Donald Lam & Bertha Cool Reading Order
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| The Bigger They Come | 1939 | Buy |
| The Knife Slipped | 1939 | Buy |
| Turn on the Heat | 1940 | Buy |
| Gold Comes in Bricks | 1940 | Buy |
| Spill the Jackpot | 1941 | Buy |
| Double or Quits | 1941 | Buy |
| Owls Don’t Blink | 1942 | Buy |
| Bats Fly at Dusk | 1942 | Buy |
| Cats Prowl at Night | 1943 | Buy |
| Give ’em the Ax | 1944 | Buy |
| Crows Can’t Count | 1946 | Buy |
| Fools Die on Friday | 1947 | Buy |
| Bedrooms Have Windows | 1949 | Buy |
| Top of the Heap | 1952 | Buy |
| Some Women Won’t Wait | 1953 | Buy |
| Beware the Curves | 1956 | Buy |
| You Can Die Laughing | 1957 | Buy |
| Some Slips Don’t Show | 1957 | Buy |
| The Count of 9 | 1958 | Buy |
| Pass the Gravy | 1959 | Buy |
| Kept Women Can’t Quit | 1960 | Buy |
| Bachelors Get Lonely | 1961 | Buy |
| Shills Can’t Cash Chips | 1961 | Buy |
| Try Anything Once | 1962 | Buy |
| Fish or Cut Bait | 1963 | Buy |
| Up for Grabs | 1964 | Buy |
| Cut Thin to Win | 1965 | Buy |
| Widows Wear Weeds | 1966 | Buy |
| Traps Need Fresh Bait | 1967 | Buy |
| All Grass Isn’t Green | 1970 | Buy |
A.A. Fair was the pen name Erle Stanley Gardner used for his long-running series of detective novels about the private investigation firm of Cool and Lam. Gardner was already famous as the creator of Perry Mason, and by the late 1930s he was producing fiction at a rate that made a pseudonym practical. The A.A. Fair books gave him room to write a different kind of mystery – less courtroom procedure, more street-level detective work with a strong comic streak.
The Cool and Lam books follow one of the more unusual pairings in detective fiction. Bertha Cool is a large, loud widow who runs her Los Angeles detective agency with an iron grip on the budget. Donald Lam is a small, sharp former lawyer who lost his license after telling a client how to get away with murder. Bertha hired him because she could pay him next to nothing, but Donald quickly proved too useful to lose. The novels are told from Donald’s point of view, and much of their appeal comes from his dry narration and the constant friction between the two leads. Gardner was a practicing trial lawyer, and that legal background shows up throughout the series in plots full of technicalities and procedural detail. The series ran for over 30 years, and while it never reached the same fame as Perry Mason, it has a loyal following among mystery readers who appreciate its sharp dialogue and offbeat characters.