Customer Reviews

Top of the Heap (Hard Case Crime)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Erle Stanley Gardner is best known for creating the archetype of the good lawyer in the series of novels starring his character Perry Mason, who was featured in a number of films in the 1930s played by Warren William and others, but was most famously portrayed by Raymond Burr in the popular television drama that ran for nine seasons on CBS and that thrives in syndication to this day. (Did you know that Gardner himself played a judge in the final episode?)

What most people don't know is that he also wrote another series of novels, under the pseudonym A.A. Fair, featuring the investigation team of Bertha Cool and Donald Lam. The Cool and Lam books numbered 29 and were published between 1939 and 1970, around the same time that Gardner was writing the Mason novels. Though Top of the Heap is the thirteenth in the series, it also serves as a fine introduction to the characters, though mostly Lam, as the legman, is featured.

When John Carver Billings ('"The Second," he amended.') enters the offices of Cool and Lam, asking for the "senior partner," Donald Lam sits back and waits for the sparks to fly, since that title refers to Bertha Cool and Billings doesn't appear to be the kind of guy who will accept a woman as a detective. But when Bertha calmly calls Donald into her office, sans explosion, he knows there must be a lot of money involved. Billings is looking for someone to corroborate his whereabouts of the previous Tuesday night and is willing to pay for the privilege, but what seems like a simple job -- with a five-hundred-dollar bonus attached -- turns into something entirely other when Donald actually does some investigation and discovers that Billings has other things on his mind besides his innocence.

Of course, the more Lam investigates, the more he uncovers, eventually angering both Billings and Bertha. Speaking of, extreme detective characters like Sherlock Holmes and Nero Wolfe -- and now the foul-mouthed, greedy, ungrateful, jumping-to-conclusions charmer Bertha Cool -- are best taken in small doses. Some entries of the series are reported to focus more on her but Top of the Heap offers just enough for us to still find her amusing without crossing over into annoyance. It's the sidekick/legman character: Doctor Watson and Archie Goodwin -- and Donald Lam -- that we're supposed to identify with, anyway.

I was pleasantly surprised at how Gardner made the story intriguingly complicated but managed to keep it understandable. I never really got into his Perry Mason novels (I wanted them to be as tightly-written as the TV shows), but I'll definitely be on the lookout for more of the Cool and Lam series. (Maybe Hard Case Crime can issue more entries? Hint, hint.) The cover picture (and tagline, for that matter) doesn't have much at all to do with the story, but it's certainly beautiful work and in any case, this is another terrific offering from this new imprint. It's almost too much to ask that they keep up this level of quality, but I only expect more greatness to come.

This glorious book is by one of the grand masters of the genre, Erle Stanley Gardner. Although best known for bringing the world's best known lawyer to the forefront of the reading public, the creation of his that is pure detective fiction is the main characters of this novel... Bertha Cool and Donald Lam.

This novel is Gardner and Lam at their best. Lam is hired by a rich young man to find the girls he had been partying with a few days before and that is the last easily explained happening in the book. From then on Gardner weaves a plot as far-reaching and mystifying that most detectives would be lost following. But, in Gardner's golden words, not only does Donald Lam follow along with few hiccups, but we, the reader, are able to keep right up with the diminuitive detective.

For those readers who have found today's writers and their stories a little lacking, or those just looking for some great, edge-of-your-seat reading, this book is for you.

For many years, I have been telling friends that read that they have missed out on some of the best stories of all time by not reading any of the great mysteries of the 1930s, 40s and 50s. Guess I must not have been the only one who has felt this way. A new publisher, Hard Case Crime, is bringing back not only some of the books I loved, one of which this book is one, but are also publishing new stories written in the same way as those wonderful old books but by present day authors.

For all of the new readers out there, you will love this book. For those of you who are old enough to have read this book and others by Mr. Gardner, let's, you and I, go back home again and visit with an old friend...Donald Lam in "Top of the Heap".

Previous reviewers have discussed the plot of this book, and another discussed the Lam/Cool series so I don't need to go there. This may not be Gardner's best book, it may not even be the best Lam/Cool book, but what it is is a wonderful, long unavailable example of a genre that has been too long lost to the past.

With the exception of one resounding dud, Hard Case Crime has released (and is releasing) seminal reprints from the pulp era, as well as new works in the spirit of the same style. First of all, anyone who resurrects classics like "Top of the Heap" has earned as much support as I can give them. This may not be your idea of classic literature, but at the very least it's a great read; I get similar thrills from reading classic Shadow, Doc Savage, The Spider, and the insidious Fu Manchu novels.

Any innovations or stylistic inventions these novels once yielded have long since been seen and absorbed (or not) into the mainstream. What they still offer, and always will, is the same fast-paced, breathless entertaining reading experiences that they were intended to be. And by masters that helped shape the modern literature of today.

"Top of the Heap" is an entertaining read, and if not the best of the Lam/Cool series, it is still the first. That alone makes it important - who wants to read the third and fourth without first reading the first and second?

Buy the book, enjoy the book, and check out the other Hard Case Crime titles. Out of their first six releases, two of them are nominated for Edgar awards; they're doing something right.

