Jogo, Mulheres e Morte

Cool and Lam #4

by A.A. Fair, José Correia Ribeiro (Translator)

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 stay at the sanitarium, she and Donald are off to Las Vegas for their latest case. Who needs rest?

Mr. Whitewell needs Donald and Bertha to find his son's fianc�e and learn why she abruptly left town. Donald quickly gets to work with just a mysterious letter as his only lead. Soon he uncovers a scheme to swindle casinos, along with a brutal murder. Now he must determine what's going on before someone ensures he's the next member of the agency to have a long hospital stay--or worse.

"The best American writer, of course, is Erle Stanley Gardner." --Evelyn Waugh

"Gardner has a way of moving the story forward that is almost a lost great stretches of dialogue alternate with lively chunks of exposition, and the two work together perfectly, without sacrificing momentum." --Booklist

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime

269 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1941

About the author

A.A. Fair is a pseudonym of Erle Stanley Gardner.

Reviews

[James Thane · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fourth novel to feature Los Angeles P.I. Donald Lam and his boss, Bertha Cool, takes place in 1941. Donald has just picked up Bertha from a sanitarium in San Francisco where she has been treated for various ailments. In the process, she has shed over a hundred pounds and is down to a hundred and sixty. The doctor has stressed to both Bertha and Donald that it is essential that she keep off the weight that she has lost, but Bertha, Donald and anyone who reads this series all know what the chances of that are.

Flying back to L.A., Donald and Bertha stop off in Las Vegas to meet with a potential client. (Times are still so innocent that you can get to the airport ten minutes before the plane is scheduled to depart. Once seated, you can still get off the plane two minutes before flight time to get a candy bar in the terminal, and still be back in your seat with time to spare. But I digress...)

The client, who is also from L.A., has a problem. His son's fiancee has abruptly disappeared and the son is heartbroken. The young woman's trail leads to Las Vegas. The father, a big-shot businessman, was not all that knocked about the forthcoming nuptials, but he loves his son. He wants Bertha and Donald to find the missing fiancee; in the alternative, he hopes they can find some proof that she left of her own volition, which will perhaps help repair the poor boy's broken heart.

All of the action in the book takes place in Vegas and Reno. As is always the case with these books, the plot is pretty convoluted and doesn't make much sense in the harsh light of day. But it's always fun to watch Lam at work and to monitor his relationship with Bertha. Readers who enjoy spending time in Las Vegas or Reno in the present day, should enjoy the descriptions of the two cities from seventy-five years ago, well before the age of Siegfried and Roy and Circqe du soleil.

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may very well be my favorite mystery with Private Detective Donald Lam.

A man hires Lam and Bertha Cool to find his son's missing fiancee. The only clue is a mysterious letter from a woman named Helen Framley from Las Vegas. Needless to say the story takes place in Sin City and also Reno.

This story is a little longer than later Cool and Lam mysteries (this one was written in 1940) and it is also interesting to get a view of Las Vegas and Reno from that time period. Apparently Reno was the place to go to back then, and Vegas was a relatively small potato town. I consider this book a valuable keepsake for that reason.

Because the story is a little longer, it takes us on quite a steeple chase as we are the invisible companions who accompany Donald Lam all over the landscape as he collects clues and forms conclusions.

Fans of mysteries and especially A.A. Fair will enjoy this one.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Spill the Jackpot,” the fourth in the Cool and Lam detective series, written by Erle Stanley Gardner, posing as A. A. Fair, starts out with Don Lam picking up Bertha Cool at a fat-farm sanitarium. Doctor’s orders, she says, 100 pounds lighter, but just as loud and brash and cheap and still towering over Lam’s slight frame. Bertha’s the loud yelling boss of the outfit. Donald’s the brains, the cleverness, the witty one. Fry me for an oyster as Bertha is bound to exclaim. The best of this series is always the interaction between this mismatched pair who somehow figure out how to work together.

Today’s mystery is of the runaway bride variety as she disappeared between keystrokes at her office even leaving her purse behind. Heaven forbid! The client is concerned his over-emotional son won’t take it well. Should just tell the boy to grow a pair! But, anyhow, the slightest of clues leads to a tart, a slot machine shakedown artist, in Las Vegas and Bertha promises that Donald can get to the bottom of it quick because the ladies all fall for his charming ways.

From there, we, the readers (remember us?), get a birds eye view of the inner workings of a team working to scam the casinos. And, that’s pretty interesting stuff. And, of course, it’s the lady who might know something about the missing runaway bride.

