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Cool and Lam #16
You Can Die Laughing
Great detective novel by the author of Perry Mason novels
214 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 1957
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
February 27, 2018
First published in 1957, You Can Die Laughing falls roughly into the middle of the series featuring L.A. detectives Donald Lam and Bertha Cool. By now, the characters and the formula are basically set, and the reader knows exactly what to expect when picking up one of these novels.
Bertha Cool is the senior partner, having inherited the firm from her late husband. At one hundred and sixty-five pounds, she’s all “hard flesh, and … as unyielding as barbed wire.” She claims to be “just as rough, just as tough, just as hard-boiled, [and} just as two-fisted as any man in the country." Lam, on the other hand, barely weighs a hundred and thirty-five pounds soaking wet, and, as Bertha observes, he’s never won a fight in his life. But he’s a “brainy little bastard,” who, while on a case, often skates very close to, if not over, the edge of the law. He generally drives his partner to distraction, at least until the end of a case when he usually serves up the solution, and a generous payment for the firm’s efforts.
This case begins when a Texan named Lawton C. Corning asks the firm to locate a woman who seems to have disappeared. Earlier, Corning has suggested to Bertha that there may be oil leases involved somehow, and she has visions of a big payday. But once in the office with Donald, he claims that nothing like that is at stake and he simply wants to find this woman for reasons of his own.
Of course, no potential client has ever walked into the offices of Cool and Lam and told the truth, meaning that matters will prove to be much more complicated and dangerous than a simple missing persons case. Donald has no trouble finding the woman, and that’s when the fireworks really begin.
This plot is a little more straight-forward and a lot less convoluted than some of the books in this series, and it’s a relatively short and entertaining read. All in all, a good addition to the series.
Bertha Cool is the senior partner, having inherited the firm from her late husband. At one hundred and sixty-five pounds, she’s all “hard flesh, and … as unyielding as barbed wire.” She claims to be “just as rough, just as tough, just as hard-boiled, [and} just as two-fisted as any man in the country." Lam, on the other hand, barely weighs a hundred and thirty-five pounds soaking wet, and, as Bertha observes, he’s never won a fight in his life. But he’s a “brainy little bastard,” who, while on a case, often skates very close to, if not over, the edge of the law. He generally drives his partner to distraction, at least until the end of a case when he usually serves up the solution, and a generous payment for the firm’s efforts.
This case begins when a Texan named Lawton C. Corning asks the firm to locate a woman who seems to have disappeared. Earlier, Corning has suggested to Bertha that there may be oil leases involved somehow, and she has visions of a big payday. But once in the office with Donald, he claims that nothing like that is at stake and he simply wants to find this woman for reasons of his own.
Of course, no potential client has ever walked into the offices of Cool and Lam and told the truth, meaning that matters will prove to be much more complicated and dangerous than a simple missing persons case. Donald has no trouble finding the woman, and that’s when the fireworks really begin.
This plot is a little more straight-forward and a lot less convoluted than some of the books in this series, and it’s a relatively short and entertaining read. All in all, a good addition to the series.
March 3, 2021
You Can Die Laughing is the Cool and Lam series at its best. Erle Stanley Gardner, the creator of Perry Mason, wrote this series about a pair of mismatched detectives, heavyset bossy Bertha Cool and brainy bantamweight Donald Lam. It is a lighthearted version of a hardboiled detective novel with all of the usual fixings, including mischievous clients, buxom redheaded beauties, scandals, inheritances, property disputes, and missing wives. Gardner really did a great job with this one perfectly pacing it and filling it with lots of good stuff. Interestingly, Gardner's Bertha Cool is sort of an early version of a feminist out to prove that she is as tough and hard and mean as any man and who constantly finds it insulting that clients are disappointed to find her as the senior partner. She is described here as "one hundred and sixty-five pounds [of] hard flesh, and she was as unyielding as a roll of barbed wire."
This novel has great characters including the larger than live Texan who is used to pushing his weight around. He is big, raw-boned, with steely gray eyes, bushy eyebrows, and new cowboy boots. Then there is Mr. Wells who apparently is unconcerned that his wife disappeared without making him breakfast and who likes to sleep in if he can. And when the wife appears she is a "knockout in a jersey and very short shorts. She had red hair, blue eyes, and figure like one of the babes in the comic strips." And, of course, to complete the picture, every sentence she uttered dripped with sexual innuendo even when she talked about housework.
This novel is fast-moving. The plot holds together well. And is just fun to read.
This novel has great characters including the larger than live Texan who is used to pushing his weight around. He is big, raw-boned, with steely gray eyes, bushy eyebrows, and new cowboy boots. Then there is Mr. Wells who apparently is unconcerned that his wife disappeared without making him breakfast and who likes to sleep in if he can. And when the wife appears she is a "knockout in a jersey and very short shorts. She had red hair, blue eyes, and figure like one of the babes in the comic strips." And, of course, to complete the picture, every sentence she uttered dripped with sexual innuendo even when she talked about housework.
