This column is all about finding gold in piles and piles of paperbacks. Sometimes I succeed, but other times I end up with fool’s gold or — even worse — zinc. The common thread today is all the other metals in between, mentioned in the titles.

THE BRASS GO-BETWEEN by Ross Thomas — I’m a fan of Charles Bronson films, especially his 1970s output. There was this one called ST. IVES, which my local UHF station would always show. Until just recently, I never knew that it was based on a series of novels. (Paying attention to the credits also helps.) So I went on a book hunt to find a few of them, lo and behold, I already had one of them.

From 1969, THE BRASS GO-BETWEEN is the first in the series chronicling Philip St. Ives’ life as a professional go-between. He’s a former newspaper reporter who seems to be a man of the people — even the criminals — sort of like Jimmy Breslin, for all you old-timers.

St. Ives is offered a job of paying off some thieves who have stolen a rare African shield that holds huge significance to the African nations. The job is to be a simple pay-and-pick-up type of detail, until it’s discovered that a guard from the museum turns up dead — and one who had a huge heroin problem. A set of African dignitaries wants St. Ives to double-cross the museum so they can retain the shield, since it will unite their people.

As you can tell, what should have been simple becomes harder and harder as we move through the story. What sets this series apart is that St. Ives is not some gun-toting, breaking-down-doors type; he fits more into the mold of an Ellery Queen, gathering information to figure it all out.

If you have ever seen the Bronson film — which is based on the third book THE PROCANE CHRONICLE — then do yourself a favor and look for them all. You can find them both under Thomas’ name or his Oliver Bleeck pseudonym he used for this series.

STEELE #17: SATAN’S DAUGHTERS by George G. Gilman — From 1978, here is another entry from that second-tier series STEELE. This time, our hero stumbles upon a campsite filled with ladies who happen to be part of a dance troupe and are whores, but no one has sex. Plus, it lacks all the violence from the much-superior series EDGE, which Gilman also wrote.

Steele is captured after one of the newest additions to the troupe thinks he was sent by her father to bring her back. But, of course, that lasts as long as most new shows on FOX (ASK HARRIET, anyone?), since Steele is needed when a group of men stumble upon the camp and are ready for some loving.

This is how the book moves along each day: They run into another group who wants to bed these women or kill them — Indians, to be exact. Even when they come up to a fort, these broads still can’t catch a break. Of course, this all leads to a father making an appearance, demanding his daughter back, with a few action sequences to break this all up.

It just feels so by-the-numbers with the plot and the reveal at the end, but for the total time of an hour it took me to read, it passed the time as my clothes were being washed. Stick with the EDGE novels, since those are just blood and guts.

GOLD COMES IN BRICKS by Erle Stanley Gardner — A woman being blackmailed, a salting of gold scheme and, of course, cops being played for fools. It must be another book in the Cool & Lam series, written under Gardner’s A.A. Fair pen name. For those keeping track, this 1940 entry is actually the second book in the series, but there is very little continuity, so no need to worry if you read them out of order.

It opens with Donald Lam taking some jujitsu lessons at Bertha Cool’s behest, since she is sick of her little Donald being pushed around, leading into her getting a new client: Henry Ashbury, who is mighty worried about his daughter Alta, who has written two mysterious checks, each for $10,000.

Donald’s job is to find out who she is paying and why, so he goes undercover, living at the estate under the guise of Henry’s new personal trainer. Since this is a Gardner novel, that bit of mystery is solved pretty early on, especially when the blackmailer winds up dead, with Donald hearing the gunshots. Donald makes it his job to find out who’s behind the shooting and why, which leads into a phony stock scam of gold mines.

This is another great entry in Gardner’s Cool & Lam output. It might get a little rushed toward the end, but these books never fail to deliver some truly great mysteries to the last page, especially with characters like Bertha and Donald to keep the readers on their toes.

Next time: My dad is getting me a bitchin’ Camaro! —Bruce Grossman

Buy it at Amazon.

OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF ERLE STANLEY GARDNER:
• THE BIGGER THEY COME by Erle Stanley Gardner
• THE CASE OF THE HESITANT HOSTESS by Erle Stanley Gardner
• THE CASEBOOK OF SIDNEY ZOOM by Erle Stanley Gardner
• CROWS CAN’T COUNT by Erle Stanley Gardner
• PERRY MASON SOLVES THE CASE OF THE PHANTOM FORTUNE by Erle Stanley Gardner
• SOME SLIPS DON’T SHOW by Erle Stanley Gardner
• SOME WOMEN WON’T WAIT by Erle Stanley Gardner
• TRY ANYTHING ONCE by Erle Stanley Gardner

OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF GEORGE G. GILMAN:
• ADAM STEELE #1: REBELS AND ASSASSINS DIE HARD by George G. Gilman
• EDGE #2: TEN GRAND by George G. Gilman
• EDGE #4: KILLER’S BREED by George G. Gilman
• EDGE #6: RED RIVER by George G. Gilman