Top of the Heap by A.A. Fair

His voice was like cold linoleum on bare feet.
--Top of the Heap (1952)

A.A. Fair was one of Erle Stanley Gardner's pseudonyms, publishers thinking that authors should not be too prolific.  Many readers felt otherwise and eventually these novels were sold as "Erle Stanley Gardner writing as A.A. Fair," especially after the success of the Perry Mason TV series 1957-1966 (Gardner wrote many Perry Mason novels and worked on the movies of the thirties, a radio version, and the TV series).   Gardner is one of the best selling novelists of all time but gradually most of his books went out of print.  Now the excellent publisher Hard Case Crime is bringing back the A.A. Fair novels and Ankerwycke is doing the same for the Perry Mason novels.

The A.A. Fair novels are about the Cool and Lam detective agency and are narrated by Donald Lam.  Pulp novels often followed a relatively rigid formula which gave some skilled writers a freedom of adventure and creativity (John D. MacDonald is a prime example; I wrote about him on Dec. 23 2013, July 28 2014, Sept. 27 2015).  In the case of Top of the Heap we see Donald Lam expand an investigation against the wishes of his boss, Bertha Cool, much given to colorful slang ("well, fry me for an oyster") and more interested in making a buck than solving a case.  Lam proceeds, against Cool's wishes, and shows considerable skill at getting people to talk to him, especially women.  Top of the Heap travels through the seedier parts of 1950's San Francisco, where the rich are good at covering up their crimes, and eventually Lam uncovers all the dirty details and keeps his job with Cool and Lam.

I slept until noon Sunday in my south-of-Market dump.  Breakfast at a nearby restaurant consisted of stale eggs fried in near-rancid grease, muddy coffee, and cold, soggy toast.
--Top of the Heap