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Cool and Lam #3
Gold Comes in Bricks
(A book in the Donald Lam and Bertha Cool series)
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.
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.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1940
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
January 9, 2017
The fourth entry in A. A. Fair (Erle Stanley Gardner)'s Donald Lam-Bertha Cool series is set in 1940. It's still early in the game for Donald and Bertha, but the series is hitting its stride, and while there are still a couple of wrinkles to be worked out, the general parameters of the series are now in place. Bertha is the big, tough, cheap, no-nonsense half of the team, while Donald is the small, brainy guy who is irresistible to women and who always seems to be half a step ahead of everyone else in the game, most especially, Bertha, who constantly nags and questions whatever he's doing until he inevitably pulls a rabbit out of the hat and saves everyone's bacon.
The case opens when Bertha hires a Japanese judo instructor to teach Donald how to defend himself. He's a small guy and is constantly getting beaten up. He's also a valuable asset, and Bertha would like to see him survive. (It's 1940, and so there are a lot of politically incorrect references to the "Jap" instuctor.) This proves to be a difficult proposition, and the lessons aren't going very well, but then a potential client drops by in the middle of one of Donald's lessons. The guy needs a private detective to check up on his daughter and conceives of the notion of having Donald come out to his house on the pretense of giving him physical fitness tips as a means of getting Donald close to the daughter.
It's a hare-brained scheme, especially since Donald is failing miserably at his his own lessons, but for a hundred bucks a day, Bertha thinks it's a great idea. Once in the household, Donald quickly concludes that the beautiful, feisty daughter is being blackmailed. All sorts of other shenanigans are taking place, and pretty quickly, somebody gets killed and all hell breaks loose. Donald will have to think very quickly to survive this case and save everyone involved, including the client and his boss.
Like virtually every other book written by Gardner, the Perry Masons included, the whole thing gets pretty preposterous, but it's still a lot of fun. And if you just suspend disbelief and go along for the ride, it's a very entertaining way to spend a winter evening.
The case opens when Bertha hires a Japanese judo instructor to teach Donald how to defend himself. He's a small guy and is constantly getting beaten up. He's also a valuable asset, and Bertha would like to see him survive. (It's 1940, and so there are a lot of politically incorrect references to the "Jap" instuctor.) This proves to be a difficult proposition, and the lessons aren't going very well, but then a potential client drops by in the middle of one of Donald's lessons. The guy needs a private detective to check up on his daughter and conceives of the notion of having Donald come out to his house on the pretense of giving him physical fitness tips as a means of getting Donald close to the daughter.
It's a hare-brained scheme, especially since Donald is failing miserably at his his own lessons, but for a hundred bucks a day, Bertha thinks it's a great idea. Once in the household, Donald quickly concludes that the beautiful, feisty daughter is being blackmailed. All sorts of other shenanigans are taking place, and pretty quickly, somebody gets killed and all hell breaks loose. Donald will have to think very quickly to survive this case and save everyone involved, including the client and his boss.
Like virtually every other book written by Gardner, the Perry Masons included, the whole thing gets pretty preposterous, but it's still a lot of fun. And if you just suspend disbelief and go along for the ride, it's a very entertaining way to spend a winter evening.
March 21, 2018
Another hard hitting Cool and Lam story. All about blackmail, share scams and murder. Donald Lam almost finds himself in jail for murder but escapes the rap with ingenuity and the help of Bertha Cool and the client.
No frills crime detection at a fast pace.
No frills crime detection at a fast pace.
March 22, 2020
So much fast-moving fun! "The lawyer looked smugly down his nose as though he'd actually done something." Yes, okay, the plot is ludicrously complicated, but the situations and the dialog are so entertaining that that barely matters.
In case you were wondering what good hooch cost in 1939, it was about $3 a quart.
In case you were wondering what good hooch cost in 1939, it was about $3 a quart.
June 10, 2017
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 trainer, an attempt at humor that doesn't quite work.
May 12, 2015
Delighted to get the chance to re-read this series. This was published in 1942 and features private detectives Bertha Cool and Donald Lam. It's fairly light-hearted and Lam is a really smart character. The author, who is better known as Erle Stanley Gardner of Perry Mason fame, throws in some interesting facts about frauds and gold mining too!
May 26, 2022
Fun
I have always liked Donald Lam - brains, not so much brawn. Good egg, square dealing young man with lots of brains. Bertha is like a tank, and Elsie Brand is a cutie. I'm delighted to find these being released in ebook format.
I have always liked Donald Lam - brains, not so much brawn. Good egg, square dealing young man with lots of brains. Bertha is like a tank, and Elsie Brand is a cutie. I'm delighted to find these being released in ebook format.
March 10, 2023
Not sure why I felt this was not as strong. The action lagged for me in the middle parts of the book, and the incidental characters were less compelling. The whole story line in the Valley seemed topeter out a bit too. Not my favourite of the Lam-Cool books.
