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Cool and Lam #29
All Grass Isn't Green
All that glitters isn't gold.
A rich man sends Donald Lam looking for a man - when he really wants to find a woman. A minor missing persons case turns out to be a major one. And a pleasure boat on pontoons serves as a smuggler's ship on wheels.
This is a job for detectives who know their fact from fiction, and Bertha Cool and Donald Lam are pitted against people who know too well that all grass isn't green.
A rich man sends Donald Lam looking for a man - when he really wants to find a woman. A minor missing persons case turns out to be a major one. And a pleasure boat on pontoons serves as a smuggler's ship on wheels.
This is a job for detectives who know their fact from fiction, and Bertha Cool and Donald Lam are pitted against people who know too well that all grass isn't green.
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First published June 1, 1970
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 24, 2019
A Farewell to Donald Lam, Bertha Cool, and A. A. Fair
All Grass Isn’t Green is the thirtieth novel in A. A. Fair’s (Erle Stanley Gardner’s) series featuring detectives Donald Lam and Bertha Cool. (Goodreads counts it as the twenty-ninth because the second book that Gardner wrote in the series, The Knife Slipped, was not published until 2016. When Gardner originally finished The Knife Slipped and sent it to his publisher in 1939, the publisher decided that it was to “racy” to be published and so Gardner simply set it aside and went to work on his next project. Standards had apparently changed by 2016, and so the folks at Hard Case Crime finally published the book. For whatever reason, Goodreads counts it as book 1.5 in the series.)
Gardner, of course, was more famous as the author of the hugely successful Perry Mason series, which debuted six years earlier in 1933 with The Case of the Velvet Claws . Later in the Thirties, Gardner decided to write a second series, this time featuring a small private detective agency doing business in Los Angeles. He adopted the pen name, A. A. Fair. By the late 1950s, though, the books were billed as “Erle Stanley Gardner, writing as A. A. Fair.”
Originally, the firm was run by a woman named Bertha Cool, a heavy-set widow who is inent on living her life as she sees fit, irrespective of what anyone might think. She’s blunt, avaricious, and is often described as being tough as barbed wire. Bertha’s operation is decidedly small-time, doing divorce work and other such relatively insignificant jobs, but in the first book The Bigger They Come, she hires Donald Lam as a part-time detective. Donald is small, never weighing more than 135 pounds, unemployed, and down on his luck. He had been a lawyer but was disbarred for reasons that are crucial to the plot of the first book. Hunting for work, he answers Bertha’s ad and solves a very important case.
He proceeds to do the same thing over the next few books and the profits of the agency increase dramatically. Donald then threatens to quit if Bertha doesn’t make him a partner. She reluctantly agrees and the partnership is born. Bertha’s principal responsibility is to tend to the office, although Donald occasionally calls her out into the field for the purpose of intimidating a woman who is interfering with the solution to a case.
Donald’s responsibility is to be out investigating the cases that the firm takes. Bertha repeatedly refers to him as a “brainy little bastard,” particularly when attempting to convince a potential client to hire the firm. Donald is in fact a brainy little bastard, and although he gets beaten up a fair bit, especially in the earlier books, it’s his guts and quick intelligence that always see him through to the end of a case.
Apart from Bertha and Donald, the firm consists only of Elsie Brand, Donald’s adoring secretary, and another woman who is Bertha’s secretary but who is never named. Most importantly, the firm has no other operatives, which makes an interesting contrast to the Perry Mason novels. Mason relied heavily on the services of the Paul Drake Detective Agency. Drake’s operation was huge. At any time of the day or night, Drake could call in dozens of detectives to meet Perry’s needs. Operating all by himself, Donald Lam did the work it would take scores of operatives to do in the Mason novels.
The only other major character in this series is police sergeant Frank Sellers. Sellers first appeared five or six books into the series and is the stereotypical hard-boiled cop of this era who is not very bright—think Sergeant Holcomb in the Mason series. Sellers is quick with his fists and would just as soon beat the information out of a suspect as get it any other way. He’s constantly jumping to conclusions that the evidence doesn’t support, but that’s not a problem for Sellers; once he’s convinced of the solution to a crime, he’s perfectly happy to bend the evidence to support his theories.
