A. A Fair

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...

Hired to protect the treasures of a globe-trotting adventurer, Bertha Cool and Donald Lam confront an impossible crime: how could anything be smuggled out of a dinner party -- least of all a 6-foot-long blowgun -- when the guests were X-rayed coming and going? But that's nothing compared to the crime they face next: An impossible murder...

Jarvis C. Archer was a very big fish in a very big pond. He also was one of those "Big I -- Little You" types. And he was insisting on twenty-four-hour protection for his secretary who, despite an unlisted number, was being harassed by threatening telephone calls. At first Bertha Cool was outraged by the sweatshop hours (for obvious reasons she would have to take the night shift), but the size of the fee was both soothing and persuasive. So Cool and...

"Carleton Allen, son-in-law of a millionaire tycoon and nervous of publicity, calls at the offices of Lam-Cool Investigators explaining that he is involved in a first-class scandal. He has spent a night at the Bide-a-wee-bit Motel with a gorgeous blonde while his wife has been away, and that same night at the motel a man has been murdered. Lam doesn't like the sound of the case, nor does he believe Carleton Allen's story, but the large retaining fee...

A hot-headed PI's missing person case leads to murder in this mystery by the creator of Perry Mason and author of Owls Don't Blink. Bertha Cool and Donald Lam make for an unlikely pair of private detectives. She's a fifty-something-year-old widow built like a longshoreman with a mouth to match. Donald is a wiry ex-lawyer in his thirties with a face that's a magnet for fists. Fortunately, he's whip-smart. His brains have gotten him and his partner...

Dealing with debtors turns deadly for a prickly PI in this hard-boiled mystery by the creator of Perry Mason and author of Bats Fly at Dusk. A hot-headed widow and a glass-jawed ex-lawyer, Bertha Cool and Donald Lam seem like an unlikely duo of private detectives. Even so, they've managed to solve the most difficult of mysteries-when they're together. With Donald now on a European vacation, Bertha is hesitant to accept any new business-but money...

The search for stolen jewels and a missing woman yields deadly trouble for an LA detective duo in this hard-boiled mystery by the creator of Perry Mason. Side by side, Bertha Cool and Donald Lam make quite the odd couple of private investigators. She's a fifty-something-year-old widow, built like a bulldog, with the personality to match. He's a wiry, ex-lawyer in his thirties with a lightning-quick wit that always helps him out of a jam, including...