Fair, A.A. (Erle Stanley Gardner). The Count of 9. London: Titan 1958. Print.
As I opened the door and stepped into the reception room, a flash bulb blazed into brilliance and blinded Big Bertha Cool, who had been facing the camera with a fatuous smile on her face, whirled angrily, glared at me and turned to the photographer."Did that hurt anything?" she asked.
Description:
Bertha Cool runs a small time (just her) detective agency inherited from her dead husband which focuses on small paperwork jobs, serving subpoenas, tailing cheating husbands, and the like. That all changes when she hires Donald Lam, a fast-talking go-getter with no detective experience. Lam proves to be clever, resourceful, and dogged in his pursuit of answers to the investigations. But the ordinary cases of Cool and Lam now seem to evolve into much deeper crimes. They start to take on larger cases that come to their grubby office, mainly because they allow Cool to reap more lucrative retainers, her primary goal for her detective agency.
In The Count of 9, Cool is hired by a globe-trotting millionaire to protect his valuable collection of international souvenirs from theft by any guests attending a party at his residence. For security, there is a separate elevator to his apartment which Cool personally guards. All attendees are x-rayed (unbeknownst to them) in the elevator to make sure they are not filching any items. But still, a 5-foot long ancient blowgun and poison-tipped darts, along with a small precious jade statue somehow turn up missing right under Cool's nose. A small statue and darts could possibly be swiped, but who could smuggle out a very long blowgun?
Even worse, the millionaire soon is found dead, killed by, you guessed it, a poison dart. Is it his wife? His secretary? A girlfriend? The fence? Someone else?
It's up to Lam to find to missing blowgun, darts, and jade statue, and while he's at it, uncover the murderer. A tall order, but Lam is so clever, so quick-witted, that he is soon hot on the trail of solving all these mysteries.
But there are, of course, bad guys and gals along the way with their own agendas that include keeping nosy detectives from discovering their roles in these crimes.
Noir detective fiction is captivating to me. Simple stories told in a street-wise language of a bygone era: what's not to love? The Count of 9 a great page-turner full of nefarious crimes, gritty bad guys and gals, along with seemingly innocent everyday people which keep the action moving forward at breakneck speed. There's never much violence, although the threat of it is always hanging over everyone's head, and sometimes there is a dead body in a locked room. And in most Cool/Lam books, Donald Lam usually gets beaten up by thugs as he gets closer to the truth. Nothing life-threatening, though, and he always comes back eager as ever.
The Count of 9 is just one of twenty-nine (!) in the Cool/Lam detective series, so if you love this style of clever writing, tough characters, and unusual crimes needing be untangled, you have plenty more wonderful stories in this series to keep you busy.
[P.S. This is the first re-publication of the Cool/Lam detective stories in 50 years. Wonderfully, the publishers have reproduced the original lurid cover art, often depicting mysterious ladies in various stages of undress with weapons nearby. The artwork doesn't have anything to do with the story, but I find it fascinating to see the style of covers from the 1950s. Hope you aren't too outraged.]
Happy reading.
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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
Fair, A. A.. Cats Prowl at Night.
With Donald Lam serving his military requirement, Bertha Cool must take on a case herself without the assistance of Lam's problem-solving powers. Another great on in the series. (previously reviewed here)
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