In about half of the books, Sellers concludes that Donald Lam, whom he constantly refers to as “Pint-Size” is guilty of the murder or murders that always occur in these stories. Donald will inevitably expose the real killer, usually at the last minute and almost always at grave risk to himself. Generously, he will always allow Sellers to take the credit and the glory, hoping that this will put him in good stead with the sergeant. But it never does, and by the beginning of the next book, Sellers will have hit the “Reset” button and will be back to his blundering, suspicious ways.
All Grass Isn’t Green can easily be read over the course of an evening, which is probably about as long as it took Gardner to write it. That is not in any way intended to demean either the book or its author. But after experimenting with the first few books, Gardner had this formula down so pat that he probably could have written them in his sleep.
The books almost always begin with a potential client coming into the office in need of a detective. The person is almost invariably disappointed to learn that the firm of Cool & Lam consists of a woman and a little runt of a detective. Bertha will have to convince the potential client that they can get the job done.
Once convinced, the client always spins some story about why he or she needs a detective. Bertha will always fall for the story hook, line, and sinker, and will be happy to accept the client’s money. Donald is always much more skeptical, knowing that the client is not being honest and that he or she actually has some other motive for hiring them. That makes no difference to Donald; in fairly short order he will determine what is really at stake in the case and will act accordingly.
In this book, a man who gives his name only as “M. Calhoun” pays cash to have the firm find a man named Colburn Hale. He gives no details about himself and says that he will call the firm for updates. Bertha happily takes the money and Donald goes to work. He quickly discovers who Calhoun really is and determines Calhoun’s real objective.
The case involves trips to Mexico, and the drug trade enters the picture in the form of some marijuana smugglers. (All grass isn’t green.) Eventually someone will be killed, and Donald will be in the soup again. He’s managed to get out of it twenty-nine times in a row, but this is the last book in the series, so who knows?
Over the thirty-one years of this series, no one ever aged or changed in any significant way. Bertha was somewhere in her middle sixties all the way from 1939 to 1970. Donald was somewhere in his middle thirties. The times didn’t really change much either. Even the books written in the early 1960s read like they could have been taking place in the 1930s. In this book, Frank Sellers does have to reluctantly read a suspect his Miranda rights, and people are using Citizen Band radios in their cars. But that’s about as modern as it gets. At one point, Lam retains an attorney to defend someone in a murder case and gives the lawyer a retainer of two hundred dollars—much more 1939 than 1970!
I’ve really enjoyed going back through this series and following the adventures and misadventures of Donald and Bertha again. As always, I would encourage people to read the series in order, although it’s not as critical here as it is in other cases. The first few books should be read in order so as to watch as the two main characters sort out their relationship, but once they’ve done so you can dip into the series at any point without missing anything of consequence. Four stars for All the Grass Isn’t Green; five stars for a series that I’ve been fond of for years.
All Grass Isn’t Green is the thirtieth novel in A. A. Fair’s (Erle Stanley Gardner’s) series featuring detectives Donald Lam and Bertha Cool. (Goodreads counts it as the twenty-ninth because the second book that Gardner wrote in the series, The Knife Slipped, was not published until 2016. When Gardner originally finished The Knife Slipped and sent it to his publisher in 1939, the publisher decided that it was to “racy” to be published and so Gardner simply set it aside and went to work on his next project. Standards had apparently changed by 2016, and so the folks at Hard Case Crime finally published the book. For whatever reason, Goodreads counts it as book 1.5 in the series.)
Gardner, of course, was more famous as the author of the hugely successful Perry Mason series, which debuted six years earlier in 1933 with The Case of the Velvet Claws . Later in the Thirties, Gardner decided to write a second series, this time featuring a small private detective agency doing business in Los Angeles. He adopted the pen name, A. A. Fair. By the late 1950s, though, the books were billed as “Erle Stanley Gardner, writing as A. A. Fair.”
Originally, the firm was run by a woman named Bertha Cool, a heavy-set widow who is inent on living her life as she sees fit, irrespective of what anyone might think. She’s blunt, avaricious, and is often described as being tough as barbed wire. Bertha’s operation is decidedly small-time, doing divorce work and other such relatively insignificant jobs, but in the first book The Bigger They Come, she hires Donald Lam as a part-time detective. Donald is small, never weighing more than 135 pounds, unemployed, and down on his luck. He had been a lawyer but was disbarred for reasons that are crucial to the plot of the first book. Hunting for work, he answers Bertha’s ad and solves a very important case.