May 14, 2017
Okay, to put this book in its proper perspective -- it is part of the "Cool & Lam" series written by Erle Stanley Gardner, of "Perry Mason" fame (using the pen name A.A. Fair -- even after his true identity came out). The first book in the series was The Bigger They Come (1938), which was followed by The Knife Slipped (1939) -- only The Knife Slipped was never published till 2016 when Hard Case Crime books unearthed it from obscurity. So when THIS book (Gold Comes in Bricks) came out in 1940, even though it was the third "Cool & Lam" book Mr. Gardner had written, it was only the second one published -- so out of the about thirty books published in the series (stretching into the 1970's), it will probably always be known as #2. And a great (and, sadly obscure) series it is. I intend to read them all in order of course. But this one is a little gem. And above everything, the series is FUN. The stories are told with great humor, but with just enough genuine suspense to make you care about and keep turning the pages. And Bertha Cool and Donald Lam are unforgettable characters -- this series really deserves to be at least a television series (is anybody listening out there?). Bertha Cool, in particular, is a fictional woman WAY ahead of her time -- funny, profane, and TOUGH as nails; she is an absolute delight to read. If any of my friends would like to start this series, I will be happy to loan you the first one, The Bigger They Come -- I bought it on eBay, and am probably the only person you know who has a copy!
November 26, 2017
After finishing this entry in the Cool & Lam series, i wish Gardner had done more stories with just Cool.
This is a hugely convoluted tale that goes beyond reason. Gardner is trying so hard to be clever that he pulls apart the aspects of a good story along the way - again. Overall, the basic plot and solution are worthy. How Gardener get there is just ridiculous. Trying to throw the reader off with a secondary plot element that is overly written and so obviously a MaGuffin, is a disappointing act of Gardner's.
Gardner also writes the novel as if the police force has shut down and taken a vacation. Law enforcement had lots of cause for pulling people in for questioning through out the book, but are not to be found until the end of the book. I hate it when a writer of this caliper writes like the readers are fools.
The characters lack definition and a few are so similar, at one point, I got them mixed up. Settings are simply detailed.
The highlight of the book is a trip to an old mining area, where Gardner shows energy with a well written setting, characters and a very good simple telling of the history of prospecting gold out west.
However, that shiny moment doesn't save the book for me.
Bottom line: I don't recommend this book. 4 out of ten points.
This is a hugely convoluted tale that goes beyond reason. Gardner is trying so hard to be clever that he pulls apart the aspects of a good story along the way - again. Overall, the basic plot and solution are worthy. How Gardener get there is just ridiculous. Trying to throw the reader off with a secondary plot element that is overly written and so obviously a MaGuffin, is a disappointing act of Gardner's.
Gardner also writes the novel as if the police force has shut down and taken a vacation. Law enforcement had lots of cause for pulling people in for questioning through out the book, but are not to be found until the end of the book. I hate it when a writer of this caliper writes like the readers are fools.
The characters lack definition and a few are so similar, at one point, I got them mixed up. Settings are simply detailed.
The highlight of the book is a trip to an old mining area, where Gardner shows energy with a well written setting, characters and a very good simple telling of the history of prospecting gold out west.
However, that shiny moment doesn't save the book for me.
Bottom line: I don't recommend this book. 4 out of ten points.
April 3, 2022
I picked up two Erle Stanley Gardner books in San Antonio last week, one because of the cover and one because of the title. This is the latter. I don’t know why Gardner wrote this “under the name of A.A. Fair”; a lot of genre authors used multiple pen names at the time. Another of my favorites, the writing duo of Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore, used so many pen names I’m not even sure they kept reliable track of them.
Donald Lam is not your typical noire hero, but then, most noire heroes aren’t typical. Lam is an employee of B. Cool Investigations, run by Bertha Cool. He’s an ex-lawyer (he claims he’s innocent, and that he beat the rap), short, not particularly strong, the kind of guy who brings out the mother instinct in just about everyone, including men. He, of course, uses this to his full advantage.
What makes this more noire rather than just a standard detective book is that there’s no sense of seeking the truth or of fighting for justice. Lam early on identifies the goal—helping BCI’s client avoid trouble—and works solely toward that end. To some extent this requires knowing what’s really going on, but it doesn’t mean he needs to know everything and it doesn’t mean that the criminals necessarily need to come to justice by the end.
Gardner successfully copies the content of classic noire while avoiding the form; this often makes for more wordy descriptions than “Her hair was blond like a hangman’s noose, and just as hard to escape.”
“Revlon’s Color Effects: Hangman’s Noose” would probably be a huge hit.
Lam is, as Bertha seems to realize, sometimes a little too perfect. His setbacks don’t last very long, and his schemes work effectively with no intervention on his part once set in motion. It’s a toss-up; the latter was a bit refreshing to see in a book like this. One of the schemes he starts far from the action, he returns to the action, and the scheme works behind the scenes where we mostly can’t see it until it starts taking effect. There was no belaboring the intricacies of it as novelists tend to do.
That’s one of Lam’s disagreements with Cool, in fact. His notion of a plan is to do it right and do it once; hers is to cut corners and micromanage it, with the result that very often her nearness to the scheme tips off the victims that something’s up.
All in all, a fun book, and I’ll probably pick up more in the series when I see them.
Donald Lam is not your typical noire hero, but then, most noire heroes aren’t typical. Lam is an employee of B. Cool Investigations, run by Bertha Cool. He’s an ex-lawyer (he claims he’s innocent, and that he beat the rap), short, not particularly strong, the kind of guy who brings out the mother instinct in just about everyone, including men. He, of course, uses this to his full advantage.
What makes this more noire rather than just a standard detective book is that there’s no sense of seeking the truth or of fighting for justice. Lam early on identifies the goal—helping BCI’s client avoid trouble—and works solely toward that end. To some extent this requires knowing what’s really going on, but it doesn’t mean he needs to know everything and it doesn’t mean that the criminals necessarily need to come to justice by the end.
