Death in Donegal Bay

Brock 'The Rock' Callahan #10

by William Campbell Gault

Former professional football player turned private eye Brock Callahan gets involved when a noted con artist hires his protege, Corey Raleigh, for a surveillance job, a case that leads to the murder of a harmless vagrant

190 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

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

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I grabbed this book at random at one of my libraries used book sales. I was just trying to fill my bag of books (fill a bag for $5 book sale) and this was a small paperback.
I was surprised that I liked it. When grabbing books at random, you never know. Anyhoo, it was a pretty good old school detective novel.

I did like Brock. He had some sarcastic humor but overall, he was really the only fully developed character. The supporting characters were developed only slightly in conjunction with Brock so I would say that was my negative.
Brock is mentoring a young kid who has taken a case of following a wife for the husband to check on her fidelity. As usual with these books, the case becomes more complicated and Brock does his own investigating on a separate yet connected case with not completely trustworthy allies.
I liked Jan who is Brock's wife and the kid-Cory.

Also, as I was finishing up, I realized what it reminded me of.
This book reminded me of the tv show "The Rockford Files". I'd seem some episodes in syndication when home sick in bed. I'd recommend it to those who liked that show.
Also, anyone who likes the detective novels from the 60's-80's. It wasn't quite as hard boiled as Chandler & Hammett novels, but I believe it was representative of the next wave of hard-boiled detectives after them.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gault created football-star Brock the Rock Callahan in 1955 as a private detective with broad appeal. When he brought Callahan out of retirement in the 1980's for a new set of novels, Gault probably had novels like Donegal Bay in mind. Here, we encounter an older Callahan, retired in fictional San Valdesto (Santa Barbara thinly disguised), married, settled down, wealthy, but still dabbling in the trade. This case brings together figures from Callahan's past who he met in his early years with the Rams and who he met at a party at Jan's many years before. But even in bucolic San Valdesto, murder, blackmail, and general thuggery rear their ugly heads.

Like most books in this series, Donegal Bay is an easy read and the violence is kept at a minimum. Much of the story involves twists and turns, hunches, head fakes, and seemingly unrelated events. It, of course, all ties together in the end. Very well done.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an accidental read--I interlibrary loaned the mystery novel because of the title, but, um, this Donegal bay is in California and not Ireland. Whoops! But it was still a quick pulp detective read. Hadn't read one of those in awhile, especially one without the internet! So weird how they have to research things and call people instead of internet stalking them. The retired detective is an ex-football player for the LA Rams and unique--he's quick at some things but admits that he makes mistakes sometimes, too.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gault’s character is a private eye and retired Guard from Stanford and the L.A. Rams. I liked the book. The way he describes characters and the convaluted way the plot moves.
I did think the last two chapters wrapped things up a little too quickly. It felt like a serialized book that had to end at a certain word count