He proceeds to do the same thing over the next few books and the profits of the agency increase dramatically. Donald then threatens to quit if Bertha doesn’t make him a partner. She reluctantly agrees and the partnership is born. Bertha’s principal responsibility is to tend to the office, although Donald occasionally calls her out into the field for the purpose of intimidating a woman who is interfering with the solution to a case.
Donald’s responsibility is to be out investigating the cases that the firm takes. Bertha repeatedly refers to him as a “brainy little bastard,” particularly when attempting to convince a potential client to hire the firm. Donald is in fact a brainy little bastard, and although he gets beaten up a fair bit, especially in the earlier books, it’s his guts and quick intelligence that always see him through to the end of a case.
Apart from Bertha and Donald, the firm consists only of Elsie Brand, Donald’s adoring secretary, and another woman who is Bertha’s secretary but who is never named. Most importantly, the firm has no other operatives, which makes an interesting contrast to the Perry Mason novels. Mason relied heavily on the services of the Paul Drake Detective Agency. Drake’s operation was huge. At any time of the day or night, Drake could call in dozens of detectives to meet Perry’s needs. Operating all by himself, Donald Lam did the work it would take scores of operatives to do in the Mason novels.
The only other major character in this series is police sergeant Frank Sellers. Sellers first appeared five or six books into the series and is the stereotypical hard-boiled cop of this era who is not very bright—think Sergeant Holcomb in the Mason series. Sellers is quick with his fists and would just as soon beat the information out of a suspect as get it any other way. He’s constantly jumping to conclusions that the evidence doesn’t support, but that’s not a problem for Sellers; once he’s convinced of the solution to a crime, he’s perfectly happy to bend the evidence to support his theories.
In about half of the books, Sellers concludes that Donald Lam, whom he constantly refers to as “Pint-Size” is guilty of the murder or murders that always occur in these stories. Donald will inevitably expose the real killer, usually at the last minute and almost always at grave risk to himself. Generously, he will always allow Sellers to take the credit and the glory, hoping that this will put him in good stead with the sergeant. But it never does, and by the beginning of the next book, Sellers will have hit the “Reset” button and will be back to his blundering, suspicious ways.
All Grass Isn’t Green can easily be read over the course of an evening, which is probably about as long as it took Gardner to write it. That is not in any way intended to demean either the book or its author. But after experimenting with the first few books, Gardner had this formula down so pat that he probably could have written them in his sleep.
The books almost always begin with a potential client coming into the office in need of a detective. The person is almost invariably disappointed to learn that the firm of Cool & Lam consists of a woman and a little runt of a detective. Bertha will have to convince the potential client that they can get the job done.
Once convinced, the client always spins some story about why he or she needs a detective. Bertha will always fall for the story hook, line, and sinker, and will be happy to accept the client’s money. Donald is always much more skeptical, knowing that the client is not being honest and that he or she actually has some other motive for hiring them. That makes no difference to Donald; in fairly short order he will determine what is really at stake in the case and will act accordingly.
In this book, a man who gives his name only as “M. Calhoun” pays cash to have the firm find a man named Colburn Hale. He gives no details about himself and says that he will call the firm for updates. Bertha happily takes the money and Donald goes to work. He quickly discovers who Calhoun really is and determines Calhoun’s real objective.
The case involves trips to Mexico, and the drug trade enters the picture in the form of some marijuana smugglers. (All grass isn’t green.) Eventually someone will be killed, and Donald will be in the soup again. He’s managed to get out of it twenty-nine times in a row, but this is the last book in the series, so who knows?
Over the thirty-one years of this series, no one ever aged or changed in any significant way. Bertha was somewhere in her middle sixties all the way from 1939 to 1970. Donald was somewhere in his middle thirties. The times didn’t really change much either. Even the books written in the early 1960s read like they could have been taking place in the 1930s. In this book, Frank Sellers does have to reluctantly read a suspect his Miranda rights, and people are using Citizen Band radios in their cars. But that’s about as modern as it gets. At one point, Lam retains an attorney to defend someone in a murder case and gives the lawyer a retainer of two hundred dollars—much more 1939 than 1970!