Gardner successfully copies the content of classic noire while avoiding the form; this often makes for more wordy descriptions than “Her hair was blond like a hangman’s noose, and just as hard to escape.”
The girl behind the counter was blond, with stiff, wavy hair. I remember one time when I’d seen a strand cut from the rope used by a hangman in San Quentin. A traveling salesman had it, and he had combed the strands all out. That girl’s hair was about the same color, had about the same wave, and looked to be just about as stiff.
“Revlon’s Color Effects: Hangman’s Noose” would probably be a huge hit.
Lam is, as Bertha seems to realize, sometimes a little too perfect. His setbacks don’t last very long, and his schemes work effectively with no intervention on his part once set in motion. It’s a toss-up; the latter was a bit refreshing to see in a book like this. One of the schemes he starts far from the action, he returns to the action, and the scheme works behind the scenes where we mostly can’t see it until it starts taking effect. There was no belaboring the intricacies of it as novelists tend to do.
That’s one of Lam’s disagreements with Cool, in fact. His notion of a plan is to do it right and do it once; hers is to cut corners and micromanage it, with the result that very often her nearness to the scheme tips off the victims that something’s up.
All in all, a fun book, and I’ll probably pick up more in the series when I see them.
January 26, 2011
Lam and Cool are at it again in another fine mystery by A.A. Fair (Earle Stanley Gardner). The plot on this one is fairly convoluted with about three different threads running through it. On the plus side, Lam gets a bit confused about what is going on as well and that makes it a bit more fun.
It's one of those books that make me want to hit my law books and find out if the author is just not trying when it comes to police procedure. I cut slack because it was written in 1940 and is thus before a lot of the landmark criminal cases that came from the Warren Court. Needless to say, cops today would never get a conviction using techniques of the sort we see here. Though with the erosion of rights, the pendulum may be swinging back.
Good fun mystery that is an enjoyable quick read.
It's one of those books that make me want to hit my law books and find out if the author is just not trying when it comes to police procedure. I cut slack because it was written in 1940 and is thus before a lot of the landmark criminal cases that came from the Warren Court. Needless to say, cops today would never get a conviction using techniques of the sort we see here. Though with the erosion of rights, the pendulum may be swinging back.
Good fun mystery that is an enjoyable quick read.
September 10, 2022
My first of the Cool and Lam novels but won't be my last. Both characters are well formed and their relationship with each other is fun and engaging. This case is mainly trying to figure out why a rich man's daughter is handing out 10 thousand dollar checks to a bum. However it quickly blossomed into a much bigger case dealing with a fake mining operation that was selling stocks to suckers, a murder case of a husband killing his wife, and even with Lam himself mixed up with a murder.
Highly recommend, everything I've read by Gardner has been excellent and I really want to read more of these.
Highly recommend, everything I've read by Gardner has been excellent and I really want to read more of these.
September 10, 2023
"Gold Comes in Bricks" is the fourth "Cool and Lam" novel (or the third, if you don't count the "lost" novel "The Knife Slipped") by "Perry Mason" scribe Erle Stanley Gardner (writing as A.A. Fair).
In between lessons in "physical culture" for pint-sized, brainy detective Donald Lam--the less said about the 1940s-era less than enlightened portrayal of his Japanese sensei, the better--Cool and Lam take a case involving blackmail of a rich young woman at the request of her wealthy father.
The Judo lessons for Lam are a result of him getting knocked around by goons a lot of the time. Much is made in the "Cool and Lam" series about Lam's small stature and his propensity for getting in fights with larger opponents who mop the floor with him. His brains are never in question, but his brawn is severely lacking. Bertha Cool also marvels at Lam's winning ways with women with a healthy dose of skepticism.
Meanwhile, the case. As is the usual in these kinds of novels, it's a simple case--possible blackmail--that soon spirals out of control into murder. Though the murder doesn't seem to be as large of a part of the story as we readers might expect. There's more than one scheme afoot, and there are multiple schemers working to attain a number of different goals. Sure, there are always plenty of greedy folks looking to work an angle and make some money everywhere. But this crew takes all the cakes in the bakery. There are gangsters, a crooked lawyer, grifters, shills, miners, a Judo master, terrible cops, and a bizarre family of rich folks. They all come together for murder, blackmail, mayhem, fraud, false business schemes, and general malfeasance.
I took away one star from my review for the simple fact that there are so many plots and plot threads that the convoluted story is pretty hard to follow and to swallow. The author's skill with characters makes the journey entertaining, if confusing at times. Everything gets explained neatly and succinctly...eventually. But I can see a lot of modern readers not having the nimble acuity to follow the author's multiple exercises in subterfuge.
Remember...all that glitters may not necessarily be golden.
You can do far worse than to entertain yourself with the "Cool and Lam" series--even if the books are often hard to find outside of downloads to electronic devices. I'll always prefer real books with real pages.
In between lessons in "physical culture" for pint-sized, brainy detective Donald Lam--the less said about the 1940s-era less than enlightened portrayal of his Japanese sensei, the better--Cool and Lam take a case involving blackmail of a rich young woman at the request of her wealthy father.
The Judo lessons for Lam are a result of him getting knocked around by goons a lot of the time. Much is made in the "Cool and Lam" series about Lam's small stature and his propensity for getting in fights with larger opponents who mop the floor with him. His brains are never in question, but his brawn is severely lacking. Bertha Cool also marvels at Lam's winning ways with women with a healthy dose of skepticism.
