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Gold Comes in Bricks

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Donald Lam, the diminutive detective who works for Bertha Cool of B. Cool Investigations, is hired by Henry Ashbury to check up on his daughters finances. She has been making some strange withdrawals of late and is concerned, particularly if word got out. The last thing Ashbury wants is a financial scandal. Ashbury also doesnt want his daughter to know that Lam is a detective, so he uses the front that Lam is a jujitsu expert who will be working as his trainer, a cover that is doomed from the start.

It doesnt take Lam long to find where the moneys going, but in carrying out his investigation he uncovers blackmail, fraud, business scams and even a murder. There is no shortage of intrigue but Lam always seems to be one step ahead of everyone else, thanks in no small part to his previous experience as a lawyer.

Thanks to Lams quick-witted observations and his sharp eye for detail the story zips along at breakneck speed. A feature of this story also comes from the barbs traded by Lam and Bertha as Lam is beginning to exert himself as an influential member of their partnership. Its fun watching just how Lam is going to turn every situation to his own advantage.

Good stuff for a rainy sunday afternoon in the style of Chandler and Hammett. Good characters, well drawn, with nice brisk plot development. Avid dective ficiton readers won't be disappointed.

'Gold Comes In Bricks' is the third of 29 novels in this superb series by Erle Stanley Gardner.
Lam is assigned to go undercover as a physical trainer to a millionare and try to find out why the millionare's daughter is writing very large checks payable in cash.
As always, in this series, things become much more complicated, dangerous, and fast moving.
Donald Lam's legal knowledge and superior smarts give him a very good nose for deceit and Lam is always willing to fight fire with fire. In this case, one of many of his deceptions is to set up a phony business and then use an old miner to help out fox a tricky and crooked laywer in a land and stock scheme.
Lam is very ballsy and always treads a risky path with both criminal thugs and the police.
Lam gets poor results from his rudimentory jujitsu training when confronting a double dealing extortionist and gets rough treatment from the law which brings him to within an eyelash of going to jail on a murder charge.
Lam is usually able to charm the young females in his cases and this one no exception.
One of the best qualities of the Cool and Lam novels is the profitable but strained relationship of the two main characters.
Bertha Cool is experienced, tough, and smart but not brilliant or fit and young like Lam. She's smart enough to admire Lam's brilliance but not usually enough to follow his train of thought; this results in much exasperation between the two.
Bertha Cool is very good dealing with people and gets Donald Lam out many tight situations with the law.
'Gold Comes In Bricks' wraps up very well with Lam able to direct the heat away from himself to the actual criminals and thanking himself for wearing gloves when in the hotel room.

The Cool and Lam stories are mean and lean, and very smart.

Donald Lam is learning jujitsu to better protect himself in fights. Henry Ashbury hires him to find out what his daughter is doing with her money. Lam will act as the personal trainer to Ashbury at his home. Lam begins working and investigating the family. Daughter Alta is sharp enough to see through the disguise. Later Lam follows Alta to a cheap hotel where she gives a check to Jed Ringold. But Ringold is soon found dead! Lam approaches Alta to tell her what he knows (Chapter 4). Following a lead Lam visits lawyer Crumweather to pose as a financier who wants to evade the Blue Sky Act to keep out of jail when selling securities. Alta tells Lam her money was to retrieve personal letters. Lam learns more about the people in this racket (Chapter 6).

Lam sets up a front operation to attract stock salesmen, like Gilbert Rich of "Foreclosed Farms Underwriters Company". His sales pitch is a classic trap. Lam next investigates the gold mine in Valleydale (Chapter 8). It had been a fertile valley before being worked over by the gold dredges (Chapter 9). An old prospector told Lam about its history, and how the workings are being salted! Lam figures out a way to make the swindlers buy back the stock they sold. But he is held on suspicion of murder until an eyewitness didn't recognize him. (This tells about the importance of a line-up for identification.) Esther Clarde wants to hide and leave town; Lam helps her and later gets the number she called (Chapter 12),

Returning to the Ashbury household Lam recommends another doctor to check on Mrs. Ashbury after her emotional scene (Chapter 13). Lam learns of lawyer Crumweather's ties to the name on Alta's checks. Detectives again question Lam about Ringold's murder, but his fingerprints don't match. But someone else's do (Chapter 15). The loose ends are tied up and Lam recovers the missing letters. Lam sells back his stock at a good price.

Gardner's novels often warned of the various swindles and how gambling rackets were fixed. They were educational as well as entertaining.