Turn on the Heat

Description

Erle Stanley Gardner was not just the creator of PERRY MASON - at the time of his death, he was the best-selling American author of all time, with hundreds of millions of books in print. Among those books were the 29 cases of the brash, irresistible detective team of Bertha Cool and Donald Lam. Last year, Hard Case Crime brought out the first new Cool and Lam novel in decades, THE KNIFE SLIPPED, lost for 77 years after Gardner's publisher refused it. Now, we're bringing you the book Gardner wrote to replace it, often considered the best in the series: TURN ON THE HEAT. Hired by a mysterious "Mr. Smith" to find a woman who vanished 21 years earlier, Donald Lam finds himself facing a sadistic cop, a desperate showgirl, a duplicitous client, and one very dogged (and beautiful) newspaper reporter - while Bertha Cool's attempts to cut herself in on this lucrative opportunity land them both hip-deep in murder... One of the best-selling authors of all time, Erle Stanley Gardner's greatest creations include crusading attorney Perry Mason (star of more than eighty novels, a TV series and TV movies) and the hardboiled detective team of Bertha Cool and Donald Lam, who appeared in more than two dozen adventures. An attorney himself, Gardner also founded the Court of Last Resort, a group that investigated criminal cases they believed had ended in wrong convictions.

One of the best-selling authors of all time, Erle Stanley Gardner's greatest creations include crusading attorney Perry Mason (star of more than eighty novels, a TV series and TV movies) and the hardboiled detective team of Bertha Cool and Donald Lam, who appeared in more than two dozen adventures. An attorney himself, Gardner also founded the Court of Last Resort, a group that investigated criminal cases they believed had ended in wrong convictions.

If you want a glimpse into what fiction used to be, and may be again, look no further than TURN ON THE HEAT. It is a gem.-BookReporter Erle Stanley Gardner's Cool and Lam are fun to read about, and Turn on the Heat has them in fine form -Bill Crider This one is a lot of fun. Recommended. -AtomicJunkShop A must for Gardner fans - if for no other reason than to demonstrate the breadth of Gardner's inventive skills when he wasn't busy with his better known lawyer/investigator. For those a little less passionate about Perry Mason, the Cool and Lam mysteries are a wonderful example of the kinds if mysteries that helped define the genre during its formative years. -Bookgasm "Gardner's writing encapsulates what's best about the '40s and puts it to the page" - Criminal Element "It's exciting stuff to find one of the best reads of the year is a reprint of a book that is 77 years old and hasn't been in print for 50 years. Run, don't walk, to your nearest book store for one of the year's best retro reads." - Borg.com "The novel's rapid-fire banter makes what is already a highly entertaining story a real gem." - Seattle Book Review 4-star "a welcome addition to my bookcase." -John Koenig - Stuff I Like