Meanwhile, the case. As is the usual in these kinds of novels, it's a simple case--possible blackmail--that soon spirals out of control into murder. Though the murder doesn't seem to be as large of a part of the story as we readers might expect. There's more than one scheme afoot, and there are multiple schemers working to attain a number of different goals. Sure, there are always plenty of greedy folks looking to work an angle and make some money everywhere. But this crew takes all the cakes in the bakery. There are gangsters, a crooked lawyer, grifters, shills, miners, a Judo master, terrible cops, and a bizarre family of rich folks. They all come together for murder, blackmail, mayhem, fraud, false business schemes, and general malfeasance.
I took away one star from my review for the simple fact that there are so many plots and plot threads that the convoluted story is pretty hard to follow and to swallow. The author's skill with characters makes the journey entertaining, if confusing at times. Everything gets explained neatly and succinctly...eventually. But I can see a lot of modern readers not having the nimble acuity to follow the author's multiple exercises in subterfuge.
Remember...all that glitters may not necessarily be golden.
You can do far worse than to entertain yourself with the "Cool and Lam" series--even if the books are often hard to find outside of downloads to electronic devices. I'll always prefer real books with real pages.
February 27, 2025
My review: I love the language. My students hated the complex transactions. 29 of our Master of Arts students and three teachers voted to an average of 3.1. Like many books, they make the first page really interesting, but it becomes duller and clunky/blurry as you get toward the middle.
In class, our young students wondered what Donald did with Alta at the end of the novel, when they were left alone in the office :-)
About the book:
Author - Erle Stanley Gardner.
Published - 1972
Length - 408 Pages.
The fourth sequel in Erle Stanley Gardner's Cool & Lam series (Donald Lam with Bertha Cool as main characters). It is set in 1940.
Like most of Gardner’s books, including the Perry Masons, it gets super ridiculous, but it’s still a blast. Just shut off your brain and enjoy the ride for a fun night in.
Some of the Characters:
Donald: small, witty, a ladies' man.
Bertha: Large, overflowers the edges of chairs.
Hashita: Muscular, jujitsu teacher.
Mr Henry Ashbury
Alta Asbury - daughter
Robert: Ashbury's step son (dodgy. Starts working in a dogdy insurance company when his mum married Ashbury, quickly rising to president.)
Crumweather: Robert's company lawyer.
Pete Digger: land owner, chief god dredger.
Synopsis:
Bertha gets a Japanese judo instructor to teach Donald—he’s small, always getting wrecked, and she wants him to survive. (It’s 1940, so the “Jap” comments are kinda problematic.) The lessons aren’t going great, but then a client rolls up during one of them. He needs a private eye to spy on his daughter and thinks Donald can pretend to give him fitness tips to get close to her.
It’s a wild plan, especially since Donald's failing at his own lessons, but for $100 a day, Bertha’s all in. Once he’s in the house, Donald figures out the daughter’s being blackmailed. Things get messy fast, and someone ends up dead. Donald’s gotta think fast to get through this, save everyone—including the client and Bertha.
In class, our young students wondered what Donald did with Alta at the end of the novel, when they were left alone in the office :-)
About the book:
Author - Erle Stanley Gardner.
Published - 1972
Length - 408 Pages.
The fourth sequel in Erle Stanley Gardner's Cool & Lam series (Donald Lam with Bertha Cool as main characters). It is set in 1940.
Like most of Gardner’s books, including the Perry Masons, it gets super ridiculous, but it’s still a blast. Just shut off your brain and enjoy the ride for a fun night in.
Some of the Characters:
Donald: small, witty, a ladies' man.
Bertha: Large, overflowers the edges of chairs.
Hashita: Muscular, jujitsu teacher.
Mr Henry Ashbury
Alta Asbury - daughter
Robert: Ashbury's step son (dodgy. Starts working in a dogdy insurance company when his mum married Ashbury, quickly rising to president.)
Crumweather: Robert's company lawyer.
Pete Digger: land owner, chief god dredger.
Synopsis:
Bertha gets a Japanese judo instructor to teach Donald—he’s small, always getting wrecked, and she wants him to survive. (It’s 1940, so the “Jap” comments are kinda problematic.) The lessons aren’t going great, but then a client rolls up during one of them. He needs a private eye to spy on his daughter and thinks Donald can pretend to give him fitness tips to get close to her.
It’s a wild plan, especially since Donald's failing at his own lessons, but for $100 a day, Bertha’s all in. Once he’s in the house, Donald figures out the daughter’s being blackmailed. Things get messy fast, and someone ends up dead. Donald’s gotta think fast to get through this, save everyone—including the client and Bertha.
July 20, 2024
This is my second Donald Lam/Bertha Cool I had already started reading before I found out that there was a second book written but not published. It has since been published and I've ordered it, when reading series I like to read the books in order. I've always been fascinated by the written word and the writing process. Seeing how an author grows as he writes is interesting to me. Though three years between books is a bit of a stretch.
