Turn on the Heat by A.A. Fair

Since I recently read The Stranger by Harlen Coben
Read While Walking: The Stranger by Harlen Coben, I thought I would re-read one of the A.A. Fair books that addressed the more classic Harlen Coben scenario where someone disappears then makes a reappearance many years later.


I love the A.A. Fair novels.  They feature Erle Stanley Gardner's protagonists Bertha Cool and Donald Lam, private detectives.  Turn on the Heat is one of the earlier novels, with Donald not yet a partner in the agency and getting beat up all the time.  The book also makes oblique reference to how little Bertha or anyone knows about Donald (in The Bigger they Come Bertha divined that "Lam" was not Donald's real name).


Turn on the Heat has Donald pull a couple of clever tricks, turning the tables on someone who is trying to frame him, and keeps Donald's character closer to the early books, where he holds a grudge and will find a way to get back at those who wrong him.  I'm not convinced the end solution resolves the problem for his client beyond election day (he's still a politician who has been in a bigamous marriage for years), but perhaps Donald's frame up of some of the corrupt elements is sufficient to carry things through for him.


The central question of why a person disappeared, and why they chose to reappear now is resolved nicely, and in a manner I think Harlen Coben would endorse.


Turn on the Heat is a fairly quick read, fun (as I find all the A.A. Fair novels fun), and works in some hard boiled sounding prose here and there.  There's no need to have read other Cool & Lam novels to follow along, but for someone just starting out, I find the later novels a bit lighter and would perhaps make a better starting point (for example, Up for Grabs is a lot of fun, and shows off some of Donald's better tricks).