Note: I have a dim view of comparisons but here I go, Cool and Lam versus Perry Mason. The Cool and Lam novels, written under the A.A. Fair pen name, are known among us happy few for their comedic elements and witty banter between Donald Lam and Bertha Cool. They are generally shorter and move through twists and turns quickly. Donald Lam, a former lawyer with a knack for getting into trouble, and Bertha Cool, a brassy and independent detective, make for an entertaining pair because they contrast: while both are tough as nails, he's quiet and insightful and she's as sensitive as a fire hydrant. These novels delve into the seedier side of life, with more emphasis on family problems and private investigation than courtroom drama, police procedures, or legal technicalities.
Owls Don’t Blink – A.A. Fair a.k.a. Erle Stanley Gardner
The mysteries under the pen name A. A. Fair feature the private eye partnership Bertha Cool and Donald Lam.
Like all famous whodunit partnerships ranging from Holmes & Watson to Gravedigger Jones & Coffin Ed and Nick & Nora, Cool & Lam appeal to readers because, though they are both smart about figuring out scams, they are opposites in personality. Impulsive Bertha Cool has a hair-trigger temper and has only a porous filter between her brain and her mouth. Ex-lawyer Donald Lam has a sound grip on legal matters and police procedures. Lam is a master at interrogation, making inferences, and keeping his mouth shut. He frustrates Bertha mightily by being impossible to pump for information.
Bertha is recovering from a health scare so she doesn’t push herself away from a hearty meal. Lam has a slight build, but is skilled in boxing and jujitsu. Because they know they make a good team, they like each other enough to banter affectionately but frankly.
Owls Don’t Blink is set mainly in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Lam is on the trail of a missing woman. Bertha arrives in the Big Easy with the New York lawyer who has hired them to find an ex-model for reasons he is reluctant to explain. As Lam often does, he locates the woman very easily - too easily, in fact. Then, a corpse is discovered in the missing woman’s former apartment.
The scene shifts from New Orleans to Shreveport and from there to Los Angeles, though there is also a desert scene where Gardner can describe the landscape he loved so deeply. Plenty of action and convoluted incidents capture our attention before the conclusion, which is complicated. The scams and schemes in this novel are ingenious, but the best point is the interplay between Lam and Bertha, between Lam and the persons of interest in the case.
The time for this mystery is early 1942 (at the latest)
so with the decisive Battle of Midway yet to be fought, the outcome of the war
with Japan is a question mark. Bertha wants to keep Lam a civilian because he attracts big money cases. She is trying to finagle a deferment for him - maybe 4F, "not acceptable for military service" since he was a disbarred attorney.
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