Donald Lam is the focal character his time, though Bertha Lam is not absent by any means. There were supposedly more than one storyline but they all seem to merge together by the end. Bertha wants Lam to take up martial arts to augment his thin build, Don is fairly stronger than he looks and during his first lesson he manages to throw his instructor. One of the witnesses to this is a wealthy man, Henry Ashbury, who is immediately impressed and hires Donald to help him get in shape. As it turns out Mr. Ashbury had lost his wife and had subsequently remarried to a woman that wants his money. Her scheme Is a complicated affair involving "dead gold mines". They salt the mines to appear as if they are still viable and sell them to unwary buyers. The plot is quite involved but the writing is fast paced and the story line is light enough to make the reading seem to fly.
This series is written by Erle Stanley Gardner (of Perry Mason fame) under the name of A. A. Fair.
Donald Lam is the focal character his time, though Bertha Lam is not absent by any means. There were supposedly more than one storyline but they all seem to merge together by the end. Bertha wants Lam to take up martial arts to augment his thin build, Don is fairly stronger than he looks and during his first lesson he manages to throw his instructor. One of the witnesses to this is a wealthy man, Henry Ashbury, who is immediately impressed and hires Donald to help him get in shape. As it turns out Mr. Ashbury had lost his wife and had subsequently remarried to a woman that wants his money. Her scheme Is a complicated affair involving "dead gold mines". They salt the mines to appear as if they are still viable and sell them to unwary buyers. The plot is quite involved but the writing is fast paced and the story line is light enough to make the reading seem to fly.
This series is written by Erle Stanley Gardner (of Perry Mason fame) under the name of A. A. Fair.
December 22, 2024
Another enjoyable story by Mr. Gardner. The story is full of twists and turns. I enjoy reading these stories because one is able to obtain an understanding of what Americans were like in the thirties and forties. I believe Mr. Gardner did not portray women in a stereotypical manner of this era. This is especially true with Bertha Cool and his ad. assistant Elsie. Also, Alta Ashbury is a significant character in the story too. What is interesting is how Bertha conjures up new business and is shrewd in her business dealings.
March 23, 2022
Another hard boiled Cool and Lam with a complicated plot. There’s blackmail, a goldmine swindle, and murder. Poor Mr. Ashbury, his second wife is a hypochondriac with a younger lover, her son is fronting for the goldmine swindle, and his daughter is being blackmailed for some letters written by a married lover who is accused of murdering his wife. Lam learns jujitsu, has several women fall for him, sets things to rights, all the while driving Bertha Cool crazy.
March 7, 2024
It's a little bit better than the first book. As long as the story focuses on Donald Lam, it's a great mystery.
Obviously, Erle had no idea how to write a woman main character. And it gets confusing when he writes her talking in the 3rd person about herself. Or refers to Donald as "lover" when she's not in the 3rd person.
It is humorous how Donald is now doing business his way. The plot twists and turns are as enjoyable as the Perry Mason series.
Obviously, Erle had no idea how to write a woman main character. And it gets confusing when he writes her talking in the 3rd person about herself. Or refers to Donald as "lover" when she's not in the 3rd person.
It is humorous how Donald is now doing business his way. The plot twists and turns are as enjoyable as the Perry Mason series.
February 12, 2019
Donald Lam is a private investigator working for Bertha Cool's office.
He's been hired by a wealthy man to find out where his daughter is spending big amounts of money & who it is going to. He doesn't want his family to know who Lam is so he tells them that Lam is giving him physical workouts as a gym coach. Lam discovers blackmail, swindles, and murder.
He's been hired by a wealthy man to find out where his daughter is spending big amounts of money & who it is going to. He doesn't want his family to know who Lam is so he tells them that Lam is giving him physical workouts as a gym coach. Lam discovers blackmail, swindles, and murder.
March 28, 2022
A disbarred lawyer for telling a client the perfect murder. This is the 4th book in the series. Lam once again gets all the girls and solves another murder mystery. Solves a fraud case will doing it. Bertha his over weight boss and she is also a drinker. There is humor through out the novel which is well written. I highly recommend and once again a wonderful read.
October 22, 2018
Reading these almost 80 years after they were written is like going back in time. The dialogue is so snappy I forget how old they are, and then elevators need operators and cars have hand controls. The plot is almost beside the point at times. I just enjoy the writing.
July 23, 2020
I am amazed at how many plots that Erle Stanley Gardner created and how each of them is different and interesting. This is another Cool & Lam mystery and it involves Donald Lam fighting blackmail and fraud. I enjoy the interaction between Donald and Bertha as well.
August 17, 2018
Very well written. Great story.
March 5, 2025
These detective noir stories by AA Fair are always entertaining. This one is no exception. Good story.
September 29, 2022
Gold dust and a gold-digger, but no gold bricks.
The interest in this Cool & Lam mystery (aside from the entertainment value) is that it was published in 1940, making it one of the very first books in the series. Gardner is still feeling his way with this unusual crew of characters and we learn more about where they came from and what makes them tick.
Bertha Cool is the owner of B. Cool Confidential Investigations. She's a beefy, brash broad obsessed with money. Her ability to sniff it out and get her hands on it is her greatest strength as a businesswoman, but her greed and short-sightedness holds her back from the Big Time. Donald Lam is a disbarred lawyer - short and physically insignificant, but whip smart and as tough as Bertha in his quiet way. In this story, their relationship is still in its early stages, with Bertha trying to figure out how to get the most value from Lam's work while paying him the smallest possible salary.
Meanwhile Lam is learning to use his brains and legal background to investigate mysteries, while figuring out how to pry more money out of Bertha and convince her that a business has to spend money to make money. Getting blood out of a turnip is easy in comparison, but Lam is nothing if not persistent and he's more than a match for Bertha.
