Erle Stanley Gardner Options

[Glen Davis]

So I've read all of the Perry Mason's, all of the Cool and Lam books, and even all of the Doug Selby DA series. Now I'm collecting collections of his lesser known creations.

First up is Dead Men's Letter featuring Ed Jenkins, the Phantom Crook, a man wanted by the law and the mob, he uses his wits and criminal skills to do good while lining his own pockets.

While most of these stories were written in the 1920's, they are in their way at least as hardboiled as anything we have now. He spends a lot of time getting an heiress out of trouble.

[Ron Fortier]

The Phantom Crook...now that sounds like a pulp hero if I ever heard of one.

[Glen Davis]

The Blonde In Lower 6 is the second collection of Ed Jenkins stories.

The title story is a novella about WWII era espionage. WWII stories aren't for everybody, as they are set in a unique time in our history. Still it isn't bad, although it changes the Phantom Crook character, the way so many other characters, the Saint, The Baron, and all of the similar characters were at the time.

The other stories deal with Jenkins's adventures in Chinatown in the 1920's. Gardner's San Francisco is so corrupt that it makes the Chicago of Al Capone seem like a children's playground. Jenkins causes the death of policemen and city officials, with not much compunction at all.

At least as hard boiled as anything today, all without featuring a child molestation ring. I all but stopped reading hard boiled fiction printed between 1985 and 2000 partially because it seemed like every book featured such a ring to the point that the activity was becoming glamorized, IMHO. That little fad seems to be on the wane, thank goodness.

[Glen Davis]

Honest Money is a collection of short stories featuring Ken Corning, sort of a proto-Perry Mason.

He's a young lawyer in a medium sized completely corrupt city. He refuses to go along with the status quo, and gets along with his wits. There is only one honest cop in the whole city.

Pretty good stuff.

[Glen Davis]

Pay Dirt is a collection of westerns, known as the Whispering Sands stories starring Gardner's desert rat, Bob Zane, an prospector probably pushing 70, or even 80, who knows the desert better than anybody.

He gets into all kinds of scrpaes helping outfriends and finding various treasures, from Uranium mines to oil wells.

Great stuff.

[Glen Davis]

The Case of the Smokeless Chimney features very minor Gardner character "Gramps" Wiggins, an elderly sleuth.

Not bad, not great either.