[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
Re: RARA-AVIS: NOSTALGIA REVIEW: W.C. Gault - Day of the Ram
What does "witty but not fruity" mean, exactly?
----------------------------------------------------------
Michael D. Sharp, Dept. of English, University of Michigan
(msharp@umich.edu)
"Oh boy, sleep! That's where I'm a viking!" --Ralph Wiggum
On Thu, 20 Feb 1997, M. Taboada wrote:
>
> NOSTALGIA REVIEW
>
> "Day of the Ram" by William Campbell Gault, No Exit Press, 1989,
> (originally published in 1956 by Random House), 192 pp., #2.50, softcover,
> ISBN 0 948353 43 0.
>
> William Campbell Gault has had one of the longest and most distinguished
> careers in the field of mystery fiction. Born in 1910, he was a member of a
> group of Milwaukee writers that included, most notably, the late Fredric Brown.
> Gault served a long apprenticeship in the pulps, to which he contributed
> hundreds of stories and of which he has said: "We wrote fast; they
> bought cheaply. But they bought." He has written many private-eye novels and
> juvenile books, achieving critical recognition as an outstanding storyteller;
> however, his success with the public at large has been moderate at best, an
> injustice if ever there was one. Nowadays Gault's books are mostly out of
> print; fortunately No Exit Press, an enterprising English reprint house,
> has reissued "Day of the Ram", an excellent example of his best work.
>
> "Day of the Ram" takes place in Los Angeles and the private-eye is Brock
> (The Rock) Callahan, a former football player turned private investigator;
> this is his second appearance in a series whose last installment (so far)
> appeared in 1984 - his 1982 novel "The Cana Diversion" won Gault an Edgar
> award for best original paperback, an uncommon achievement for a senior
> writer who had been in semiretirement-and who, as far as I know, is
> still active. Callahan's personal life and traits are carefully integrated
> into these novels; his background as a football player is well delineated;
> he is a Stanford graduate, and in general a fairly ordinary fellow. In
> the present novel, romantic interest, such as it is, centers on
> Callahan's hot-cold relationship with Jan, a brash interior
> decorator who knows his weaknesses inside and out; she, too, is a fairly
> ordinary person - but definitely not a Doris Day, though certainly not a
> Susan Silverman. She and Callahan age and evolve through this entire,
> thoroughly enjoyable series, which you are invited to read.
>
> In "Day of the Ram", Callahan is hired by Johnny Quirk, a quarterback
> with the L.A. Rams - a young and rich Beverly Hills kid who promises to be the
> next rising star of the team. Quirk has received a threatening note and fears
> he is being blackmailed by gamblers. Soon afterward Quirk is shot to death in
> his father's estate, and Callahan undertakes the investigation on behalf of
> Quirk's father, in uneasy collaboration with the police. The cast of suspects
> includes, on the shady side, Enrico Martino, a rich gambler turned respectable
> Bev-citizen, who had an appointment to meet Quirk at the time of his
> death and who actually saw him die, and the Heffner brothers, Martino's
> rivals and enemies in the gambling business. As the investigation
> evolves, many questions arise about Quirk's character; as it turns out,
> nobody really seems to have known him closely, not even a girl-friend
> to whom he was supposedly engaged. To complicate matters, a mysterious,
> slightly overripe two-bit actress, whom Quirk was seeing on the side,
> turns out to be simultaneously involved with gambler Martino and
> kept by one of the Heffner gangsters. The investigation leads farther and
> farther into the past, skeletons are dug up, and suspense is impeccably
> maintained throughout until the last-page resolution, a surprise twist
> which rounds out the plot nicely. The central, dark theme of this novel, a
> violent death that brings back ghosts from the past, is one that was dear
> to Ross Macdonald. While I can hardly speculate on what Macdonald would
> have done given an outline of the story, I am glad that Gault used his
> pulpster's instinct rather than Freud's writings as a guiding principle.
>
> I do not think I exagerate if I say that Gault merits being considered
> one of the top writers in the private-eye field. His style is concise,
> witty but not fruity, and remarkably free from extraneous interpolations.
> His plots are solid, the circumstances and dialogue believable; Callaghan,
> an intelligent and medium-tough character with modest endowments as a
> wisecracker and little propensity to use a gun.
>
> If you like private-eye fiction, you might do worse than investing a
> modest amount in this novel and perhaps setting up an investment plan
> in William Campbell Gault; the way I see it, Gault stock is vastly
> undervalued and, should the market turn, you might make a killing.
>
> Review Copyright (C) 1997 by Mario Taboada
> taboada@math.odu.edu
>
> -
> # RARA-AVIS: To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis"
> # to majordomo@icomm.ca
>
-
# RARA-AVIS: To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis"
# to majordomo@icomm.ca
References:
[Archives] | [RARA-AVIS]