All Grass Isn't Green cover

All Grass Isn't Green

by Erle Stanley Gardner

**Cool & Lam Mystery #29** (1970) The client's card reads simply "M. Calhoun." Like so many others, he comes across all dismayed to learn that Cool is a woman and Lam is a runt. Only after he pays a standard retainer and exits the office do Bertha and Donald unmask the man behind the "M.": filthy rich Milton Carling Calhoun II. And the receptionist swears he came in specifically asking for *Mrs.* Cool. The agency has been hired by him to locate a writer named Colburn Hale, who seems to have cleared out of his apartment overnight, leaving no trace. Calhoun claims he just wants to have a chat with Hale. Yet, when Donald reports that he's been able to track the writer's supposed girlfriend, Nanncie Beaver--a woman Calhoun never so much as mentioned--down to the Mexican border town of Calexico, the client hotfoots it down by car, overnight, in a pouring rainstorm. Then Frank Sellers, of LAPD's Homicide Division, unexpectedly joins the Calexico party. And that's when Donald's case really goes south.

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Chappie’s discussion starters

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

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