supporting cast were a little strange - especially Lam’s partner, Brenda. While I understood why she had been upset following a specific event, you’d think that with this being the 22nd installment of the series, she’d be a little more confident with Lam’s skills as a detective.
While I liked it, it didn’t leave me with the same lasting impression that either of the first two books did. However, I think I may be completely hooked on this publisher.
Hardcase had a lot to live up to in providing the reader with an adequate follow up to both Grifter's Game and Fade To Blonde - but I’m not sure this was the best choice. There were aspects about this that I really liked, most notably Donald Lam himself. His dialogue was snappy and at times, pretty funny. What can I say, I love my detectives to show some backbone as well as having razor sharp wit.
Lam is a smart guy, his decisions and assumptions seem to come out on the right side of things more often than not. He must have one hell of a poker face because he’s an expert in the field of bluffing. He could probably tell you that the sky is green and you’d second guess yourself.
Some of the supporting cast were a little strange - especially Lam’s partner, Brenda. While I understood why she had been upset following a specific event, you’d think that with this being the 22nd installment of the series, she’d be a little more confident with Lam’s skills as a detective.
While I liked it, it didn’t leave me with the same lasting impression that either of the first two books did. However, I think I may be completely hooked on this publisher.
November 19, 2018
As a fan of the Perry Mason series, I've long wanted to read some of Erle Stanley Gardner's books using his pen name A.A. Fair. I'd heard a great deal about Donald Lam and Bertha Cool, Mason's grittier (and funnier) detectives. After letting this book set on my shelves for years I finally picked it up. While no great shakes as a mystery (nothing here would particularly surprise any fan of the genre), it shows all the elements of the series: Cool's greed and volcanic temper; Lam's attractiveness to women and solid investigating skills; a client who is hiding something; a tidy solution that wrapped up all the (often confusing) clues into a neat package. I enjoyed it and look forward to picking up the other Cool and Lam books republished by Hard Case Crime.
May 15, 2020
Originally written as by A.A. Fair in 1952, this is No. 13 of his Donald Lam/Bertha Cool series. Lam somehow manages a driving narrative while methodically untangling an intricate plot. Fortunately, the weakest link, his partner Cool, intended to add comic relief, is a minor part of the action. Beginning, middle, and end, a fully satisfying murder mystery.
April 6, 2012
So in the Easter Basket that my girl friend gave me this year, as a gag, she bought me a two dollar book from Big Lots, that book was Top of the Heap. We got a good laugh out of it and I just had to see how the opening read. I proceeded to read the first two paragraphs aloud, we giggled some and then she went about Easter things... I continued reading.
I do have to admit, I was totally drawn in by this book. I have never read a true detective novel written by a respected author in the field. This one is written by the same guy who wrote the Perry Mason novels - and as a kid I was totally entranced by the Perry Mason tv show.
The book is about a detective, Donald Lam from the agency Cool and Lam, who is hired to confirm an alibi for a client. He does this in short order, but it was all a little too easy, too smooth and the whole thing doesn't sit right with Lam. The plot is really about Lam trying to uncover why this alibi is important and what is trying to be hidden. There's a countless number of twists and turns. There's violence, murder, gambling, a lot of bluffing and Lam totally comes off as a true film noir style private eye who is still quite human (I mean, he makes a few really bad decisions).
The story is totally convoluted and if you aren't careful sometimes it is hard to follow. The characters are both at times interesting and complex and at times two dimensional and shallow. Gardner really does a great job of keeping the plot moving though. And sometimes the imagery is vivid with scant few words.
This is exactly what you expect it to be, a hard boiled detective novel. I really liked it and aside from the Lindt Dark Chocolate Bunny, was definitely my favorite thing in my Easter Basket.
I do have to admit, I was totally drawn in by this book. I have never read a true detective novel written by a respected author in the field. This one is written by the same guy who wrote the Perry Mason novels - and as a kid I was totally entranced by the Perry Mason tv show.
