INCOMING

• Erle Stanley Gardner. writing as "A. A. Fair," The Knife Slipped.  The long-lost Bertha Cool/Donald Lam novel from Hard Case Crime.  This was meant to be the second book in the series but the publisher wavered because Bertha Cool was being too Bertha-like.  The novel was shelved, the book forgotten until now.  I remember reading a comment from Anthony Boucher about five decades ago that many (perhaps most) readers preferred Gardner's Cool/Lam books to the Perry Mason books.  I can see why.  They've been a favorite of mine since I first discovered them.  Up until last year I could say that I had read all in the series.  But now there's this gift that, in its very minor way, helps to offset a terrible 2016.  This one's gong to be fun.