Monday, September 20, 2021

Review: The Count of Nine

 

The Count of Nine is one of the Cool & Lam novels written by Erle Stanley Gardner (of Perry Mason fame) which he wrote under the pen name of A. A. Fair.

The private investigative firm of Cool & Lam (Bertha and Donald, respectively) are hired by Dean Crockett the Second to guard his valuables during his upcoming soiree – given that one of his two priceless jade buddhas was stolen at his last soiree.  Unfortunately, even with Bertha like a bulldog checking the guests in, not only is the second jade buddha stolen, but the blow gun Crockett recently brough back from Africa.

Lam figures out who took them and recovers them fairly quickly, but in attempting to return them, he finds that Crockett has been murdered with a blow gun dart in a locked room.  The obvious answer is his wife did it.

A twisty and satisfying mystery.

[This review appears on my blog, Amazon.com, and Goodreads.com.]

No comments: