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BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND—
IT’S THE RETURN OF COOL & LAM!

Private investigators Bertha Cool and Donald Lam, stars of five of Hard Case Crime’s most popular novels, return to solve their toughest case yet.

Hired to prevent a socialite from poisoning her husband, Donald Lam dreams up an ingenious scheme involving a carton of anchovy paste and a fictitious national ad campaign. But when the whole thing backfires spectacularly and bodies, witnesses and suspects start piling up, it’ll take every ounce of Donald’s brainpower and Bertha’s bruising ruthlessness to keep the police at bay—and a killer from getting away with murder.

• First appearance in bookstores in 50 years!
• Erle Stanley Gardner remains one of the most popular American authors of all time
• Raymond Chandler on FOOLS DIE ON FRIDAY: "About the best of the series...perhaps since the very first."

"The best-selling author of the century...a master storyteller."

— New York Times

"Among his many other virtues, Erle Stanley Gardner is surely the finest constructor of hyper-intricate puzzles in evidence."

— Anthony Boucher, New York Times Book Review

"A remarkable discovery...fans will rejoice at another dose of Gardner’s unexcelled mastery of pace and an unexpected new taste of his duo’s cyanide chemistry."

— Kirkus Reviews on the lost Cool & Lam novel, THE KNIFE SLIPPED