A review by hannahstohelit
Turn on the Heat by Erle Stanley Gardner

4.25

I enjoyed this a lot, though I am very very confused as to how Lam made it back to California after the events of the first book. But I choose not to care. I think a lot of my love of the first book came from that last legal shtick, which this book didn't quite have- and the leading lady in this one had both pros and cons, on the one hand a bit less of a fainting lily than in the other book but on the other hand with somewhat mixed characterization (is she savvy or naive enough to semi-fall for the assistant DA? or, quite frankly, for Lam?). Cool and Lam themselves remain great, and I love the ways in which the partnership element (and who allows who to know/hide what) plays out in this book, making things much more complicated than they needed to be. 

If there's one complaint I have, it's that I saw at least one key point coming, and while in some books that would just make me feel smart, in one like this it makes some key players seem stupid.

For a good long time, nobody suspects that "Mrs Lintig" may not be who she claims to be

, which just seems really, really non-savvy for PIs tasked with

finding her

. It's possible that I'm unfair about that because I'm thinking of it as a story whereas in-universe that's not how anyone would think of things, but still, the idea that it took that long to figure out just felt short-sighted.