Any mystery fan out there knows Perry Mason, but who remembers Cool and Lam? Well, whether you've heard of them or not, here's your chance to try out this dynamic duo of investigators making there first appearance it almost 30 years! In an attractive, affordable new edition with a great, painted retro cover, Top Of The Heap is one of the shining stars in the new Hard Case Crime line. With an engaging, wonderfully convuluted plot and dialogue sharp enough to shave with, Gardner delivers in this classic mystery novel. Just watching Cool and Lam go at each other is worth the price of admission. Top Of The Heap is a great, fun, quick read and I give it my highest recommendation.

Other reviewers have noted that "Top of the Heap" is one of 29 mystery novels featuring Donald Lam and Bertha Cool. Twenty-seven of the novels are told from Lam's first-person point of view; two are told from Bertha Cool's point of view, but in third person. The novels are not really "hard-boiled": they're a blend of the hard-boiled and "puzzle" genres. Typically, they begin with what appears to be a simple assignment; Lam notes a loose thread, begins pulling it, and then spends the rest of the novel unraveling the entire fabric of the overall scheme. Lam is usually about half a step ahead of the police and/or the bad guys. Part of the fun is seeing him skate adroitly through varied complications. Much of the fun is in the crisp prose, especially the dialogue. "Top of the Heap" is probably not the best of the lot (I think that "Spill the Jackpot" may be the best), but its speed, its complicated plot, and its clean prose make it a fine introduction to this outstanding series.

Donald Lam, private investigator for the Lam/Cool Detective Agency, is hired by John Billings to find two women with whom he had been partying several nights before in a Los Angeles nightclub. It takes Lam less than a day to follow the "paper trail" from Los Angeles to San Francisco, find one of the girls, and realize that Billings has set the whole thing up to give himself an alibi. But an alibi for what--the murder of a wealthy mining tycoon, the abduction of Maurine Auburn, girlfriend of mobster "Gabby" Garvanza, or something else?

Originally published in 1952, Top of the Heap has recently been reissued by Hard Case Crime. Twenty-nine books in this series were written and published under the pseudonym A.A.Fair, most at the same time Erle Stanley Gardner was also writing his more well-known Perry Mason series. The Lam/Cool books are fun, fast reads and fairly typical of classic hardboiled fare. However, these books are not all created equally, and Top of the Heap is not the best of the bunch.

I cant say enough good things about the 'hard case crime' series of books. Just about every one is a masterpiece lost to time. Its great that aficionado's of the genre have taken the initiative to re-publish these books.

'Top of the Heap' was not the best of the books that I have read in this series, however it was satisfying none-the-less. More than any other book in this series I kept thinking of Bogart and his 'Maltese Falcon', 'Big Sleep' films. If you are a fan of these films, this book will take you to that place and give you a great read.

As I am sure most of you know, Erle Stanley Gardner was a giant of his time. He must have written well over a hundred books, half of which were of the 'Perry Mason' series. The other half cover a gambit of styles rooted in the genre tradition. I read in another review that this was the 13th of 29 books in the series. However one thing is for sure and that is you needn't have read any of the others to fully enjoy this story.

The detective agency of Cool and Lam are approached by a rich young man who wants an alibi set up for a particular evening. However as Lam investigates, he finds that the alibi he uncovers is fake and this sets him off on a course to uncover the truth of the matter. Basically the story is of Lam uncovering layers of truths and fictions. The story and plot are very well conceived. Often you will stumble across a story where clues fall into the protagonists lap. Here, you watch as Lam cleverly solves one small mystery and then another, nothing comes too easy and thus you are given a very satisfying story.

I would suggest this book if you have read some of the other 'Hard Case' books. If you haven't I might say that you try one of the others first. Anything that was not published for the first time here. The one fault of the series is that they are also publishing first time stories and so far I have only encountered disasters.

Donald Lam was hired to verify a story of a client. However, while he found evidence that confirmed the story, he found a real investigation didn't hold water.

What did that get him? Disgrace, in bad with the police, a dissolution of his partnership, and a struggle to do his client some REAL service.

Indeed, while Lam's ethics are often thin in his adventures, he always was dedicated to his client. The question is whether he could not only provide his client with the REAL service he needed (innocence on a murder charge), but also make a profit and be able to stroll into his office without being a murder victim himself - at the hands of Bertha Cool, his partner!

Top of the Heap, a tale of two cities (Los Angeles and San Francisco), is narrated by its main character Donald Lam. Lam, the junior partner in the Cool and Lam Detective Agency is one sensational PI. And the first half of this Erle Stanley Gardner paperback is sensational as well. Plenty of clever dialogue, several very appealing characters and pacing so fast it gives the reader no opportunity to put the book down.

But then, at the narrative's midpoint, everything comes to a screeching halt. Almost inexplicably, Gardner introduces a plot thread about stock fraud so arcane and complex in its details, I doubt that Louis Ruckeyser could follow it much less the average pulp fiction aficionado.
After that, the plotting becomes more and more convoluted and, quite unfortunately, the book never regains the smooth narrative flow that made its first half so captivating.

Bottom line: Top of the Heap is like a middle distance runner who performs like a champion for the first half of the race, hits a brick wall and then limps to the finish line.

I kept trying to view it in context of the period. It does takes one back to a time before computers and cell phones when detectives worked occasionally on bribes and intimidation, but also on instinct and legwork. However, many of the conclusions reached by Lam are a bit hard to believe, and most of the characters are over the top. However, it is a detective story in the classic sense, and a black-and-white movie fun read.