A review by hannahstohelit
The Knife Slipped by Erle Stanley Gardner

4.0

I feel like I always overrate these books, but whatever- they're always fun. This one was too, though I was surprised in the end by how lightweight it was, as well as how little of the fun legal legerdemain that I'd come to expect from ESG showed up here. Donald is also dimmer, Bertha is kinder (and smarter), and one kind of gets the vibe that ESG was informed that this wasn't going to be published before he'd completely conceptualized and completed the ending as it feels a bit half-assed, even if the final parting shot is a very fun one. While in some ways I had fun with the straightforwardness that you don't usually get from Gardner's books, it also did reveal some of the weaknesses- random characters popping in and out, for example, which is something usually camouflaged by a twist of some kind. Having read the book this was replaced with already, ESG clearly picked a different direction to go in for the series after having this one rejected, and it was probably the right move. Lam is more fun when he's smarter than everyone else than when he's just a blundering PI.