Order of Donald Lam & Bertha Cool Books

Donald Lam and Bertha Cool serve as the central characters in a detective series penned by A.A. Fair, the pseudonym of American writer Erle Stanley Gardner. Donald Lam breaks the mold of typical detectives from his era—standing just 5'6″ and weighing only 130 pounds, he frequently finds himself in physical altercations that don't go his way. The series begins with Lam working under Bertha Cool, a sixty-something widow who established her detective agency following her husband's death.

Gardner launched the Donald Lam and Bertha Cool series in 1939 with The Bigger They Come and concluded it in 1970 with All Grass Isn't Green. While initially published under the A.A. Fair pen name, these novels have subsequently been reissued bearing Gardner's actual name. Below you'll find Erle Stanley Gardner's complete Donald Lam and Bertha Cool collection arranged by original publication date: