Erle Stanley Gardner (writing as A.A. Fair), Give 'em the Axe: A Donald Lam/Bertha Cool Mystery
(C) 1944 Erle Stanley Gardner
Available as an ebook
A very quick, very brief comment.
The Lam/Cool books generally have extremely convoluted plots, but I've usually been able to keep things straight enough to at least follow the conclusion. Not in this case. Lam has been invalided out of the Navy and has returned to LA. The current case involves a businessman seduced into marriage with a woman who is a serial auto accident "victim; the woman who really loves him; a shady "pick-up" bar and its owner (who has a sideline in blackmail), and others. In the middle, there's a traffic accident and Bertha Cool is present and is deposed as a witness. The deposition scene goes on forever, and makes Cool look even less rational than usual. And, in the ending, I had to work pretty hard at figuring out who Lam was telling us (and the cops) the killer was. Not the finest moment in the series.
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