The book is about a detective, Donald Lam from the agency Cool and Lam, who is hired to confirm an alibi for a client. He does this in short order, but it was all a little too easy, too smooth and the whole thing doesn't sit right with Lam. The plot is really about Lam trying to uncover why this alibi is important and what is trying to be hidden. There's a countless number of twists and turns. There's violence, murder, gambling, a lot of bluffing and Lam totally comes off as a true film noir style private eye who is still quite human (I mean, he makes a few really bad decisions).
The story is totally convoluted and if you aren't careful sometimes it is hard to follow. The characters are both at times interesting and complex and at times two dimensional and shallow. Gardner really does a great job of keeping the plot moving though. And sometimes the imagery is vivid with scant few words.
This is exactly what you expect it to be, a hard boiled detective novel. I really liked it and aside from the Lindt Dark Chocolate Bunny, was definitely my favorite thing in my Easter Basket.
May 11, 2016
This mystery by Earle Stanley Gardner, best known for Perry Mason, features the detective duo of Bertha Cool and Donald Lam, two very disparate characters. Lam is known for brains, and while Cool is brash and calculating especially when it comes to money. One is thin and the other is pleasingly plump. Cool is the senior partner and accepts cases for financial gain, while Lam plays a critical role in solving them without resort to the use of weapons. This one involves the Mafia, financial chicanery, gold mines, gambling, vice, murder and mayhem, and is a joy to read. The only surprise is that given these wonderful characters which offer juicy roles for some modern day actors, and delightful plots, this series has not been translated to the big screen as a series of murder mystery comedies.
September 5, 2009
Gardner had a nice ear for dialogue and his Donald Lam character is a pretty smart guy (kind of your brainy-detective type). The story wasn't earth shattering but the reveal had more details than about 3 crime novels combined. I'm not sure I care for the whole "Cool and Lam" agency aspect as Bertha Cool comes off as nothing more than the voice of Charlie Brown's teacher. Oh, I shouldn't fail to acknowledge Detective Sheldon of the SF PD as Gardner gave that character some good dialogue. Gardner doesn't throw blood and bullets everywhere in this novel so if you enjoy a sort of modern noir Sherlock Holmes (without a Watson and not in London), then you'd probably like this novel.
February 24, 2012
Good entry into the Cool & Lam series and one that thankfully Hard Case Crime made available. The rest of the books are a tad difficult to find.
This one has the highly convoluted plot that is a staple of the series. And it exercises Gardener/Fair's knowledge of the law (he was an attorney). Bertha Cool is way in the background on this one and, frankly, that doesn't hurt much because Donald Lam is by far the more interesting character. Fair does a nice job of adding in San Francisco police detective Sheldon and he's great addition with some snappy dialogue.
Good read, well worth the short time it should take to get through it.
This one has the highly convoluted plot that is a staple of the series. And it exercises Gardener/Fair's knowledge of the law (he was an attorney). Bertha Cool is way in the background on this one and, frankly, that doesn't hurt much because Donald Lam is by far the more interesting character. Fair does a nice job of adding in San Francisco police detective Sheldon and he's great addition with some snappy dialogue.
Good read, well worth the short time it should take to get through it.
April 19, 2017
Top of the Heap by Erle Stanley Gardner- Writing as A. A. Fair, Erle Stanley Gardner, famous for his Perry Mason mysteries, crafted a detective noir series that became almost a blueprint for private eye fiction. Beginning in 1939 and spanning thirty volumes all the way to 1970, the Donald Lam/Bertha Cool mysteries were always quick reads that entertained and introduced the reader to the dark underbelly of society where everything is a scam and everyone a suspect. Top of the Heap, the thirteenth book in the series, was first published in 1952 by Morrow, then later revisited by Hardcase Crime in 2004.
