Spill the Jackpot

by Erle Stanley Gardner

**Cool & Lam Mystery #4** (1941) When secretary Corla Burke mysteriously vanishes from her place of employment, her fiancé's father, Arthur, Whitewell, hires Bertha Cool and Donald Lam to investigate. The lady may have taken a powder, but she left her purse right there on her desk, money and all, near the correspondence she quit typing in mid-sentence. The sole potential clue is that, on the day before her disappearance, she received a letter from someone named Framley in Las Vegas. Yeah, Vegas, baby. Only, at least one player is bent on stacking the odds.

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Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?