Serendipity, Baby!

Over the weekend I was cleaning out my to-be-read stack, which resides in a drawer in my bedside table. Books tend to drift to the bottom, never to be heard from again, so I got everything straightened up so that when I wanted something to read, I could find something.

And I did - I found a book I had forgotten buying. It’s William Campbell Gault’s The Convertible Hearse, featuring private eye (and former Rams player) Brock Callahan. Pretty good, especially as it focuses on selling cars, which my dad did for years back in the 50s, later becoming a dealer in the 70s.

Then today I was looking at the new items at Al Guthrie’s excellend Noir Originals site, and there was an article on Gault. First published in 1984, when Gault had recently begun writing private eye books again after a two decade hiatus, it’s pretty interesting stuff. For example, I didn’t know that one of Gault’s best friends was Fredric Brown, a favorite writer of mine.

If you like old school PI fiction, be sure to check it out.