That’s all well and good, but it’s all a convoluted mess after that from the train ride from hell to the camping trip on the way to Reno and not to mention the murder charges Donald’s got to alibi for. It’s almost as if Gardner stopped writing this after a most engaging start and then picked it up again months later.

[Colin Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bertha has been in a sanatorium for several month and has lost a great deal of weight but is as irascible as ever. A new case of a missing girl stops their return to Los Angeles, in Las Vegas. Arthur Whitewell's son Philip was due to have been married to Corla Burke but she has disappeared from the office without trace. Donald Lam is at his best and sets out to trace Corla's movements. It is not so surprising how he traces her and some of the characters that are woven into the plot. When a murder is committed Donald himself is suspected and dragged from an aircraft as he was following a lead. The twists are sometimes not quite supported by the evidence in the story line and much is a speculation by Donald that in the end the police swallow. By the end Bertha's appetite has returned.

A good enough story 3 stars.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amnesia? Really? Did they fall for that crap in 1941. Love Lam, and Bertha, and Louie was fun. Gardner's a good plotter but sometimes his endings leave me kind of wait! what? and I feel like I should go back and make a check list to see if everything really adds up. The Cool & Lam books are a treat because unlike Perry Mason I don't get a third or half way through the book and suddenly remember the TV episode based on it. These are fresh, despite the age, and Lam's superb alternative to the typical tough guy detectives. This outing took a kind of odd turn here and there but I enjoyed it a lot, mostly I just wish certain other points had been followed up on or expanded. 4.5ish. (The plot's not dependent on the Amnesia bit. :)

[Johnny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spill the Jackpot was the fourth book published in the Bertha Cool and Donald Lam detective novels by Erle Stanley Gardner (aka A. A. Fair). It was apparently the fifth volume written in the series, but the second novel in the series wasn’t published until Charles Ardai’s Hard Case Crime put it on sale in 2016 [many lists treat the second book as 1.5]. As the title might indicate, slot machines play an important role in this mystery and, as Russell Atwood points out in his work on Erle Stanley Gardner (see the afterword in The Knife Slipped), ESG invested a lot of research in figuring out how things (particularly scams) worked. In this case, readers are treated to some details on how the old mechanical slot machines were rigged and how thieves beat them. Of course, such details take one back to a quaint era since slot machines have a tendency to be digital today.

Speaking of a quaint era, it was a time when a lot of cars still had running boards. In fact, at one point in the story, the running board is wide enough to accommodate a small camp stove. My uncle repaired and refurbished old cars in the ‘50s and ‘60s, so I saw a lot of ‘30s and ‘40s automobiles with running boards, but I never thought of them as being wide enough to hold a camp stove (though, thinking back, I can remember a few that probably were).

Despite the title, Spill the Jackpot doesn’t start off as a casino caper. Indeed, if you’re looking for Oceans 666 (or whatever title that movie series is up to), you’ll be disappointed. There is a casino scam, but it is there for perspective, atmosphere, and background. The mystery begins with a disappearance, a rather too convenient disappearance as is foreshadowed. Yet, the astute reader shouldn’t get too complacent. There are interesting connections with even those who might be considered supporting characters. And, to make things even more interesting, there is a transformation in Bertha Cool after her tenure at what would sarcastically be called a “fat farm” in today’s parlance.

In addition to an interesting mystery (both obvious and not so obvious), the novel explores the idea of whether people can really change. How much of a second chance do they need? Or, should one simply answer “No” to the question about a leopard changing its spots from biblical prophecy (Jeremiah 13:23). There are two characters in which this question becomes dominant and one in which it seems likely but unexplored. Nonetheless, it seemed interesting on multiple levels to me.

Spill the Jackpot doesn’t push through the plot quite as efficiently as a modern thriller might (but doesn’t always), but the sidetracks were sufficiently entertaining to hold my interest. The book offers a more mature, measured writing style than the once lost The Knife Slipped but it wasn’t as exciting to me as that volume.

[Bailey Marissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was recommended to me by someone who saw me buy Perry Mason books. It was ok, but Paul Drake, who only shows up for a third of each book at most, has more personality than the MC.

Recommended 13+ for death, language, and romance.

