Gold Comes in Bricks (Bertha Cool/Donald Lam Mysteries)

The trouble started when Bertha Cool decided Donald Lam would be more profitable to her if he took jujitsu lessons. For it was at the gymnasium that they met Ashbury who gave them the job of keeping his daughter, the lovely but somewhat irresponsible Alta, out of trouble. Donald moved into the Ashbury mansion. The longer he stayed the more he discovered: Alta was making out too many $10,000 checks to cash--her step-brother seemed to be mixed up in a very peculiar kind of business--her attractive stepmother was seeing a great deal of the flashy, loud-spoken Bernard Carter. And then murder... Erle Stanley Gardner writes as A. A. Fair.