I’ve really enjoyed going back through this series and following the adventures and misadventures of Donald and Bertha again. As always, I would encourage people to read the series in order, although it’s not as critical here as it is in other cases. The first few books should be read in order so as to watch as the two main characters sort out their relationship, but once they’ve done so you can dip into the series at any point without missing anything of consequence. Four stars for All the Grass Isn’t Green; five stars for a series that I’ve been fond of for years.
June 12, 2017
All Grass Isn't Green is the final book in the Cool and Lam series and was written at the end of Gardner's career in which he published more books than you would imagine possible. This series was developed with an eye toward an unlikely detective duo, heavyset overbearing miser Bertha Cool and brainy bantamweight Donald Lam. Bertha, known for exclaiming "fry me for an oyster," barely makes an appearance in this one which is all Lam all the way. It's a lesson in how tiny clues can lead to something far bigger. A search for a missing novelist leads Donald into the back areas of Mexico, to rundown motels, and back and forth across the border, to drug smugglers and killers, and ultimately into a courtroom where Donald plays his best Perry Mason. A terrific enjoyable story that holds together well and is hard to put down.
May 25, 2017
And so it ends, not with a bang, but a whimper. I have now read all of the original 29 A. A. Fair Cool & Lam mysteries with the exception of the four (4) that I do not (yet) own.
If you are coming late to the party, know that I was a Perry Mason fan since a very tender age & read most of the novels & watched the reruns with my maternal grandmother after school religiously. I found the Perry Mason books accessible even at that young age, but when I began to branch out, especially to Cool & Lam, I quickly found my foundering in the deep end of the pool & set them aside, only to have them get buried at my parents' house. When I moved 8.5 years ago, I uncovered the series & when inspiration struck a couple of years ago, I began reading them.
It has been an experience! ESG was (mostly) able to step out of his comfort zone of the courtroom drama & create a believable cast of characters, who, although now quite dated, still resonate.
It was too bad that this was the last of the original 29 (a "lost" novel has recently been released by Hard Case Crime), since the ending was in a courtroom setting 8=( & AAF/ESG had not kept up with the times. Marijuana smuggling worth "thousands of dollars"?!? C'mon, even in 1970, it was far more lucrative than that. It was a reversion, on his part, to poor form.
Ah, well. RIP, AAF/ESG, you did well.
If you are coming late to the party, know that I was a Perry Mason fan since a very tender age & read most of the novels & watched the reruns with my maternal grandmother after school religiously. I found the Perry Mason books accessible even at that young age, but when I began to branch out, especially to Cool & Lam, I quickly found my foundering in the deep end of the pool & set them aside, only to have them get buried at my parents' house. When I moved 8.5 years ago, I uncovered the series & when inspiration struck a couple of years ago, I began reading them.
It has been an experience! ESG was (mostly) able to step out of his comfort zone of the courtroom drama & create a believable cast of characters, who, although now quite dated, still resonate.
It was too bad that this was the last of the original 29 (a "lost" novel has recently been released by Hard Case Crime), since the ending was in a courtroom setting 8=( & AAF/ESG had not kept up with the times. Marijuana smuggling worth "thousands of dollars"?!? C'mon, even in 1970, it was far more lucrative than that. It was a reversion, on his part, to poor form.
Ah, well. RIP, AAF/ESG, you did well.
March 4, 2014
This was the last of the of the twenty-nine novels written about Donald Lam and Bertha Cool, an unlikely duo that is comprised of huge, crude and direct Bertha, and the small, shady and brilliant private eye Donald. This series is the second most popular of Earl Stanley Gardner's books. Some readers actually prefer these adventures better than the Mason novels. All Grass Isn't Green was the last novel that was published in Gardner's lifetime.
What a disappointment. Perhaps reading the final book in a series is not the best introduction, and at the time, Gardner was very ill and near death, but the writing is just too hackneyed. The characters were not well developed. The events, actions and places were hastily described and seem uninspired. If this wasn't from one of the preeminent and prolific mystery writers of the 20th century, it could be dismissed as dreadful. As it is, it is a poor finale.