A young man seeks out Lam & Cool to help find someone, and as it turns out he was just looking for a way legitimize an phony alibi, but Donald goes into action to clear the agency and things get mysterious. As Donald Lam races around San Francisco, wanted by the law, knee deep in beautiful women, and threatened at every turn, we're along for a wild ride. Gardner tells it all in first person from Lam's perspective the way a decent private eye noir should be told. There are many twists and turns and, as usual, we're the last to find out what Donald already has figured. I read a lot of these some forty-fifty years ago and it's nice to get reacquainted. I want more!
A young man seeks out Lam & Cool to help find someone, and as it turns out he was just looking for a way legitimize an phony alibi, but Donald goes into action to clear the agency and things get mysterious. As Donald Lam races around San Francisco, wanted by the law, knee deep in beautiful women, and threatened at every turn, we're along for a wild ride. Gardner tells it all in first person from Lam's perspective the way a decent private eye noir should be told. There are many twists and turns and, as usual, we're the last to find out what Donald already has figured. I read a lot of these some forty-fifty years ago and it's nice to get reacquainted. I want more!
June 17, 2018
Another good book by Earl Stanley Gardner.
December 14, 2018
The detective agency of Cool and Lam takes on a cases to find two missing women who can provide an alibi for a man. Things are too easy and Lam uncovers a couple of murders as he sets out to find the truth about the original case. Written by Earle Stanley Gardner under the A.A. Fair pen name.
December 13, 2020
Fun with a typically complex Gardner plot and an accelerating pace. It’s an engaging little tale and Donald Lam’s narration is enjoyable.
December 5, 2020
Review to come.
February 18, 2017
Like the other Cool and Lam pulps by Erle Stanley Gardner writing as A.A. Fair, Top of the Heap starts with a simple and shady case, easily solved and paid for only to morph into a complex conspiracy.
This time round, The Cool and Lam detective agency is hired by John Carver Billings to confirm an alibi placing him at a motel with two women from out of town at time of an attempted murder of a prominent mob boss. Lam promptly confirms the alibi only to get suspicious about how easily Billings's story fell into place. Taking matters into his own hands, Lam soon discovers the women were paid off and the simple case was a ruse leading him down a complex underworld rabbit warren.
One thing this series has going for it, is that each installment (those I've read anyway) reads perfectly well as a standalone. Top of the Heap is book #13 and requires the reader to have no prior knowledge of the earlier cases. Though, readers of the series will note, by this point, Lam is taking lead and the charismatic Bertha Cool is on the peripheral - a far cry from the other Cool and Lam book published by Hard Case Crime in The Knife Slipped.
Starting simple and evolving into a broader mystery is fine, if done right. Unfortunately each of the 3 Cool and Lam books I've read have lost me midway through as the case spans different directions connected together by paper thin threads. Top of the Heap is perhaps the prime example; there's an attempted hit on a mob boss, the murder of a mob moll, a murder of a mining mogul, stock market manipulation, paid alibis, and potential banker fraud, oh a plot to take over a prominent gambling establishment - all in around 200 pages. It's hard to keep up.
Top of the Heap will appeal to fans of Cool and Lam but readers wanting a traditional pulp will be let down, dime store dialogue aside. 2/5 stars.
This time round, The Cool and Lam detective agency is hired by John Carver Billings to confirm an alibi placing him at a motel with two women from out of town at time of an attempted murder of a prominent mob boss. Lam promptly confirms the alibi only to get suspicious about how easily Billings's story fell into place. Taking matters into his own hands, Lam soon discovers the women were paid off and the simple case was a ruse leading him down a complex underworld rabbit warren.
One thing this series has going for it, is that each installment (those I've read anyway) reads perfectly well as a standalone. Top of the Heap is book #13 and requires the reader to have no prior knowledge of the earlier cases. Though, readers of the series will note, by this point, Lam is taking lead and the charismatic Bertha Cool is on the peripheral - a far cry from the other Cool and Lam book published by Hard Case Crime in The Knife Slipped.
