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Following a money trail leads a PI into danger in this hard-boiled mystery by the creator of Perry Mason and author of Turn on the Heat. Brainy private detective Donald Lam is always one step ahead of the bad guys-but he's also smaller than them and typically gets beat up. That's why his boss, the ever-irascible Bertha Cool, has hired a martial arts master to teach him self-defense. The first class isn't easy for Donald, but he is rewarded with a new client . . . Henry Ashbury is concerned show more about his daughter's recent spending habits. He wants Donald to find out where her money is going, without letting on that he's a detective. So, going undercover as Ashbury's trainer, Donald soon learns the story behind the daughter's finances. But when his investigation also turns up a dead body, the diminutive detective must teach the killer a lesson in justice . . . "Lively wit and machinegun dialogue." -Ralph E. Vaughan, author of Murder in the Goblins' Playground "Gardner has a way of moving the story forward that is almost a lost art: great stretches of dialogue alternate with lively chunks of exposition, and the two work together perfectly, without sacrificing momentum." -Booklist. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Erle Stanley Gardner, creator of Perry Mason, wrote the Cool and Lam series under the pen name AA Fair. In it, he offers us readers a mismatched pair of detectives, heavyweight hardnosed Bertha Cool and brainy bantamweight Donald Lam. This (originally the 2nd book in the series) has Lam getting more comfortable in his role as the real brains of the operation and Bertha slowly giving up control of the agency. This 1940 thriller is a bit dated and involves blackmail, stock swindles, gold mine swindles, and of course, murder. Some of the scheming with these swindles was perhaps too complex for this genre. Gardner's legal training shows up in these schemes involving Blue Sky Laws. Short, non-jock Lam plays the part of a physical fitness show more trainer, an attempt at humor that doesn't quite work. show less
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5,361 works; 114 members
Author Information
862+ Works 30,639 Members
Mystery writer Erle Gardner was born on July 17, 1889 in Malden, Massachusetts. In 1902, he had moved to Oroville, CA. His parents could not afford to send a second son to college, so he worked in a legal office as a clerk reading law. He spent a short time at Valparaiso University in Indiana but had to drop out because of an illegal boxing show more exhibition. He continued to travel throughout California and read law at several law offices and finally passed the bar in 1911, at the age of 21. He married Natalie Francis Beatrice Talbert on April 9, 1912. In 1916, he formed the Law Firm of Orr and Gardner in Venture, CA. Gardner used many pseudonyms such as Charles Green, Kyle Corning and Grant Holiday. While working as an attorney, he began writing fiction. In 1921, "Nellie's Naughty Nighty" was published in the pulp magazine Breezy Stories. He had a goal of writing 100,000 words a month and would sometimes write two or more stories a day. In 1923, "The Shrieking Skeleton" was sold to the Black Mask Magazine. In the 1930's, Gardner had two manuscripts that were rejected and than "rediscovered" by Thayer Hobson, the president of the William Morrow Publishing Company, and rewritten as courtroom mysteries. During this process, the character Perry Mason was born. In 1933, the first Perry Mason book was written, "The Case of the Velvet Claws." The next one was entitled "The Case of the Sulky Girl" and they were followed by more than eighty additional Mason mysteries. Gardner died on March 11, 1970. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Dell Mystery (84)
Work Relationships
Common Knowledge
- Original title
- Gold Comes in Bricks
- Original publication date
- 1940-09
- People/Characters
- Donald Lam; Bertha Cool
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 144
- Popularity
- 226,188
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.61)
- Languages
- 5 — Czech, Danish, English, German, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 11
- ASINs
- 23
