The Ravine
A gripping hunt for a bestial killer.
Artist Julia Warner left life in the big city to avoid reminders of her little sister’s disappearance. Now teaching in a smalltown public school, memories of that tragedy flood back when one of her young students, Deborah Hurst, is assaulted. Not six months later, a second student is assaulted and killed—but this time, Julia gets a fleeting look at the perpetrator. Greg Malcolm, the doctor treating Deborah, wants to work with Julia in brining the murderer to justice, but the art teacher has plans of her own. First published in 1962 under the pseudonym “Kendal Young,” The Ravine was the author’s only thriller. It was adapted for the screen and released as Assault (1971), starring Suzy Kendall. This new edition is the first in 48 years.
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
"Buell... delights readers with vivid descriptions of English Montreal in the early 1960s—its Irish mobsters, aristocratic Westmount denizens, the city's affluence and its under-belly.... Véhicule Press has done a great service in republishing Four Days as well as Buell's first novel, The Pyx for a new generation of readers. This is literature well worthy of resurrection." - Ian Thomas Shaw, The Ottawa Review of Books
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
