This one is of interest almost exclusively as the Cool and Lam origin story... the plot, characters, and ultimate resolution are less interesting and less satisfying than we would come to expect in later books in the series. ( )

“And don’t mind me when I cuss,” Mrs. Cool went on, “because I like profanity, loose clothes, and loose talk.”

The first Cool and Lam mystery! The strength of this story is the relationship and chemistry between the two characters! Cool is the boss, a large lady with a sharp tongue and brusk personality. Lam is "a little too small to be a detective" with somewhat of a mysterious, and possibly shady background. They actually make a pretty good, and readable team!

And this story was just that, for a time. But from page 179 on, the story was confusing. Lam goes to AZ, for reasons to be explained later, but in the course of the story, it was just a bunch of nonsense. I actually began to wonder if I had missed that an entirely different story had been added to this book. Like I said, it does become connected to the whole plotline, but I felt like it was totally unnecessary. And yes, I now understand why Lam did all of that nonsense, I just didn't enjoy reading about it. However, I will give this duo another try, as I think their relationship has a good deal of potential for further stories. ( )

A bit too hard-boiled for my taste--I'm not quite sure why most of the attractive women threw themselves at our 130 pound hero--it really reads like something written for men, not women (not that I'm a woman, but it's the 21st century and I still notice. I expect more. (I know, it's an earlier time, but better writers, earlier than that, manage to create wonderful real women in their pages)).

The plot picked up about 3/4 of the way through, but until then it all seemed like set-up. Not thrilled, and probably won't seek out the next one.

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). ( )

The Bigger They Come is the first book in what would eventually become a thirty book series over a thirty year span from 1939 to 1970 (not counting Hard Case's lost novel The Knife Slipped published in 2016). The essence of the Cool and Lam series is a mismatched pair of detectives, which includes big Bertha Cool (originally 300 pounds but later a svelte 165 pounds) and brainy but scrawny Donald Lam. This novel introduces the two characters and brings them together.

This one is perhaps a bit lighter in tone than later books in the series and, for those of us who didn't start reading at the beginning of the series, it's real interesting to see how the characters started out and what they later became.

Here, Lam is very young, green, wet behind the ears, and not at all sure of himself either as a detective or with women. His background as a disbarred lawyer is emphasized and this one is resolved in a Perry Mason like legal way which makes you wonder if Gardner's original intent was to sort of repeat the success he had with the Perry Mason series just in a different setting. Perhaps the fact Gardner published this under the pseudonym AA Fair is a hint as to what his intentions were.

In later books in the series, Lam has a real confidence about him and his abilities and even Bertha realizes that he's the real detective of the two. This is not the best of the series, but it's an enjoyable read. It's unfortunate that most of this series is not available in e-book format yet as a little effort and perhaps a library Card is needed to find some of the volumes in this series. ( )

While I enjoyed Bertha Cool and the way she runs her detective agency, I swear the plot is the same as one of the Perry Mason's, though I've never been able to figure out which one. ( )