Shills Can't Cash Chips - Erle Stanley Gardner

When a representative from an insurance firm appears at the offices of Cool and Lam, it sounds like just the kind of case they need, or specifically, the kind of case that is music to the ears of Bertha Cool. An insurance company is offering a large fee for investigating a traffic accident. It looks like a nice, quiet and respectable job, unlike the other sordid cases that her detective Donald Lam usually manages to unearth. An easy case is fine with Donald Lam as well, although he suspects there might be more to this investigation that looking into a potentially fraudulent whiplash claim that could easily be dealt with by the firm's own detectives. So why do they need Cool and Lam?

Well, there is clearly an element of unspecified danger, but it also seems that they want Lam for more than just his investigative talents. There is an attractive woman involved and they need someone with the charm to get in close to her, and Donald Lam is just the man for the job. I'm guessing that Shell Scott must have been otherwise occupied trying to keep a bunch of insatiable models and movie starlets happy. He doesn't know what he is missing here, as every gorgeous woman Lam meets (and there are a few of them) seems keen to flash their legs and underwear and offer their services should the poor man feel lonely.

There are quite a few attractive women all with designs on Donald, some even willing to share him out, but Lam keeps his focus on the job, keen to find out what kind of scam is going on and who is behind it. Pretending to be a witness to the accident, he provides testimony to a big property developer who is keen to get his statement and signed affidavit, despite being party and indeed responsible for the accident. There is something strange about this case all right and as Lam ends up taking a few beatings for his trouble and finds himself accused of murder, it certainly doesn't look like the nice respectable case that was promised by Bertha, but that certainly seems like par for the course for Cool and Lam.

Still, the plot of Shills Can't Cash Chips (I have no idea how the title fits with the case) seems a little thin and padded out. Lam recounts his fake witness testimony on so many occasions and with the same detail that even the reader could testify to this one. The conversations, whether flirtatious exchanges with attractive semi-dressed women, sceptical police officers and over-enthusiastic businessmen don't really zing either. Even Bertha Cool's explosive utterances and concerns about money seem a little familiar and perfunctory. That doesn't prevent Gardner from weaving a complex web of intrigue, corruption and murder into the story and you have to give the author credit for wrapping it up neatly and effectively with a pair of novelty panties! Classy.

Reading notes: Shills Can't Cash Chips by Erle Stanley Gardner is one of several Cool and Lam crime thrillers published by Titan under their Hard Case Crime imprint. I read this one in published eBook format.