The Damned and The Destroyed
‘God help us, Dent – the thing is, my daughter has become a dope fiend.’
Maxwell Dent studied law at McGill and served in the RCAF and Intelligence M-5 during the Korean War. For a private investigator, he’s as respectable as they come. No wonder then that it’s Dent Huntley Ashton summons to his Westmount mansion. A respected captain of industry, the wealthy man knows the PI can be relied upon to be discreet.
Ashton’s daughter Helen has fallen into heroin addiction, and the millionaire wants Dent to smash the ring supplying her vice, just as he took down a ring operating in Korea.
Set in 1954, the novel captures the dying days of Montreal’s reputation as one of the world’s great sin cities. The Damned and the Destroyed was published in 1962 by McClelland & Stewart in Canada and Dennis Dobson in the UK; this Ricochet Books edition marks the first print edition in more than five decades.
Four Days
In Four Days, an orphaned boy watches as his older brother and idol graduates from petty thievery into big-league crime. A bank heist goes awry, leaving loose threads and dangerous links back to the brothers. Following instructions, the boy leaves the city with the stolen money and travels to a rendezvous point in a mountain vacation resort. What he doesn’t know is that he is on his own, his brother will not show up—and the underworld is after him.
John Buell’s gripping second novel, Four Days, was first published in 1962 by Farrar, Straus & Cudahy in the United States and Macmillan in the UK. John Buell wrote five novels—The Pyx (1959), Four Days (1962), The Shrewsdale Exit (1972), Playground (1976) and A Lot to Make Up For (1990)—three of which were made into feature films. This Ricochet Books edition of Four Days marks the reintroduction of the work of a neglected master of suspense.
The Ricochet Bundle
Available together for the first time—all twelve books from the Ricochet Books series.
Discover the vintage noir mysteries, fast paced pulp fiction thrillers and detective novels that are set in 1950s Montreal, with two exceptions—Toronto and Niagara Falls.
Collect all twelve riveting noir novels for 120$ (regular retail price 167$).
This book bundle includes:
The Crime on Cotes des Neiges
Murder Over Dorval
The Body on Mount Royal
Sugar-Puss on Dorchester Street
Waste No Tears
The Long November
The Mayor of Côte St. Paul
Hot Freeze
Blondes Are My Trouble
Gambling With Fire
The Keys of My Prison
The Pyx
The Pyx
“Mr. Buell proves he has real talent…. The author’s choice of a mystery or suspense story format to serve his serious purpose reminds one of Graham Greene’s novels, but The Pyx is not just another in a long line of imitations.” --The Critic
“One of the most unusual novels of the year.” -- The Los Angeles Times
“Shockingly powerful.” -- The New York Times Book Review
