The Knife Slipped

by Erle Stanley Gardner

Overview

NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED!
THE LOST DETECTIVE NOVEL BY THE CREATOR OF PERRY MASON!

HBO series Perry Mason airs June 2020 starring Matthew Rhys in the titular role.

Lost for more than 75 years, The Knife Slipped was meant to be the second book in the series, but shelved when Gardner’s publisher objected to (among other things) Bertha Cool’s tendency to “talk tough, swear, smoke cigarettes, and try to gyp people.” But this tale of adultery and corruption, of double-crosses and triple identities—however shocking for 1939—shines today as a glorious present from the past, a return to the heyday of private eyes and shady dames, of powerful criminals, crooked cops, blazing dialogue, and delicious plot twists. 

Donald Lam has never been cooler—not even when played by Frank Sinatra on the U.S. Steel Hour of Mystery in 1946. Bertha Cool has never been tougher. And Erle Stanley Gardner has never been better.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781783299270
Publisher:	Titan
Publication date:	12/06/2016
Series:	Cool and Lam Series
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	345,518
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

One of the best-selling authors of all time, Erle Stanley Gardner’s greatest creations include crusading attorney Perry Mason (star of more than eighty novels, a long-running TV series and TV movies) and the hardboiled detective team of Bertha Cool and Donald Lam, who appeared in more than two dozen adventures of their own. An attorney himself, Gardner also founded the Court of Last Resort, a group that investigated criminal cases they believed had ended in wrong convictions.

Editorial Reviews

10/03/2016
A gumshoe assigned to work a simple divorce case ends up accused of murder in this fast, often funny crime novel, written in 1939 but not published until now. On the run from the law, the detective is the diminutive but tough Donald Lam, who works for the enormous Bertha Cool (“She was a wise baby, was Bertha Cool”) in Yucca City in what may be California. Constantly counting odds and ways to play them, Bertha figures she can take a cut out of the case of police corruption that Lam has tumbled to, if the knife doesn’t slip—and if her operative doesn’t fall for the dame who makes for their best suspect. The prolific Gardner published 29 novels about Cool and Lam (and more than 80 featuring lawyer Perry Mason). As Russell Atwood (Losers Live Longer) explains in his afterword, this case was to have been the second in the series, but when the publisher nixed it, Gardner just wrote 27 more. For fans of classic hard-boiled whodunits, this is a time machine back to an exuberant era of snappy patter, stakeouts, and double-crosses. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

"For fans of classic hard-boiled whodunits, this is a time machine back to an exuberant era of snappy patter, stakeouts, and double-crosses." — Publishers Weekly

"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

“The Knife Slipped is a gift to aficionados of the Cool and Lam series . . .” - New York Journal of Books

“A treasure that’s not to be missed.” - BookReporter

"Fans of Gardner's straightforward and terse Perry Mason mysteries are in for a surprise and treat with the abundance of breezy and sarcastic humor found in The Knife Slipped. Like his Mason novels, The Knife Slipped is both fast moving and intricately plotted, but Lam's first-person narration allows much more freedom for Chandleresque descriptions and smart remarks." - Shelf Awareness

 “This vintage hardboiled mystery has plenty of sass and energy, with intricate plotting and a delightful parade of suspects. The Knife Slipped is a treat that no mystery fan will want to miss” - Shelf Awareness

From the Publisher

2016-09-19
A remarkable discovery: not a new novel about Bertha Cool and Donald Lam but their second adventure, originally written in 1939 but unpublished till now.Edith Cunner and her mother, Mrs. Atterby, come to B. Cool, Investigations because no other agency in town will tell them if Eben Cunner is cheating on his wife of five years. Donald, a part-time op still years from making partner, agrees to follow Eben and quickly discovers that his wife is half right. Eben is indeed meeting an attractive blonde in a unit of the Mountain Crest Apartments hes rented under an assumed name, but its for a much more criminal purpose than mere adultery. In short order, Eben is shot to death with a .38 revolver Mountain Crest switchboard operator Ruth Marr presses on Donald, and his mission switches from getting the goods on Eben to protecting Ruth from a murder charge. Bertha, however, never changes gears along with him; her paramount objective is to cut herself on the action. Unfortunately, her scheme backfires, leaving the agency scrambling to stay one step ahead of crooked cops, gangsters, hired guns, and suspected killers. Maybe Gardners publisher rejected the novel because it seemed too racy, with a female detective who swears like a sailor and a romantic lead who describes herself as a nymphomaniac, though its not in the same league as No Orchids for Miss Blandish, published the same year. Maybe because it casts Bertha and Donald in unexpected rolesshe runs rings around him as a detective, contrary to their usual practice, as Russell Atwood points out in his informative Afterword. Maybe because the mystery is both muddled and unmysterious. Even so, fans will rejoice at another dose of Gardners unexcelled mastery of pace and an unexpected new taste of his duos cyanide chemistry. For all its pulpy limitations, this road not taken is worth reading if only for its heroines hard-boiled wisdom: You cant have understanding without empathy, and you cant have empathy without losing money.

Kirkus Reviews