Starting simple and evolving into a broader mystery is fine, if done right. Unfortunately each of the 3 Cool and Lam books I've read have lost me midway through as the case spans different directions connected together by paper thin threads. Top of the Heap is perhaps the prime example; there's an attempted hit on a mob boss, the murder of a mob moll, a murder of a mining mogul, stock market manipulation, paid alibis, and potential banker fraud, oh a plot to take over a prominent gambling establishment - all in around 200 pages. It's hard to keep up.
Top of the Heap will appeal to fans of Cool and Lam but readers wanting a traditional pulp will be let down, dime store dialogue aside. 2/5 stars.
November 17, 2008
A book in the B. Cool and D. Lam noir detective series by the author that created the Perry Mason books. This one is set in San Francisco and LA so it has perhaps particular appeal to the resident of either of those cities, especially the former - it's got addresses and intersections to entertain the mind's eye of the local.
The scion of a wealthy family is caught up in a dark knot which is much more snarled than the girl trouble it seems to be initially. Detective Donald Lam certainly is Cool and that's what I look for in a noir. That and good-looking girls, which this novel offers up; though not of the femme fatale variety. I admit the gambling and mining terminology necessitated by the plot lost me a little, but not enough that I wouldn't read this one again with alacrity. I'd quote the ending here, but it would count as a spoiler. This is definitely one of the better books of this genre (that isn't on the Chandler, Hammett or Cain plane).
The scion of a wealthy family is caught up in a dark knot which is much more snarled than the girl trouble it seems to be initially. Detective Donald Lam certainly is Cool and that's what I look for in a noir. That and good-looking girls, which this novel offers up; though not of the femme fatale variety. I admit the gambling and mining terminology necessitated by the plot lost me a little, but not enough that I wouldn't read this one again with alacrity. I'd quote the ending here, but it would count as a spoiler. This is definitely one of the better books of this genre (that isn't on the Chandler, Hammett or Cain plane).
June 28, 2016
My first read with these characters. I
love these old school Hard Crime ppbs!
love these old school Hard Crime ppbs!
May 22, 2024
A great series gone blah.
When Gardner wrote his first book in this series ("The Knife Slipped") it was 1939 and Bertha Cool was so shocking that his publishers refused to print the book. Not only was she overweight (and not the least bit worried about it) she was loud and profane. She was divorced and happy to remain so, proud of her ability to support herself. She was a cut-throat businesswoman and made no bones about it. She was NOT acceptable as a female character, even in a mystery.
Ironic, since the 1930's was Hollywood's Era of the Ballsy Broad. But they were Carole Lombard-types, slim, blonde beauties with gorgeous clothes, make-up, and jewelry. They cracked wise and stood up for themselves, but in the end they found a Good Man and settled down to being Good Women. Bertha simply didn't fit the mold.
Gardner kept writing them and soon his publishers gave in. The Cool & Lam books were never printed in massive numbers like the Perry Mason books, so they're hard to find, but I cherish every one I've been able to acquire and was thrilled to see them showing up as Kindle editions.
Fast forward to 1952, when "Top of the Heap" was published. What happened to Bertha? She appears briefly at the beginning of the book and briefly at the end. She's simply a comic turn as the STAR Donald Lam shines brightly. It's not a bad book for what it is, but I bought a Cool & Lam book and that's what I was expecting.
Maybe I should have been tipped off by the fact that the cover makes no mention of Cool & Lam, but bills the book as "Hard Case Crime." Not sure what that is, but it seems to involve gangsters and their broads, none of whom is a match for Bertha.
The firm is hired by a rich kid from San Francisco to confirm his alibi on a certain night when a gangster's GF disappeared. Donald smells a rat, but locates the two party girls who claim to have spent the night with the kid. The $500 bonus check is in Bertha's hot little hand and everyone is satisfied but Donald.
In the tradition of Philip Marlowe and Lew Archer, he decides to investigate further, although no client is paying him to do so. Needless to say, no REAL P.I. would do such a thing in a million years. But this is fiction and Donald is soon in San Francisco, checking out the client and his banker father, getting chummy with the friendly police lieutenant, and trying to figure out what crime Richie Rich really needs an alibi for. He's soon in deep trouble and running from the police himself.
It's a complicated story about a mining engineer who keeps buying mines and selling shares to the public, only to buy them back almost immediately. That's no way to run a business and Donald suspects that George Bishop's mining empire may be a front for a far more lucrative (but illegal) business. Money laundering didn't start with the drug trade. It's been around for a long time.
Now Bishop is missing and his flashy wife (a former stripper) doesn't know much. His accountant claims to be innocent, too, but not for long. And things are heating up because LA gangster Gabby Garvanza is moving in and he's a hard man to say no to.
There are two murders that I remember and some I might have forgotten. Richie Rich and his banker daddy find out that owning a yacht can be more trouble than they thought. The men involved are tough and the women (all stunning lookers) are even tougher. Everyone is double-crossing everyone else.
Lam solves the case and goes from being on the SFPD's Most Wanted list to being Lieutenant Sheldon's BFF. He also discovers that George Bishop's mining efforts weren't all in vain and he's able to bring home a sizable payload that soothes Bertha's raging nerves.
As I say, it's not a bad book. But if I want to read hard-boiled, I'll go for Raymond Chandler or Ross MacDonald. This is a poor substitute for the masters and it lacks the raucus humor and charm of the earlier books in this series. I'll continue to buy the Cool & Lam books as they become available, but I'll check the dates carefully. If it's later in the series and marketed as "Hard Case Crime" I'll save my money and my time.
When Gardner wrote his first book in this series ("The Knife Slipped") it was 1939 and Bertha Cool was so shocking that his publishers refused to print the book. Not only was she overweight (and not the least bit worried about it) she was loud and profane. She was divorced and happy to remain so, proud of her ability to support herself. She was a cut-throat businesswoman and made no bones about it. She was NOT acceptable as a female character, even in a mystery.
Ironic, since the 1930's was Hollywood's Era of the Ballsy Broad. But they were Carole Lombard-types, slim, blonde beauties with gorgeous clothes, make-up, and jewelry. They cracked wise and stood up for themselves, but in the end they found a Good Man and settled down to being Good Women. Bertha simply didn't fit the mold.
Gardner kept writing them and soon his publishers gave in. The Cool & Lam books were never printed in massive numbers like the Perry Mason books, so they're hard to find, but I cherish every one I've been able to acquire and was thrilled to see them showing up as Kindle editions.
Fast forward to 1952, when "Top of the Heap" was published. What happened to Bertha? She appears briefly at the beginning of the book and briefly at the end. She's simply a comic turn as the STAR Donald Lam shines brightly. It's not a bad book for what it is, but I bought a Cool & Lam book and that's what I was expecting.
Maybe I should have been tipped off by the fact that the cover makes no mention of Cool & Lam, but bills the book as "Hard Case Crime." Not sure what that is, but it seems to involve gangsters and their broads, none of whom is a match for Bertha.
The firm is hired by a rich kid from San Francisco to confirm his alibi on a certain night when a gangster's GF disappeared. Donald smells a rat, but locates the two party girls who claim to have spent the night with the kid. The $500 bonus check is in Bertha's hot little hand and everyone is satisfied but Donald.
In the tradition of Philip Marlowe and Lew Archer, he decides to investigate further, although no client is paying him to do so. Needless to say, no REAL P.I. would do such a thing in a million years. But this is fiction and Donald is soon in San Francisco, checking out the client and his banker father, getting chummy with the friendly police lieutenant, and trying to figure out what crime Richie Rich really needs an alibi for. He's soon in deep trouble and running from the police himself.
It's a complicated story about a mining engineer who keeps buying mines and selling shares to the public, only to buy them back almost immediately. That's no way to run a business and Donald suspects that George Bishop's mining empire may be a front for a far more lucrative (but illegal) business. Money laundering didn't start with the drug trade. It's been around for a long time.