The action opens in a gym where Bertha has hired a Japanese Jujitsu expert to teach Lam the ropes. She realizes Lam's value to her, but he's just so damned puny. She's still convinced that private investigation is a job for tough guys (and gals) and she wants to make sure Lam is capable of handling himself in hard spots.
Then a man wanders in, looking for a trainer for himself and strikes up a conversation with Bertha. With agility astonishing in a woman of her bulk, Bertha shifts gears. After all, the jujitsu lessons are costing her money, but Henry Ashbury has money and there's a chance she can transfer some of it to her purse. Hashito's ancient art can wait while Bertha reels in a client and gets a contract signed.
We learn that she's paying Donald Lam eight dollars a day, with a quarantee of seventy-five dollars a month. Considering that she's soaking Henry Ashbury for $100/day, Bertha's making a nice profit. But her employee is bidding his time and there's about to be a sesmic power shift in the relationship.
Meanwhile, Lam will pretend to be Ashbury's live-in trainer while finding out what he can about his daughter's troubles. Both Henry and Alta Ashbury are wealthy, but she's paying out large checks and Dad wants to know why. He describes his daughter as "spring steel and dynamite" so Lam will have to be very tactful.
Tact will also be required with the current Mrs. Ashbury, a seductive woman with a nice line in hypochondria when she isn't getting her way. Her grown son is a shiftless bum, but now a mining company has not only hired him, but made him company president. Henry Ashbury smells a con and he wants to make sure neither his or his daughter's money is at risk.
Lam does what he always does, which is to follow his nose. Bertha is content (VERY content!) to stick to the surface and learn only what's needed to collect her fee, but Lam is the original elephant's child. If something doesn't add up, he'll keep digging in spite of his boss's anquished screams that he's wasting his time and her money.
The story behind Alta's blackmail is weak, to put it mildly. The Roaring Twenties swept away blushing maidens concerned with their pristine reputations. And (as her father says) Alta Ashbury wouldn't have been a shrinking violet at any time. The main event is a company selling shares in diamond mines. It's the age-old scam brought up-to-date with tales of secret new technology. The "secret" is in hiring salesmen who know how to woo investors. With Mrs Ashbury's baby boy set up to take the legal heat when/if the crap hits fan, the company is raking in the dough.
Donald does a little prospecting himself and neatly turns the tables on the conmen, but Bertha has to shell out some serious expense money to make it happen. The turnip has blood, but doesn't give it up easily. The relationship between these two polar opposites is shifting, but Bertha's not going down quietly.
I loved the rustic gold miner/moonshiner and the crooked lawyer Crumweather. Right to the end, I was uncertain if Henry Ashbury is really the rough diamond he seems to be or if he's playing his own game, using Donald Lam as a patsy. Like all the books in this series, it has more curves than a goat path and you have to stay alert to remember who's who and what's what.
Lam is a smooth operator, as well as a very likable hero. Bertha is a unique character, as changable and powerful and dangerous as the ocean she loves to fish in. This series is fun and that's why I read them.
The interest in this Cool & Lam mystery (aside from the entertainment value) is that it was published in 1940, making it one of the very first books in the series. Gardner is still feeling his way with this unusual crew of characters and we learn more about where they came from and what makes them tick.
Bertha Cool is the owner of B. Cool Confidential Investigations. She's a beefy, brash broad obsessed with money. Her ability to sniff it out and get her hands on it is her greatest strength as a businesswoman, but her greed and short-sightedness holds her back from the Big Time. Donald Lam is a disbarred lawyer - short and physically insignificant, but whip smart and as tough as Bertha in his quiet way. In this story, their relationship is still in its early stages, with Bertha trying to figure out how to get the most value from Lam's work while paying him the smallest possible salary.
Meanwhile Lam is learning to use his brains and legal background to investigate mysteries, while figuring out how to pry more money out of Bertha and convince her that a business has to spend money to make money. Getting blood out of a turnip is easy in comparison, but Lam is nothing if not persistent and he's more than a match for Bertha.
The action opens in a gym where Bertha has hired a Japanese Jujitsu expert to teach Lam the ropes. She realizes Lam's value to her, but he's just so damned puny. She's still convinced that private investigation is a job for tough guys (and gals) and she wants to make sure Lam is capable of handling himself in hard spots.
Then a man wanders in, looking for a trainer for himself and strikes up a conversation with Bertha. With agility astonishing in a woman of her bulk, Bertha shifts gears. After all, the jujitsu lessons are costing her money, but Henry Ashbury has money and there's a chance she can transfer some of it to her purse. Hashito's ancient art can wait while Bertha reels in a client and gets a contract signed.
We learn that she's paying Donald Lam eight dollars a day, with a quarantee of seventy-five dollars a month. Considering that she's soaking Henry Ashbury for $100/day, Bertha's making a nice profit. But her employee is bidding his time and there's about to be a sesmic power shift in the relationship.
Meanwhile, Lam will pretend to be Ashbury's live-in trainer while finding out what he can about his daughter's troubles. Both Henry and Alta Ashbury are wealthy, but she's paying out large checks and Dad wants to know why. He describes his daughter as "spring steel and dynamite" so Lam will have to be very tactful.
Tact will also be required with the current Mrs. Ashbury, a seductive woman with a nice line in hypochondria when she isn't getting her way. Her grown son is a shiftless bum, but now a mining company has not only hired him, but made him company president. Henry Ashbury smells a con and he wants to make sure neither his or his daughter's money is at risk.
