About Turn On the Heat

TURN ON THE HEAT
Erle Stanley Gardner
November 2017
ISBN: 978-1-78565-617-0
Cover art by Laurel Blechman, Robert Maguire

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COOL AND LAM RETURN—
IN THE CASE OF A LIFETIME

Erle Stanley Gardner was not just the creator of PERRY MASON—at the time of his death, he was the best-selling American author of all time, with hundreds of millions of books in print. Among those books were the 29 cases of the brash, irresistible detective team of Bertha Cool and Donald Lam. Last year, Hard Case Crime brought out the first new Cool and Lam novel in decades, THE KNIFE SLIPPED, lost for 77 years after Gardner’s publisher refused it. Now, we’re bringing you the book Gardner wrote to replace it, often considered the best in the series: TURN ON THE HEAT.

"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 KNIFE SLIPPED

Hired by a mysterious "Mr. Smith" to find a woman who vanished 21 years earlier, Donald Lam finds himself facing a sadistic cop, a desperate showgirl, a duplicitous client, and one very dogged (and beautiful) newspaper reporter—while Bertha Cool’s attempts to cut herself in on this lucrative opportunity land them both hip-deep in murder...

First appearance in bookstores in half a century!
Erle Stanley Gardner remains one of the most popular American authors of all time
Features a new cover painting by Laurel Blechman, working from reference photos shot by the legendary pulp illustrator Robert Maguire.

Acclaim for ERLE STANLEY GARDNER...

"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

"An ingenious story."

— Kirkus Reviews