This novel is fast-moving. The plot holds together well. And is just fun to read.
February 19, 2026
Book 16 in Erle Stanley Gardner's excellent Cool & Lam series. I'd pick these up more often, but most of them, especially the later ones, I only have as stinky, decaying paperbacks. While reading this I did manage to get my hands on a so-called complete works of ESG ebook, (all but one are in public domain in the 50-year countries) but when tried to switch over to that I found lots of missing words and other errors in the text for this particular book, so I went back to the nasty acid paper version.
Plot wise this wasn't one of my favorites, but it was fun. Lam's still my favorite PI, and hopefully I won't take another two years getting to the next in the series. It gets a 5 because I would gladly reread the entire series if good ebooks were available.
Plot wise this wasn't one of my favorites, but it was fun. Lam's still my favorite PI, and hopefully I won't take another two years getting to the next in the series. It gets a 5 because I would gladly reread the entire series if good ebooks were available.
August 31, 2012
What a clever plot! All twists and turns, and not unnecessarily so. Wow, Donald Lam is so smart! How did he ever figure out what had really happened?!
I'm liking these A.A.Fair books more and more, and now I've read every single one that I own (these were my dad's favourites and I got them from my mom a while ago).
I read these in Finnish. I wonder if the mood of writing is even better in English...
I'm liking these A.A.Fair books more and more, and now I've read every single one that I own (these were my dad's favourites and I got them from my mom a while ago).
I read these in Finnish. I wonder if the mood of writing is even better in English...
June 1, 2014
I grew up on Perry Mason's legal antics but never ventured into Gardner's pseudonym series of Cool and Lam. So when Amazon put out the Murder Room series for Kindle and offered A.A.Fair's books for free, I tried it and glad I did!
You Can Die Laughing is a book with so many twists that it takes you a while to even figure out what the deal is. Unconventional first person narrative (much like a Noir) by Donald Lam of Cool and Lam Detective agency makes for a fun read. A quick read that keeps you glued to the pages.
Bertha Cool as the tough boss and Lam as the genius make for a good team. The story is complex and confusing as it unfolds, but in the end gives that Aha moment that comes from an intelligent mystery.
It's not a whodunnit but more of a whathappened!
You Can Die Laughing is a book with so many twists that it takes you a while to even figure out what the deal is. Unconventional first person narrative (much like a Noir) by Donald Lam of Cool and Lam Detective agency makes for a fun read. A quick read that keeps you glued to the pages.
Bertha Cool as the tough boss and Lam as the genius make for a good team. The story is complex and confusing as it unfolds, but in the end gives that Aha moment that comes from an intelligent mystery.
It's not a whodunnit but more of a whathappened!
January 5, 2013
I actually prefer the Cool and Lam books to Perry Mason. The writing is looser and wittier. This one finds Donald Lam searching for a beautiful heiress and is full of wonderful twists and turns.
December 18, 2024
Not half bad.
April 7, 2017
AAF/ESG returns to form with a quick, fun read with Donald Lam the P.I., NOT Donald Lam the lawyer, at the helm. AAF/ESG is beginning to show a bit of a ginger fetish as yet another redhead makes an appearance. The dialogue was great & the title is very apropos.
September 30, 2023
This may be the quintessential Cool and Lam book. It's not quite as twisty and turny as some. And Donald doesn't really pull out the legal shenanigans like he sometimes will. But the mystery is clean and interesting. Donald and Bertha are in character and on point. We get some nice time from Captain Frank Sellers. And the book is just compellingly readable. I jammed through this one in one semi-long sitting because I just couldn't put it down. The secondary characters are generally well thought out and have personality. Just a stellar entry in a great series that does tend to run to formula...but it's such a readable formula.
July 1, 2023
One of the very best of Erle Stanley Gardner's wonderful Cool and Lam detective series...As good if not better than his Perry Mason novels.
March 10, 2011
You Can Die Laughing (1957) is a Bertha Cool & Donald Lam mystery written by Erle Stanley Gardner under the name A. A. Fair. I picked this one up on one of my used bookstore hunts simply because it's one of those pocket size editions that I love. I'm not a big fan of the Perry Mason stories--nothing personal, they just don't happen to be my cup of tea--and I never expected to read this one based on what I'd heard about the Cool/Lam series. Then I signed up for the A-Z Reading Challenge and found myself in need of a book whose title began with "Y." It seemed a shame to go hunting for a book at the library when I had a suitable book sitting on the shelf. So, I dove in.
