Keep Cool

Steve Lewis’ Mystery*File blog seems to be holding an unannounced celebration this week of 20th-century detective novelist A.A. Fair, better known to most readers--and TV watchers--under his real name, Erle Stanley Gardner.

As regular readers of The Rap Sheet certainly know by now, in addition to writing his many dozens of novels about Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Perry Mason, Gardner penned 29 books starring unlikely private eye partners Bertha Cool and Donald Lam, beginning with The Bigger They Come in 1939. Mystery*File has already featured two other installments of that series lately: Owls Don’t Blink (1942) and Kept Women Can’t Wait (1963).

Will Mystery*File plumb the series further for our reading enjoyment? I guess we’ll all have to stay tuned.