Now Bishop is missing and his flashy wife (a former stripper) doesn't know much. His accountant claims to be innocent, too, but not for long. And things are heating up because LA gangster Gabby Garvanza is moving in and he's a hard man to say no to.
There are two murders that I remember and some I might have forgotten. Richie Rich and his banker daddy find out that owning a yacht can be more trouble than they thought. The men involved are tough and the women (all stunning lookers) are even tougher. Everyone is double-crossing everyone else.
Lam solves the case and goes from being on the SFPD's Most Wanted list to being Lieutenant Sheldon's BFF. He also discovers that George Bishop's mining efforts weren't all in vain and he's able to bring home a sizable payload that soothes Bertha's raging nerves.
As I say, it's not a bad book. But if I want to read hard-boiled, I'll go for Raymond Chandler or Ross MacDonald. This is a poor substitute for the masters and it lacks the raucus humor and charm of the earlier books in this series. I'll continue to buy the Cool & Lam books as they become available, but I'll check the dates carefully. If it's later in the series and marketed as "Hard Case Crime" I'll save my money and my time.
April 22, 2019
I tend to read Donald Lam-Bertha Cool novels as a break from the Perry Mason. Although I love a good legal thriller, every once in a while you need some action instead of the endless chatterboxing. This time, though, I have to admit I looked at the cover a few times to make sure I was reading an A.A.Fair instead of an Erle Stanley Gardner. Lot of chit chat going on in this one.
We started out well enough, with Bertha greedily grabbing for the money offered by a man to find his two unknown companions from an evening of fun. Donald knows that there must be a reason - no doubt the need for an alibi - and although he locates the women in question after no end of investigating, he's not willing to let it go at that.
So travel to to the client's home town is in order, to the resentment of the client, his high-powered father, the local police, and the local mob (not to mention Bertha, due to the cost). Before we know it, Lam is trying to pin down the owners of a local illegal gambling club, solve a murder, avoid his own, and determine the source of a money laundering scheme. It was nice to have San Francisco as a setting, but with all this crime going on, there was little time spent on location and a whole lotta time on on dialog. Everyone is yammering away, with not much action - in fact, we're just adding more crime rather than advancing the plot to a satisfactory end.
And Donald doesn't stop there - he takes advantage of the money laundering scheme on behalf of his much maligned office secretary, Elsie Brand - giving Gardner a chance to make the story even more complicated than it already is. With this story, Lam adds significantly to his repertoire of skirting the law.
This book won't stop me from reading A.A.Fair, but I'm glad it wasn't my first. Although all the crimes recounted may have been realistic, I found the story in its telling to be convoluted, difficult to follow, and even more challenging to enjoy. Not up to the usual standard of ESG's A. A. Fair alias.
We started out well enough, with Bertha greedily grabbing for the money offered by a man to find his two unknown companions from an evening of fun. Donald knows that there must be a reason - no doubt the need for an alibi - and although he locates the women in question after no end of investigating, he's not willing to let it go at that.
So travel to to the client's home town is in order, to the resentment of the client, his high-powered father, the local police, and the local mob (not to mention Bertha, due to the cost). Before we know it, Lam is trying to pin down the owners of a local illegal gambling club, solve a murder, avoid his own, and determine the source of a money laundering scheme. It was nice to have San Francisco as a setting, but with all this crime going on, there was little time spent on location and a whole lotta time on on dialog. Everyone is yammering away, with not much action - in fact, we're just adding more crime rather than advancing the plot to a satisfactory end.
And Donald doesn't stop there - he takes advantage of the money laundering scheme on behalf of his much maligned office secretary, Elsie Brand - giving Gardner a chance to make the story even more complicated than it already is. With this story, Lam adds significantly to his repertoire of skirting the law.
This book won't stop me from reading A.A.Fair, but I'm glad it wasn't my first. Although all the crimes recounted may have been realistic, I found the story in its telling to be convoluted, difficult to follow, and even more challenging to enjoy. Not up to the usual standard of ESG's A. A. Fair alias.