What a disappointment. Perhaps reading the final book in a series is not the best introduction, and at the time, Gardner was very ill and near death, but the writing is just too hackneyed. The characters were not well developed. The events, actions and places were hastily described and seem uninspired. If this wasn't from one of the preeminent and prolific mystery writers of the 20th century, it could be dismissed as dreadful. As it is, it is a poor finale.
September 14, 2024
And thus we come to the end of the Cool and Lam series. And it ends not with a bang...and if not quite a whimper, it's little more than a soft moan. The series had long since fallen in to formula and this was no exception. And I know that Gardner had been battling cancer and was very sick when this one was written and died shortly thereafter. But there's just nothing here that's anything but a pale shadow of the best of the series. It drives along on the formula and it's readable, but that's it. Bertha, who had long been a secondary character was barely present. Elsie is almost equally missing. Frank Sellers is just as dumb as he's been for most of the back half of the series.
Two things almost make this stand out. The plot revolves around marijuana smuggling, which was certainly different for the series. And in the end, Donald shows some courtroom prowess that reminds us that he was originally a lawyer turned detective. But this one you can miss and probably should. Yeah, it's a very quick read. But it leaves a very unsatisfactory close to some characters who were once very very interesting.
Two things almost make this stand out. The plot revolves around marijuana smuggling, which was certainly different for the series. And in the end, Donald shows some courtroom prowess that reminds us that he was originally a lawyer turned detective. But this one you can miss and probably should. Yeah, it's a very quick read. But it leaves a very unsatisfactory close to some characters who were once very very interesting.
May 21, 2025
Should have definitely read the first one first. Very dry but with bits of humor toward the end that was a welcome relief.
Five minutes later:
I just learned that this was the last book in that series and while I wasn't judging it all based on this one, I feel bad for judging it harshly since it was the last one... anywho, I can understand the book better for knowing it now.
Five minutes later:
I just learned that this was the last book in that series and while I wasn't judging it all based on this one, I feel bad for judging it harshly since it was the last one... anywho, I can understand the book better for knowing it now.
May 3, 2026
I didn’t realize when I read this book that this was the final book in a 20+ series. Very dry but well written and I thoroughly enjoyed this. I wasn’t expecting much and this was more than I expected lol now I’m gonna have to go back and see if I can find the rest of the series.
August 20, 2019
Read in Danish.
September 26, 2020
Pot smugglers from Mexico and Donald Lam is involved. So, of course there is a murder. However, there is no pretty young woman throwing herself at Donald!
October 29, 2023
Lam outdoes Mason.
Great court room scene where client sacks his lawyer and Donald gets him off.
Terrific stuff once more from ESG.
Great court room scene where client sacks his lawyer and Donald gets him off.
Terrific stuff once more from ESG.
October 28, 2025
This is the last book in the Bertha Cool/Donald Lam private detective agency series by Erle Stanley Gardner under another of his pseudonyms. The client hires Lam to find a man, but he is actually looking for a woman journalist who has gotten mixed up in a marijuana smuggling operation between Mexico and California. A quick read, not substantive, poorly written.
May 8, 2013
Detective fiction was never better than when Gardner was in his prime. After making his creation Perry Mason into a household name he branched out under a pseudonym. This effort featured dope smuggling and a witness who is both more, and less, than he seems in this suspenseful tale. Donald Lam, as a detective, is in stark contrast to the fictional hard-boiled types of his era. Donald is short, weighs 130 pounds soaking wet, and gets beat up quite frequently. While he does get into several fistfights, he loses all but one — a single fistfight against an insurance investigator in Double or Quits. It should be noted that this was only after taking boxing lessons and studying jujitsu with a master named Hashita in Gold Comes in Bricks. Donald doesn't carry a gun because, as he says: A) "A gun, a good type of gun such as I would want to carry, costs money", and B) "People are always taking it away from me and beating me up" (meaning the gun). He primary weapon is his brain, not his brawn.
January 13, 2011
I really enjoyed the change of perspective with the first person being the detective. It is still much in the style of Perry Mason. But I truly enjoyed the courtroom scene at the end and the cocky lawyer getting what he deserved.
June 16, 2011
The last Cool/Lam book. Gardner was 80 and in poor health, but the book is still readable, but with a few extended digressions.
Want to Read
December 22, 2018Synopsis: the last Cool and Lam by Erle Stanley Gardner. Donald searches for a missing novelist.
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