It is so great to see THE COUNT OF 9 back in print, thanks to the indispensable Hard Case Crime imprint, after a half-century in limbo. This hallmark installment in the Cool & Lam series by Erle Stanley Gardner, under the pseudonym “A. A. Fair,” stands up extremely well, in spite of (or maybe because of) its age. Gardner in his prime was the best-selling American author of all time, and the quantity of his output was matched by the quality of his work. Each of his Cool & Lam novels contained the holy trinity of the crime fiction of the era --- titillation, violence and a twisty, puzzling mystery --- and THE COUNT OF 9 is no exception.

Bertha Cool and Donald Lam are partners in a small but successful detective agency. Cool manages the business side of things with a hard nose and tight fist, while Lam primarily handles the legwork and detection aspects. Gardner took the stereotypes of the genre at that time and turned them upside down. Neither Cool nor Lam was of the mold of females or males who populated the paperback racks in the 1950s and ’60s. Cool was hardly genteel or soft, while Lam’s shortness of stature led to his being on the receiving end of a smackdown at least once or twice per book. However, this did not adversely affect Lam’s appeal with the ladies, as is demonstrated here.

"This reissue of THE COUNT OF 9 serves as a reminder of both what we had and what we lost in the golden era of paperbacks, right down to the new and eye-riveting cover by the incomparable Robert McGinnis."

The first half of the novel is relatively sedate but incredibly interesting, as the agency fails in its assignment to keep a couple of items belonging to a client from getting up and walking out the door during a party. The client is Dean Crockett, a wealthy travel writer who has collected rare objects from all over the world. Missing in action are a poisonous blowgun and a jade statue. Entrance and exit to the party were possible through one closely guarded doorway, and the blowgun, some six feet in length, would have been almost impossible to conceal. Lam figures out how the deed was done, though it takes him a bit of time to discern who took the items and why.

Meanwhile, Crockett never gets to hear the good news because he turns up murdered in his locked office, a victim of one of his own poisoned blow darts. It’s quite a mystery, and Lam has to deal with distractions (such as whichever woman happens to be in the room at any given moment), the police (who resent his presence during an ongoing investigation), and a couple of burly enforcers who attempt to physically threaten him. However, his biggest impediment at times is the difficult but nonetheless entertaining Cool, who often is more concerned with squeezing a nickel until the buffalo squeals, as opposed to getting out of the way and letting Lam work. It is Cool’s intimidating manner and demeanor, though, that keep the doors open and the lights on, whereas Lam would be lackadaisical at best with respect to business matters. They are a mismatched team, but a team they are, and we are the better for it.

This reissue of THE COUNT OF 9 serves as a reminder of both what we had and what we lost in the golden era of paperbacks, right down to the new and eye-riveting cover by the incomparable Robert McGinnis. It is required reading for any fan of hard-boiled detective fiction who is interested in where the wellspring of his or her favorite novels came from, at least in part.