August 2, 2023
“Top of the Heap” is the 13th entry in the Cool and Lam Series written by A.A. Fair, which is the pseudonym for Erle Stanley Gardner. Gardner is more famous as the creator and author of so many Perry Mason books. There were eighty-two Perry Mason novels. Gardner was one of the best-selling authors of all time. “Top of the Heap” was originally published in 1952 and has now been re-issued as part of the Hard Case Crime series. It is a well written hardboiled detective novel. With all the local color of the gruff detective and police of the 40's and 50’s.
“Top of the Heap” is one of the 29 books in the Cool and Lam series. The main characters were Bertha Cool and Donald Lam who were partners in the private eye business. Bertha is described as a "big woman except she was hard as a roll of barbed wire". Lam gets wrapped up in the disappearance of the girlfriend of a gangster and the firm is hired by a man who needs an alibi. Lam runs into a web of characters who pull him into San Francisco, a mining scam, a stripper with a heart of gold, an illegal casino, a yacht club, and murders scattered here and there. All which leads the reader to a satisfying conclusion.
“Top of the Heap” is pulp fiction at its best. I greatly enjoy the local color of the detective world. Although he can be a bit of a jerk at times, Donald Lam is a character one can like. Lam is a smart guy; his decisions and assumptions seem to come out on the right side of things often. This may not even be the best Lam/Cool book, but what it is a wonderful, long unavailable example of a genre of those strong detectives of yesteryear. With good characterization, local color, and any engaging plot, this book takes us back in time to that era of Philip Marlowe or Sam Spade. Certainly not the level of those famous characters, but still a delightful story that you should try.
“Top of the Heap” is one of the 29 books in the Cool and Lam series. The main characters were Bertha Cool and Donald Lam who were partners in the private eye business. Bertha is described as a "big woman except she was hard as a roll of barbed wire". Lam gets wrapped up in the disappearance of the girlfriend of a gangster and the firm is hired by a man who needs an alibi. Lam runs into a web of characters who pull him into San Francisco, a mining scam, a stripper with a heart of gold, an illegal casino, a yacht club, and murders scattered here and there. All which leads the reader to a satisfying conclusion.
“Top of the Heap” is pulp fiction at its best. I greatly enjoy the local color of the detective world. Although he can be a bit of a jerk at times, Donald Lam is a character one can like. Lam is a smart guy; his decisions and assumptions seem to come out on the right side of things often. This may not even be the best Lam/Cool book, but what it is a wonderful, long unavailable example of a genre of those strong detectives of yesteryear. With good characterization, local color, and any engaging plot, this book takes us back in time to that era of Philip Marlowe or Sam Spade. Certainly not the level of those famous characters, but still a delightful story that you should try.
June 13, 2018
TL;DR version: 3.5 stars. Decent, convoluted mystery in the hardboiled style, marred by some ebook conversion problems.
So. For my second Erle Stanley Gardner book, I decided to try one of his non-Perry Mason titles. This is number 13 in his "Cool & Lam" series featuring private detective duo Bertha Cool and Donald Lam. I'd have started with number one but only a couple of these seem to be available as ebooks right now. This particular one is from the Hard Case Crime line, which made it seem like a good choice, but they obviously did a sloppy conversion job. There is the occasional whacky character (usually before or after a quotation mark), and a number of places where there seems to be words or perhaps entire lines of text missing. Also hardcoded hyphens. This makes me sad. I want to read more of these, so I hope whoever put out the other volumes did a better job.
I'm not sure how representative this volume is, but I have to say, on the basis of this particular one I'm not quite sure why it's called "Cool & Lam, cuz it's basically all Lam. Bertha only appears in the very beginning and very end and contributes nothing, just yells a lot.
Lam is a little guy who gets by on his brains rather than the typical thuggish PI, which I really like about the character. That's not to say there are no physical confrontations. As seems obligatory in the genre, our hero is knocked unconscious by the bad guys in one confrontation. The plot is pretty convoluted, though things get easier to follow later on in the book.