[Tim Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the fourth Cool & Lam book. I read about half of these some time back and have now acquired the ones I haven't previously read. They do tend to formula. Cool & Lam are hired for a case. Donald gets his ass kicked. There's a murder that is usually pinned on Donald (Lam). Donald falls for (or appears to fall) at least one attractive young woman. The young woman (sometimes more than one) usually falls for Donald. The plot is Byzantine to the point of making Raymond Chandler think it's overly complicated. Donald figures it all out, sometimes with lawyer tricks to boot. The thing is that the formula and the writing are so damn compelling that I almost always lose sleep reading them. This was one of the better ones.

[Stven · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this book when I was a schoolboy and a lot of the details have stuck with me. Stuff about slot machines and the tricks crooks would use to cheat them. Of course a lot of things have changed since this book was published in 1941. Not just slot machines.

It's a crackling joy to read a story like this. A private detective gets hired. Of course the client doesn't tell the detective the whole truth about the case. If it was the kind of situation the client could tell the whole truth about, there'd probably be no need for a private detective. Our hero Donald Lam keeps a poker face, sees through the tissue of lies, and whales into the thing with guts and brains. He has to make the kind of play that gets a fee paid by the client -- the character of Bertha Cool, his boss, is a cute way to keep that angle alive -- but at the same time he has this relentless streak of wanting to make things turn out right for everybody, not just the client. "We are not partisan -- we are for justice," as a TV writer once had another detective say.

But that's just analysis. The thing is, the story starts strong, stays strong, and gets even stronger before it quits. It's got guts and brains and heart. It was good when I was 10, and it's even better now.

[John Bunyan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the better Cool and Lam books 3.5. Gardner has gotten far enough into the series to develop the characters - later in the series they seem a little more ridiculous.
Gardner wrote 2 Perry Mason books a year and in the late 30s added Cool and Lam. It’s remarkable that he could come up with so many complicated plots. All the books are entertaining enough that any plot holes can be forgiven (in my opinion). This one is pretty solid.
And he comes up with some good, oddball characters.
There’s a punch drunk fighter in this one who reminds me of Eddie from the movie To Have and Have Not. The solution in the end seems questionable based on Lam’s actions.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nevada in the early forties; the mechanics of slot machines and divorce; the speed of cars (37 mph) and 'fried Spanish beans'. All in all a worthwhile picture of the times, a good plot, and unlike many detective novels the characters have distinctive personalities.

[Rob Smith, Jr. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another contrived plotting by Gardner. The book wheels out well until 3/4 through as the tale takes a sharp turn to Reno and a cabin. The idea 3 people little knowing each other would make this trip, and the reasons given, is too preposterous to fathom. That the story then pivots from this trip into more nonsense of memory loss and who did what and why gets further silly.

The first 3/4 is where I shoulda stopped. I pretty much had surmised who did what at that point anyway.

The writing is typical good Gardner. Settings are well done, too. Especially involving the casino and one-armed bandits.

Bottom line: I don't recommend this book. 4 out of ten points.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool and Lam: Bertha has just recovered from a stay in a sanitarium after a severe case of pneumonia and the loss of a major amount of weight. Donald has been running the office while she is away. The agency has been hired to find a young woman who disappeared a few days before she was going to get married. Donald sees more to it than that and of course ends up with several young women that he befriends and assists.

[Bill Telfer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this is the fifth Cool & Lam mystery I've read, and it might be my favorite. Erle Stanley Gardner (writing here as "A.A. Fair") seems to really be enjoying himself at this point in the series. As always I will say: if you can find one of these Cool & Lam stories (many are out of print, and this one is no exception) you will surely have a good time reading it.

[Geoffreyjen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this one a lot. Not just for the story, although that was solid. But also for the writing. The scenes that took place in the desert were beautifully written, and the relationship between Helen and Lam was interesting. Also, the whole Bertha Lam had lost weight angle was nicely developed, modifying the relationship between Lam and Cool. Nicely done.

[Dianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic. It is a shame this series is not better known. I enjoy them even more than the more famous Raymond Chandler detective books. Donald Lam as a character and the stories in general are more believable.

[Jennifer Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

So far the best book in the series. A lot of good twists and turns.

[Tiina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Monimutkainen juoni, mutta säästäväisesti kerrottu. Kirjassa oli paljon vuoropuheluita, joten sen luki nopeasti. Hämmästyin, miten suoraviivaisesti arvoitus kuitenkin ratkesi.

[Whistler's Mom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bertha revives her romantic life and Donald quits (again.)