Lam does what he always does, which is to follow his nose. Bertha is content (VERY content!) to stick to the surface and learn only what's needed to collect her fee, but Lam is the original elephant's child. If something doesn't add up, he'll keep digging in spite of his boss's anquished screams that he's wasting his time and her money.
The story behind Alta's blackmail is weak, to put it mildly. The Roaring Twenties swept away blushing maidens concerned with their pristine reputations. And (as her father says) Alta Ashbury wouldn't have been a shrinking violet at any time. The main event is a company selling shares in diamond mines. It's the age-old scam brought up-to-date with tales of secret new technology. The "secret" is in hiring salesmen who know how to woo investors. With Mrs Ashbury's baby boy set up to take the legal heat when/if the crap hits fan, the company is raking in the dough.
Donald does a little prospecting himself and neatly turns the tables on the conmen, but Bertha has to shell out some serious expense money to make it happen. The turnip has blood, but doesn't give it up easily. The relationship between these two polar opposites is shifting, but Bertha's not going down quietly.
I loved the rustic gold miner/moonshiner and the crooked lawyer Crumweather. Right to the end, I was uncertain if Henry Ashbury is really the rough diamond he seems to be or if he's playing his own game, using Donald Lam as a patsy. Like all the books in this series, it has more curves than a goat path and you have to stay alert to remember who's who and what's what.
Lam is a smooth operator, as well as a very likable hero. Bertha is a unique character, as changable and powerful and dangerous as the ocean she loves to fish in. This series is fun and that's why I read them.
March 12, 2015
The story starts with diminutive detective Donald Lam getting the stuffing beat out of him by a Japanese judo instructor, a motif that will be used at various points throughout the book as part gag, part plot element. His boss, the gargantuan Bertha Cool, owner of the B. Cool Detective Agency, is footing the bill for the instruction, and also using the lessons as a wedge in getting a prospective client to hire them for a case, suggesting that Donald can enter the client’s household as a physical fitness instructor, an odd idea, perhaps, unless the client needs a practice dummy.
The client, Henry Ashbury, thinks he wants to hire Cool and Lam to find out what his daughter has been doing that would account for large sums of money vanishing from her bank account. He thinks that’s why he wants to hire them, but that’s only because he does not know how much trouble he and his daughter are in, not just from grifters and blackmailers, but from slimy shysters, smarmy lotharios, and dangers much closer to home. Before Lam is through with the case, a blackmailer will be dead, a gold mine will be revealed a fake, lawyers and conmen will get their comeuppance, thousands of dollars will be exchanged for letters that may or may not exist, Lam will be hunted by the D.A. and the police departments of two counties, and a judo instructor will have his day.
Cool and Lam are the lesser creations of Erle Stanley Gardner, writing under the name of A.A. Fair. Fans of the more well known Perry Mason will find a breezier style of writing, a brisker form or storytelling, but the same lively wit and machinegun dialogue. Lam is the narrator of his own tale, witty, quick-minded, and more than a little snarky from time to time. Because he is not physically head and shoulders above anyone, the villains in this story of greed, murder and betrayal vastly underestimate him, much to their chagrin, a common occurrence in the series. His boss, the colossal Bertha Cool, a bejeweled bull in the proverbial china shop, enters the investigation whenever Lam needs someone to go chin to chin with an irresistible force. Of the two detectives, Lam is the one who does the actual detecting, but the story could not be told without the both of them. Although Bertha Cool seems to exist in the book for no other reason than to pay bills, bamboozle clients and act as a foil for Donald Lam, she is yet an extraordinary character. She looms large in the story, and in the series as a whole, and not just because she makes Nero Wolfe look petite. Take her out of the mix and you have an unremarkable story about a small, seedy detective who probably couldn’t make an investigation agency pay for itself. Together they are dynamite, and will certainly appeal to those who enjoy Gardner’s dynamic and witty writing.
The client, Henry Ashbury, thinks he wants to hire Cool and Lam to find out what his daughter has been doing that would account for large sums of money vanishing from her bank account. He thinks that’s why he wants to hire them, but that’s only because he does not know how much trouble he and his daughter are in, not just from grifters and blackmailers, but from slimy shysters, smarmy lotharios, and dangers much closer to home. Before Lam is through with the case, a blackmailer will be dead, a gold mine will be revealed a fake, lawyers and conmen will get their comeuppance, thousands of dollars will be exchanged for letters that may or may not exist, Lam will be hunted by the D.A. and the police departments of two counties, and a judo instructor will have his day.
Cool and Lam are the lesser creations of Erle Stanley Gardner, writing under the name of A.A. Fair. Fans of the more well known Perry Mason will find a breezier style of writing, a brisker form or storytelling, but the same lively wit and machinegun dialogue. Lam is the narrator of his own tale, witty, quick-minded, and more than a little snarky from time to time. Because he is not physically head and shoulders above anyone, the villains in this story of greed, murder and betrayal vastly underestimate him, much to their chagrin, a common occurrence in the series. His boss, the colossal Bertha Cool, a bejeweled bull in the proverbial china shop, enters the investigation whenever Lam needs someone to go chin to chin with an irresistible force. Of the two detectives, Lam is the one who does the actual detecting, but the story could not be told without the both of them. Although Bertha Cool seems to exist in the book for no other reason than to pay bills, bamboozle clients and act as a foil for Donald Lam, she is yet an extraordinary character. She looms large in the story, and in the series as a whole, and not just because she makes Nero Wolfe look petite. Take her out of the mix and you have an unremarkable story about a small, seedy detective who probably couldn’t make an investigation agency pay for itself. Together they are dynamite, and will certainly appeal to those who enjoy Gardner’s dynamic and witty writing.