So, long story short, I enjoyed it, and might have rated it a bit higher if my enjoyment hadn't been dampened by the bad kindle conversion.
So. For my second Erle Stanley Gardner book, I decided to try one of his non-Perry Mason titles. This is number 13 in his "Cool & Lam" series featuring private detective duo Bertha Cool and Donald Lam. I'd have started with number one but only a couple of these seem to be available as ebooks right now. This particular one is from the Hard Case Crime line, which made it seem like a good choice, but they obviously did a sloppy conversion job. There is the occasional whacky character (usually before or after a quotation mark), and a number of places where there seems to be words or perhaps entire lines of text missing. Also hardcoded hyphens. This makes me sad. I want to read more of these, so I hope whoever put out the other volumes did a better job.
I'm not sure how representative this volume is, but I have to say, on the basis of this particular one I'm not quite sure why it's called "Cool & Lam, cuz it's basically all Lam. Bertha only appears in the very beginning and very end and contributes nothing, just yells a lot.
Lam is a little guy who gets by on his brains rather than the typical thuggish PI, which I really like about the character. That's not to say there are no physical confrontations. As seems obligatory in the genre, our hero is knocked unconscious by the bad guys in one confrontation. The plot is pretty convoluted, though things get easier to follow later on in the book.
So, long story short, I enjoyed it, and might have rated it a bit higher if my enjoyment hadn't been dampened by the bad kindle conversion.
March 18, 2022
This is not a Perry Mason story, but instead Gardner’s second-string detectives, Donald Lam and Bertha Cool. They make a fun pair and are perhaps an early example of mysteries that are played to a significant degree for humor (very popular later on in the work of Joan Hess, for example).
The present entry, although published in 1952 seems anachronistic to me, trying to pull off a hard-boiled noir novel as if it were the heyday of Hammett or Chandler. The plot is filled with complications, many, many subplots, and minor characters who disappear for chapters at a time and then pop up as if you will still remember them. Imagine a more complicated The Big Sleep, only without Bogey or Bacall.
One positive aspect of the book is a business scam that turns out to be a central point of the crimes. Gardner often detailed elaborate business cheats and cons in his book, which didn’t come across in the adaptations for TV, because they couldn’t be adequately described and appreciated in that format. I found myself very curious about this particular mystery in the book, which was very reasonably resolved at the end, even when I stopped caring about who plugged Mugsy in the speakeasy, etc.
It is good airport reading or mindless entertainment, primarily for the noirish mood, but you can’t really follow it as a mystery, and I don’t believe that Gardner in any way “plays fair” with the readers in the sense of supplying enough information to guess who dunnit. That is not always a requirement to enjoy a mystery novel, but the extreme complications and large number of characters do prevent the reader from really entering into it as one does in the best crime novels.
The present entry, although published in 1952 seems anachronistic to me, trying to pull off a hard-boiled noir novel as if it were the heyday of Hammett or Chandler. The plot is filled with complications, many, many subplots, and minor characters who disappear for chapters at a time and then pop up as if you will still remember them. Imagine a more complicated The Big Sleep, only without Bogey or Bacall.
One positive aspect of the book is a business scam that turns out to be a central point of the crimes. Gardner often detailed elaborate business cheats and cons in his book, which didn’t come across in the adaptations for TV, because they couldn’t be adequately described and appreciated in that format. I found myself very curious about this particular mystery in the book, which was very reasonably resolved at the end, even when I stopped caring about who plugged Mugsy in the speakeasy, etc.
It is good airport reading or mindless entertainment, primarily for the noirish mood, but you can’t really follow it as a mystery, and I don’t believe that Gardner in any way “plays fair” with the readers in the sense of supplying enough information to guess who dunnit. That is not always a requirement to enjoy a mystery novel, but the extreme complications and large number of characters do prevent the reader from really entering into it as one does in the best crime novels.
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