THE RIMLEY RENDEZOUS was a back-street bistro where a tired businessman could drop in for a pick-up, no questions asked.The cover charge was steep, Blackmail was the major part of the tab. It was a lucrative business—until a murderer cut into the profits...and left his weapon in Donald Lam's car.The famous team of COOL and LAM at their fast-moving, quick-thinking best."Many enthusiasts like Erle Stanley Gardner even better in his disguise as A. A. Fair"

EMERALDS ARE FOR EVILShirley was sultry, sexy, smashing—a sweet young thing to make a sugar daddy's mouth water. This luscious lass loved pretty baubles, so no wonder men showered her with jewels. But when a deluge of emeralds turned into a reign of terror, Shirley needed someone to bail her out.That brought Bertha Cool and Donald Lam into the act, as the indomitable detective duo discovered that emeralds could be a girl's worst enemy when they carried a price tag of murder.....

Almost everyone knows that Stanley Ketchel was one of the great boxing champions of all time, but many have forgotten that he was murdered—and under baffling circumstances. All the evidence pointed to a gambling syndicate yet the case was obscured by a missing diamond stickpin, a lucky bracelet, and a pretty cook. Here Erle Stanley Gardner relates how this strange case was solved by not following the logical clues.

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...

A beautiful coed is raped and murdered. Only one clue is found, so small that it is invisible to the naked eye. Can such a tiny lead bring a murderer to justice?

An odd couple of detectives descends on New Orleans to search for a missing heiress in this hard-boiled mystery by the creator of Perry Mason.Bertha Cool is a bulldog of a woman with an attitude to match. Donald Lam is a handsome ex-lawyer who makes up for in brains what he lacks in brawn. Together, they're an unlikely pair of private detectives on a mission to find Roberta Fenn, a missing model and heiress in New Orleans. It's a seemingly simple case of lost and f...

Meet the brash and irresistible Bertha Cool and Donald Lam—the iconic detective duo who stars in this classic crime novel from the creator of Perry Mason.Hired by a mysterious “Mr. Smith” to find a woman who vanished 21 years earlier, Donald Lam finds himself facing a sadistic cop, a desperate showgirl, a duplicitous client, and one very dogged (and beautiful) newspaper reporter. Meanwhile, Bertha Cool’s attempts to cut herself in on this lucrative opportunity land...

Bertha Cool and Donald Lam investigate their twistiest case yet in this thrilling crime novel from the creator of Perry Mason.Erle Stanley Gardner was not just the creator of Perry Mason. At the time of his death, he was the best-selling American author of all time, with hundreds of millions of books in print, including the 29 cases of the brash, irresistible detective team of Bertha Cool and Donald Lam. Gardner was also one of the most ingenious plot-spinners in t...

From Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner - during his life, the best-selling American author of all time -- comes a lost classic of detective fiction featuring private eyes Donald Lam (once played by Frank Sinatra!) and Bertha Cool."What I can say is that for those who like their crime fiction to be high-octane, this novel is a stunner." The Daily MailHBO series Perry Mason, based on characters from Erle Stanley Gardne...

Lost for more than 75 years, The Knife Slipped was meant to be the second book in the series, but shelved when Gardner’s publisher objected to (among other things) Bertha Cool’s tendency to “talk tough, swear, smoke cigarettes, and try to gyp people.” But this tale of adultery and corruption, of double-crosses and triple identities—however shocking for 1939—shines today as a glorious present from the past, a return to the heyday of private eyes and shady dames, of powerful crimina...

Mason is hired to stop a news story about an old beauty pageant. Later, he ends up defending the former contestant on murder charges.

The diminutive detective and his bulldog of a boss head to Las Vegas to find a runaway bride in this hard-boiled mystery by the creator of Perry Mason.Donald Lam and Bertha Cool make for a couple of unlikely detectives. Donald is a charming ex-lawyer in his thirties who may lack brawn but makes up for it in brains. Bertha, meanwhile, is a fifty-something-year-old widow who won't take lip from anyone. She certainly won't let a bout of illness keep her down. After a ...