Classic crime and mystery fiction

Carleton Allen, son-in-law of a millionaire tycoon and nervous of publicity, explains to Bertha Cool and Donald Lam that he's mixed up in a first-class scandal.

Money in the bank had always been a persuasive factor in Bertha Cool's life - and Lamont Hawley represented a lot of it.

Two incidents involving a Peeping Tom are reported from the Swim and Tan Motel to the detective agency belonging to Donald Lam and Bertha Cool.

Donald Lam arrives at work one day to find an outraged police sergeant Frank Sellers stewing in the office of his senior partner, Bertha Cool.

You might call Bertha Cool the broad beam of the Cool and Lam Detective Agency.

John Dittmar Ansel walked into the Cool-Lam office and asked them to trace a man named Karl, who, six years before, gave him an idea for a story.

Mira Woodford was a beautiful girl who believed that the best things in life were expensive.

It started as a routine tail - shadowing an oily hustler who'd been courting a well-healed matron.

It was just a routine case.

A cool girl hunt is what the blind man wanted.

Roberta Fenn was every man's dream - a clinging climber with photogenic features and a phenomenal body.

Dr.

Bertha Cool has just been released from a sanitarium where she has been recovering from flu and pneumonia, but soon she and Donald Lam are on the hunt for a missing bride-to-be.

How did Donald Lam get all the dames?

Strange bedfellows can be political poison, and the candidate had picked himself a dilly.

'Tantalising on every page and brilliant' Scott Turow, bestseller author of Presumed Innocent and Testimony'Kingpin among the mystery writers' New York Times'Why would anyone hire a girl with the figure of a stripteaser and pay her $100 a week to put on weight?

'For fans of classic hard-boiled whodunits, this is a time machine back to an exuberant era of snappy patter, stakeouts, and double-crosses' LA Times 'Kingpin among the mystery writers' New York TimesMuriell Gilman left her father at the breakfast table while she cooked seconds of sausage and eggs.

'Kingpin among the mystery writers' New York Times'His Mason books remain tantalising on every page and brilliant' Scott Turow, bestselling author of Presumed Innocent Ellen Robb came into Perry Mason's office with a gun in her purse.

'Tantalising on every page and brilliant Scott Turow, author of Presumed Innocent and Testimony'Kingpin among the mystery writers' New York TimesWhen Norda Allison saw her husband-to-be slap his young son, she immediately called off the wedding.

'A master storyteller' New York Times'His Mason books remain tantalising on every page and brilliant' Scott Turow, author of Presumed Innocent 'For fans of classic hard-boiled whodunits, this is a time machine back to an exuberant era of snappy patter, stakeouts, and double-crosses' LA Times The first woman wouldn't even give her name.

Perry Mason - a major new TV series'Tantalising on every page and brilliant' Scott Turow, bestselling author of Presumed InnocentThe ingredients were quite simple: one middle-aged tycoon with a lovely young wife; one oh-so-apologetic visitor to the tycoon's office; one devoted secretary, graduate of a correspondence course of How to Be a Detective.

'The bestselling author of the century .

'Tantalising on every page and brilliant' Scott Turow, bestselling author of Presumed InnocentShe pulled herself out of the water and into a canoe and gasped, 'I don't know who you are .

'This is a time machine back to an exuberant era of snappy patter, stakeouts, and double-crosses' LA TIMES'Amazing originality' NEW YORK TIMESA suspicious personal ad conceals nefarious intent - and eventually lands in the lap of Perry Mason.

'Tantalising on every page and brilliant' Scott Turow, bestselling author of Presumed Innocent'The best American writer, of course, is Erle Stanley Gardner' Evelyn WaughWho was that masked woman?

The story of how a man can commit a brutal murder, confess, and get away with it!

Perry Mason now a major new TV series'Tantalising on every page and brilliant' Scott Turow, bestselling author of Presumed InnocentFrances Celane has good reason to pout.

A reporter, a young mother and a shadowy band of former schoolmates play out a drama to an end none of them anticipated.

When a lone runner is found dead on Miami Beach's North Shore, Detective Sam Becket's first concern is for his adopted daughter, Cathy, a student at Trent University.

Alex Levin hasn't met anyone as passionate about cleaning as Frankie Barnes.

When she was thirteen years old, Abigail Allen was responsible for killing her parents and boyfriend.

Some people find it hard to trust Robin Allbeury, a wealthy lawyer and an expert on marital secrets, who runs an unorthodox sideline helping troubled wives escape from their abusive marriages.

From the day he sets foot in the Hampstead house, Matthew Gardner realises that life with his new wife, Caroline, is going to be rougher than he'd hoped.

Jake Woods, ex-cop and criminal justice professor, is pulled into danger when investigating the disappearance of a friend's son.

Held captive in a dark room in New York State, a young woman is at the mercy of a killer.

On the face of it, the double homicide of Arnold and Marie Robbins looks like just another brutal Miami Beach murder - except that teenage Cathy Robbins is lying between the bodies, traumatised but unharmed.

There's something chillingly familiar about what's happening to Nick Miller.

Though they live fulfilling, independent lives in three different countries, Olivia Segal, Jamie Arias and Annie Aldrich Thomas remain bound to each other by a past tragedy - and by their pact always to be there for each other at times of great need.

Richard Monk was on holiday in Japan.

Joseph Berg was due to meet his 'contact' at a pub in London one rainy Friday evening.

Frank Wimble never doubted his ability to do anything he wanted.

Laurence Deegan, QC, had just won his latest case.

John Farndon, a teacher at a public school, is bored with his French wife Monique and infatuated with the assistant matron Belinda.

In Bloomsbury Magistrate's Court, stipendiary magistrate Donald Ferney reigned supreme.

On trial is young tearaway Ian Tanner, accused of the accidental but reckless hit-and-run killing of his own buddy.

Every autumn an old reprobate, tramp and scrounger, mysteriously known as Shem, drifts into the village of Long Gaisford.

Chris Laker is what you might call a layabout.

A woman is murdered in a London suburb and the police investigation into her death is meticulously undertaken.

Clive Donig is on trial for the murder of Stanley Fulmer, a senior partner in a very shady firm of solicitors.

Detective Sergeant Nick Atwell has been suspended, accused of soliciting a bribe from a murder suspect.