February 1, 2025
Gold Comes in Bricks is yet another gem in what has been a brilliant series so far, featuring the slight but forceful PI Donald Lam and his boss, the sweet yet gargantuan Bertha Cool . As always, the case starts with a seemingly simple request: a concerned father hires Cool Detective Agency, suspecting his daughter is being blackmailed and wanting the matter discreetly handled, a scene that echoes the opening of another iconic PI novel, The Big Sleep , where Philip Marlowe is hired under similar circumstances by a worried male relative. Meanwhile, Lam spends his downtime getting tossed around by his Japanese judo instructor.
Once Donald takes the case, he embeds himself in the client’s household under the guise of a personal trainer. There, he encounters a truly strange mix of characters—his employer’s hysterical, hypochondriac second wife, her son and their circle of hangers-on, and of course, the troubled daughter at the center of the mystery. The blackmail plot is quickly exposed, tied to her dark past, but things spiral far beyond mere extortion. Soon, Lam finds himself entangled with a powerful criminal outfit seemingly involved in murder, stock manipulation, and the titular gold.
One of the novel’s standout elements is its setting and atmosphere, which are particularly well done—something that isn’t always the strongest suit in Gardner’s better-known Perry Mason series. The descriptions of gold-dredged, ravaged California landscapes are striking, almost reading as an authorial comment on perfidious nature of prosperity based mineral extraction. The ingenious scheme at the heart of the plot—aimed at circumventing California’s Blue Sky Law—is both clever and satisfying, particularly in how Bertha Cool’s firm ultimately benefits from it.
Gardner’s signature legalistic hijinks are, as expected, a highlight. Here, they are expertly woven into the narrative without bogging the reader down in excessive legal complexities. The murder itself is nearly a perfect crime, and the way it unravels is immensely satisfying. Beyond the mystery, the banter between Bertha and Donald is at its sharpest and funniest, adding a layer of humor to the fast-paced plot. For those with a taste for noir, there are plenty of action sequences and steamy moments to savor—so much so that one might suspect that if PI work ever dried up, Donald Lam could make a comfortable living as a gigolo, given the ease with which he attracts female attention.
Final Verdict
An almost perfect mystery—fast-paced, well-clued, and built around a novel criminal scheme with a well-hidden murderer. This one ranks among the best of the series and is a must-read for fans of classic hardboiled detective fiction with a legal twist.
Once Donald takes the case, he embeds himself in the client’s household under the guise of a personal trainer. There, he encounters a truly strange mix of characters—his employer’s hysterical, hypochondriac second wife, her son and their circle of hangers-on, and of course, the troubled daughter at the center of the mystery. The blackmail plot is quickly exposed, tied to her dark past, but things spiral far beyond mere extortion. Soon, Lam finds himself entangled with a powerful criminal outfit seemingly involved in murder, stock manipulation, and the titular gold.
One of the novel’s standout elements is its setting and atmosphere, which are particularly well done—something that isn’t always the strongest suit in Gardner’s better-known Perry Mason series. The descriptions of gold-dredged, ravaged California landscapes are striking, almost reading as an authorial comment on perfidious nature of prosperity based mineral extraction. The ingenious scheme at the heart of the plot—aimed at circumventing California’s Blue Sky Law—is both clever and satisfying, particularly in how Bertha Cool’s firm ultimately benefits from it.
Gardner’s signature legalistic hijinks are, as expected, a highlight. Here, they are expertly woven into the narrative without bogging the reader down in excessive legal complexities. The murder itself is nearly a perfect crime, and the way it unravels is immensely satisfying. Beyond the mystery, the banter between Bertha and Donald is at its sharpest and funniest, adding a layer of humor to the fast-paced plot. For those with a taste for noir, there are plenty of action sequences and steamy moments to savor—so much so that one might suspect that if PI work ever dried up, Donald Lam could make a comfortable living as a gigolo, given the ease with which he attracts female attention.
Final Verdict
An almost perfect mystery—fast-paced, well-clued, and built around a novel criminal scheme with a well-hidden murderer. This one ranks among the best of the series and is a must-read for fans of classic hardboiled detective fiction with a legal twist.
February 9, 2026
I'm working my way through the entire Cool and Lam series in order, including The Knife Slipped which was supposed to be the second book in the series but wasn't published until 2016. I still feel as if The Knife Slipped is the best in the series so far (maybe because of some 21st century edits?) but this one is now my favorite in the series proper. Gold Comes in Bricks starts a bit slow but by the time the story shifted location, I realized how fully engrossed I was. As usual, all scenes in which Donald and Bertha share are some of the very best in the book but the plot here zigs and zags right to a very unique ending. Certainly worth seeking out.
August 7, 2015
I had purchased most of the books in this series as a preteen when I was on a Perry Mason kick. These struck me as too sophisticated at the time and I set them aside until recently. This one ended with a grift of some grifters plus the story was riveting,
September 1, 2013
I thought it was an OK read. Nothing really spectacular.
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