One of the joys of this series is that the characters evolve as it goes along. Certainly different from Perry Mason, Della, Paul, et al, who appear to have sprung fully formed from the brow of their creator. For five decades, Gardner wrote at least one Perry Mason book every year and his characters never changed one iota. They didn't age, either, the lucky skunks.

But Gardner seems to be feeling his way with Bertha Cool and Donald Lam. Or perhaps the rambunctious Bertha got the bit between her teeth and dragged the author into avenues he never intended to explore. Whatever the reason, we keep learning new (and usually astonishing) things about them.

This book appeared in 1941, two years after the series began. WWII is ignored, but the action moves to Nevada and there's plenty of fireworks there. It opens with Donald collecting Bertha from a Las Vegas sanitarium where she's spent the last six months, recuperating from a serious case of pre-antibiotic pneumonia. Her weight is now down to a svelte (for her) 160 lbs and the doctor insists that it must stay that way for her continued health. Donald is fine with the diet, but starvation plays no part in Bertha's plans for the future.

Before she can eat that second candy bar, a new client shows up and he needs them to stay in Vegas to hunt down a missing girl. He's a successful businessman, but his hobby is psychology and he immediately sets about to make Bertha feel like a desirable woman. It's been a while since Bertha's been in the romance racket and she falls for the smooth talker in a surprising way.

Mr Whitewall has a complicated story about his son falling in love with a secretary. Naturally, Pop isn't thrilled, but he claims that his son's happiness is all that counts. Bertha is too busy soaking up compliments to analyze the situation, but Donald smells a very large rat.

The only clue (according to the client) is a letter written by a woman with a Las Vegas address. Donald finds the broad, but first he gets caught up in a wild episode in which he's accused of being part of a gang that rigs slot machines so that they pay off big. I learned a lot more about slot machines than I ever wanted to know. He meets a genial casino manager, an addled former boxer, and an LVPD officer. All of them end up owing him a favor and he'll need them all before the book is over.

Donald is determined to go back to LA to trace her the missing girl, but Whitewell only wants evidence that she left LA voluntarily. That will get him off the hook with his son and Dad can keep looking for a more suitable daughter-in-law. Starry-eyed Bertha is firmly in his corner, although Donald's near escape from being arrested for murder jars her. If the little bastard goes to jail, who'll do the leg work?

As Donald becomes disenchanted with Mr Whitewell, he launches his own plan of action. It involves the ex-boxer Louie, a beautiful conwoman, and a trek through the desert while Louie makes a frantic attempt to turn the 5'5", terminally unathletic Donald Lam into a prize fighter.

There's a lot to like about this one, starting with the surprising fact that Reno overshadowed Las Vegas at this time. Both grew from tiny towns that supplied miners and cowboys to slightly larger towns that rely on Nevada's legal gambling and lax divorce laws. Vegas' glory days of neon lights, famous casinos, floor shows, and Mafia bosses are far in the future.

It's also clear that Gardner loved the desert and his lyrical descriptions of camping out under the stars are charming. Who could NOT love the idea of Bertha morphing into a coy flirt? We learn why Bertha gave up on keeping her girlish figure and concentrated on food and making money. It's a welcome piece of the puzzle of this unique and (in some ways) admirable woman.

Still, it's not my favorite. All of the Cool & Lam books are insanely complicated, but this one is over-the-top. Why would any of the characters have resorted to such unnecessarily convoluted actions when simpler ways were available and obvious? Did Donald know who committed the murder or was he doing his usual Sir Galahad act? I never figured it out, along with how he knew where the missing girl could be found. As to HER story, it's as unbelievable as anything I've ever read.

In the end, Truth and Justice prevail. Young lovers are united, but Bertha decides that being a middle-aged lover is too much trouble. Besides, Mr Whitewell believes that his charm entitles him a discount on his bill from Cool & Lam Investigations. As Bertha says, all women like to be admired for their looks, but compliments don't pay the overhead.

This series is uneven, but it scores points for its off-beat characters and its wicked humor. It's another reason to thank God for e-publishing.





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[RiskingTime · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a light mystery novel that tells the story of a scrappy detective who is on the case of a missing fiancée. I read this book as a Vegas/Gambling historian. It was fun to read the parts describing contemporary Vegas of the 1940s. There are some interesting passages describing slot machines in diners in California, and various scenes in Fremont Street casinos in the 1940s. Worth a quick read if you are interested in Nevada/California gambling history.

[Timo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ensimmäinen lukemani Cool & Lam kirja.
Ja se on rakkautta ensimmäisestä kirjasta lähtien. Loistavuutta.