Day of the Ram

Brock 'The Rock' Callahan #2

by William Campbell Gault

Brock Callahan, ex-guard for the L.A. Rams is now a tough private eye, weighing in at 220 pounds with a passion for Einlicher beer. Callahan becomes involved with Johnny Quirk, ace quarterback of his old team, the Rams. Quirk fears he is being blackmailed by "The Syndicate" into fixing the games, and when Quirk turns up in the morgue, Callahan moves in to find his client's killer.

Genres: Mystery

144 pages, Paperback

First published October 28, 1988

About the author

William Campbell Gault (1910–1995) was a critically acclaimed pulp novelist. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he took seven years to graduate from high school. Though he was part of a juvenile gang, he wrote poetry in his spare time, signing it with a girl’s name lest one of his friends find it. He sold his first story in 1936, and built a great career writing for pulps like Paris Nights, Scarlet Adventures, and the infamous Black Mask. In 1939, Gault quit his job and started writing fulltime.

When the success of his pulps began to fade in the 1950s, Gault turned to longer fiction, winning an Edgar Award for his first mystery, Don’t Cry for Me (1952), which he wrote in twenty-eight days. He created private detectives Brock Callahan and Joe Puma, and also wrote juvenile sports books like Cut-Rate Quarterback (1977) and Wild Willie, Wide Receiver (1974). His final novel was Dead Pigeon (1992), a Brock Callahan mystery.


Series:
* Brock 'The Rock' Callahan
* Joe Puma

Reviews

[Two Envelopes And A Phone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sure, I’ll set this one at 4 stars. More Raoul Whitfield than Raymond Chandler, but cynical - if not stylish - enough to qualify as good hard-boiled fun just down from what the great authors did.

A budding NFL prospect for the L.A. Rams gets lured to his death, not long after it seems bad people wanted to get him into the business of fixing games. Johnny Quirk also had a way with the ladies, so the complicated baggage tied into that could also cause anger, jealousy, and murder. It doesn’t help that one of the women close to Johnny links to those who maybe wanted Johnny to take the gamble out of gambling. Plus, the fellow who gets to take Johnny’s place, in terms of a bright future in football, also, coincidentally - coincidentally?? - connects to unsavoury people. Suddenly, everyone private eye Brock Callahan - himself a former Ram - talks to relating to Johnny’s ultimate misfortunes seems oddly...connected. But where in the web is a murderer?

This book is deftly constructed, pretty compelling overall, and suffers only from almost-there style. Chandler-lite? Chandler occasionally? Whatever you want to call it, the style mirrors the solution to the crime - satisfying, not spectacular. I was happy with the wrap-up - this book has a strong second half and reveal - and can recommend this as entertaining, speedy 1950s hard-boiled noir. Fulfilled my expectations - did not exceed them.

[Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second book in Gault's Brock "the Rock" Callahan series, about a former LA Rams lineman turned PI. Written in the late 1950's, he writing is straight forward, the stories move along, and are interesting.

[Leo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Haven't read the first book but found it to be a mildy entertaining read to pass some time with

[Sam Reaves · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another curiosity from the vintage paperback bins. William Campbell Gault was a pulp writer who churned out dozens of books, mostly sports fiction, from the fifties to the early nineties, when people read that kind of thing. This book from 1956 is an entry in his Brock Callahan series, about an ex-pro football player (a Ram, naturally) who becomes a Beverly Hills private eye. The sports theme is evident from the first page, where Callahan is watching a game (an exhibition game, no less, so we know we're dealing with a true obsessive) between the Bears and the Rams at the L.A. Coliseum, name-checking real-life players and coaches. (Bob Waterfield! George Halas!) Gault was obviously a fan.
The plot throws a fictional character in with the real players, a hot rookie quarterback for the Rams named Johnny Quirk, who happens to be a local boy, son of a Beverly Hills millionaire. After lighting up the Bears in the game, Quirk comes to Callahan for help: he has been approached by gamblers hoping to get a toehold in pro football. ("We don't want football to go the way boxing did," says a stern policeman early on.) Callahan investigates, and then the case blows up when Quirk is shot to death on Sunset Boulevard.
Callahan will nail the killer, of course, and along the way he's going to deal with the usual stock characters (gamblers, floozies, cops who don't like shamuses) in the usual L.A. venues. It's fairly entertaining if not at all memorable, a historical curiosity for football fans, and not very long if you really ought to be doing something else.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

In his Brock Callahan series, Gault created a detective character with broad appeal. In fact, Gault turned an ex-football star (Brock the Rock Callahan) with a bad knee into a Beverly Hills detective and gave him a relationship with a well-connected interior designer to boot. Between discussions about the latest Rams defensive line and almost cute dating shenanigans Brock had with Jan, Gault threw in a little something for everyone.

In this book, Day of the Ram, Gault even makes the victim the latest Rams quarterback and throws in an assortment of gamblers actresses and up and comers in greater Los Angeles. The Brock Callahan novels aren't all that gritty or hardboiled, but they make for easy enjoyable reads and this one is no exception.

[Francis · Rating 3 out of 5]

William Campbell Gault wrote sport based youth novels with titles like "Bruce Benedict, Halfback" before his foray into crime fiction. This book starts more like a juvenile sports fantasy with a lot of sport analogies, one dimensional characters and simplistic views on morality. But if you can get through the first five or six chapters and they are short it progresses into a not too bad dime novel of its time.

Not great by any means, but still a fun read for readers seeking some fifties style nostalgic crime fiction.

[John Bunyan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid 3 stars. Average hard-boiled PI tale with gamblers, thugs, and women of questionable morals. Ok but moves slowly. Killer not hard to figure out. Very outdated attitudes towards women. A lot of ethic slurs.
Brock is a likable PI, doesn’t drink much and only gets beat up occasionally.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: PI Callaghan comes to the aid of the Rams quarterback who is being pressured to fix games. When he dies, Callaghan looks for the killer.