It was pretty much what I expected. American private eye team; a bit of tough talk from the cop who has a love/hate relationship with them; curvy dames. You know the routine. In this particular outing, Cool & Lam are hired by a big, forthright Texan to track down a missing wife. Not his wife. Someone else's. But the lady in question happens to hold rights to a bit of land that this Texan wants. Except now he doesn't...want the land that is. At least, when questioned he denies ever saying that he mentioned land or mineral rights or anything interesting of that nature--all he wants is to find the lady. Just to talk to her, I guess. Lam does a bit of investigating and finds a nosy neighbor who claims that the husband, Drury Wells (if you happened to want to know) has murdered the wife. Nosy neighbor spins a tale that convinces Lam to contact his friend the cop.
But then the "corpse" shows up and is one fine-looking lady. "She had red hair, blue eyes and a figure like one of the babes in the comic strips." Suddenly, the husband is wanting to sue Cool & Lam for defamination of character and the neighbor has had an attack of amnesia. She never said such awful things to Donald Lam. Why would she make up such stories about such nice neighbors? Of course, by this point Lam is smelling something fishy like someone has parked a whole truckload of tuna in the desert sun. What exactly is going on? Has anybody been killed? And the big question, at least for Cool & Lam, will they get paid?
This was a decent private eye story. I guessed part of the solution, but not all. So, Gardner did a fairly good job of keeping me in the dark. The best part for me was the relationship between Bertha Cool and Donald Lam. I'm sure that those who enjoy American private eye novels and who like Perry Mason would rate this much higher than I will. Three stars--decent read, but nothing to knock my socks off.
July 25, 2017
Well plotted, brisk moving mystery with some good intermittent humor. Donald Lam is one of my all time favorite detectives, and his interactions with his partner Bertha Cool are unique in the field of detective fiction. "One of the all-time great mismatched team-ups in detective fiction," is how someone described the Lam-Cool partnership and I heartily agree.
Both Lam and Cool are well drawn characters, and combined with the good plots, these AA Fair mysteries are great reads with this particular story being among the best.
Both Lam and Cool are well drawn characters, and combined with the good plots, these AA Fair mysteries are great reads with this particular story being among the best.
July 6, 2013
It's short and brisk and fun to read. Perfect Saturday afternoon book.
June 16, 2019
This one hits the sweet spot for a Donald Lam/Bertha Cool caper. The prevaricating client, the hither and yon, the smarts of Donald Lam charging through the nonsense to the facts and the money. Even some sage advice along the way:
"You can always get frightened thinking about things that can happen," I said. "You can't conceive of any possible situation where frightening things can't happen."
"I guess that's right."
"You have to go ahead and live your life the way it comes. Play your cards the best you can, and keep grinning. You can't crawl under the bed and hide from life. You're living it and you have to live it until you die."
I guess that's right.
"You can always get frightened thinking about things that can happen," I said. "You can't conceive of any possible situation where frightening things can't happen."
"I guess that's right."
"You have to go ahead and live your life the way it comes. Play your cards the best you can, and keep grinning. You can't crawl under the bed and hide from life. You're living it and you have to live it until you die."
I guess that's right.
September 27, 2022
I am a big fan of Cool and Lam series. I have read a few books here and there out of order. I decided to read the series in order. It is a challenge to get some books as they are not available in ebook format and You Can Die Laughing was one such book. I managed to snag a copy from eBay. I think it is one of the best in the series I have read so far where Donald while making a slip earlier doesn't make a wrong step and uncovers the plot. As always the series starts with a seemingly innocuous request to the agency that eventually blows up to a murder. I enjoyed the book so much as I immediately re-read it.
February 27, 2024
A tightly plotted Cool and Lam, without too much expostulating from Bertha or cigar chewing/beating up on Donald from Sgt. Frank Sellers. A Texas speculator wants to locate a woman who has inherited some seemingly useless desert land and get the rights for mining. Although there's no oil, we find out later that there is uranium. The woman is the common-law wife of Drury Wells and seems to be hard to find. Donald finds a woman masquerading as Mrs. Wells, plus Wells's real wife, and the corpse of his common-law wife at the bottom of a mining shaft. And because Donald is right, again, Bertha has promised to roll a peanut across the floor with her nose!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 8, 2020
Some of my favorite Cool & Lam stories involve Donald not trusting his client and figuring out a way to still come out on top.
August 24, 2021
The book is SO good. Lots of suspense and one of the most satisfying endings I've read in a long time.
April 14, 2020
Un vieux thriller de 1958 retrouvé en rangeant le grenier! Délassant, reposant, et pas mal fagoté...
June 3, 2023
A fast read as the action is simple and well described. Few surprises as the plot evolves. Cool and Lam was a quick read series and always interesting.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews