Wednesday, December 22, 2010

FIGHT NOVELS: THE CANVAS COFFIN

FIGHT NOVELS: THE CANVAS COFFIN

WILLIAM CAMPBELL GAULT

Luke Pilgrim, a middleweight champion, was punch-drunk after a bout with Charley Retzer, and he couldn't remember whether that night he had killed Brenda Vane, the girl he had taken home after the party, whose body had been found badly beaten up. Filled with horror he turned sleuth, and started on an unending search, running the terrified gauntlet between what he remembered, and what he might find out.

His girl friend, Sally, flew on from Chicago to help him unravel the hideous mystery. He vaguely remembered a windmill sign, and a bakery trademark, too remote it seemed to ring a bell. But doggedly he followed every hunch, every tip in a winding, heartbreaking probe. The few days amnesia held the secret fate of his life in a vice-like grip.

Staged against the racketeering, merciless background of the prize-ring this is a frightening and menacing tale of a fighter's struggle to prove his own innocence. With barely a clue to tell him how and where to begin, Luke Pilgrim has to find an answer which will lead him to his freedom or brand him as a murderer.

1 comment:

  1. A terrific read - Gault is one of my favorite PI writers - his brand of West Coast PI shows up in Archer & the rest. Gault wrote a number of novels involving sports, quite a few for the YA market but this one is pure noir - like an old boxing movie.

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