Shills Can't Cash Chips - by Erle Stanley Gardner (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

From Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner - during his life, the best-selling American author of all time -- comes a lost classic of detective fiction featuring private eyes Donald Lam (once played by Frank Sinatra!) and Bertha Cool.

"What I can say is that for those who like their crime fiction to be high-octane, this novel is a stunner." The Daily Mail

HBO series Perry Mason, based on characters from Erle Stanley Gardner's novels, airs June 2020 starring Matthew Rhys in the titular role.

HAS DONALD LAM GONE OVER TO THE DARK SIDE?

From the world-famous creator of PERRY MASON, Erle Stanley Gardner - at his death the best-selling American writer of all time - comes another baffling case for the Cool & Lam detective agency. Return to the 1960s as a simple insurance investigation into a car accident puts Bertha Cool and Donald Lam on the trail of murder - and Donald hip-deep in danger when he poses as an ex-con to infiltrate a criminal gang. It's Gardner's twistiest caper ever, and a fitting conclusion to Hard Case Crime's revival of this classic (and long unavailable) detective series.

Review Quotes

"Fun, entertaining, and addictive... Brain candy. Reading for pleasure as it's meant to be... Once again, Hard Case Crime breathes new life into a classic crime fiction novel." - New York Journal of Books

"A sterling example of how the job of writing private-eye fiction is properly performed by a master of the genre." - BookReporter

"For those who like their crime fiction to be high-octane, this novel is a stunner." - Daily Mail

"A delightful read with innumerable twists and turns, a satisfying ending, and great one-liners - what's not to love about Shills Can't Cash Chips?" - STORGY Review

"Fans of golden-age pulp fiction will love this resurrected wisecracking 1961 example of the genre... It's packed with dangerous dames, scams, mobsters and the like, very redolent of the Bogie and Cagney era movies." - Peterborough Telegraph Review

"If you're looking for some entertaining mysteries, I recommend the Lam/Cool series and especially this newly reprinted volume." - George Kelley

"Shills Can't Cash Chips is Gardner at his hilarious best... do yourselves a favor and pick this up. Everyone needs a good laugh now and then." -Pulp Fiction Review

About the Author

Erle Stanley Gardner (July 17, 1889 - March 11, 1970) was an American lawyer and author. Though best known for the Perry Mason series of detective stories, he wrote numerous other novels and shorter pieces, as well as a series of non-fiction books, mostly narrations of his travels through Baja California and other regions in Mexico. The best-selling American author of the 20th century at the time of his death, Gardner also published under numerous pseudonyms, including A.A. Fair, Kyle Corning, Charles M. Green, Carleton Kendrake, Charles J. Kenny, Les Tillray and Robert Parr.