John Buell - The Pyx

[dem bones]

John Buell - The Pyx (Quartet, 1974)

Cover photograph by Dennis Rolfe

A Spine-shivering novel of a struggle between good and evil. Now being filmed starring Karen Black and Christopher Plummer

Blurb;
Elizabeth Lucy was dead, but the evil chain of events that claimed her life was still very much alive ...

Most people would have buried the beautiful call-girl and forgotten her. But not Henderson — he was the man who found himself strongly compelled to look into her past — and slowly he learned the secret of Elizabeth's death, the secret of THE PYX ...

`The final revelation of evil, subtle and understated, is shockingly powerful' -New York Times Book Review

Buell's powerful, grim depiction of the junkie hooker's sad and seedy lot was what kept me going through The Pyx. Set in Montreal, the story alternates between past and present, with one chapter taken from the detective's perspective, the next from the victim's in the hours before she plunged from the balcony of a twelfth floor flat, and so on.

Elizabeth Lucy, it transpires, was a heroin addicted high class prostitute, and at time of death she was wearing just an expensive white silk evening dress and a rose in her hair, which to homicide detective Henderson, tends to rule out suicide. There's little by way of evidence, the taxi driver whose vehicle she fell in front of pocketed the most valuable clue. Witnesses are acting scared and Henderson finds it difficult to learn anything useful about the girl, just that her madam, the normally unflappable Meg Latimer, was being leaned on by 'important people' at the time of the incident. Now Meg, too, is dead, after someone tampered with her nightly fix. Henderson's few leads are staff at the Evening Star cafe who looked out for Elizabeth and noticed a blond stranger in her company early on the night of her death. Eventually the trail leads to a pimp, Herby LeFrain, although he too is murdered, shot in the head on a sweltering day (so plenty of flies to suck at the bullet wound). It turns out that Elizabeth, a good Catholic girl before she fell in love with the wrong man, had incurred the wrath of an unbalanced gangster, Keerson, after she helped a young prostitute disappear to a safe-house to fight her addiction. Keerson was obsessed with the girl, and, to avenge himself on Elizabeth, tries to break her by having her defile the host during some bizarre sex game. But Elizabeth saves her soul with one last act of courage whereupon Keerson is possessed by a Devil (!).

Have now read thirteen novels on the bounce but The Pyx is probably the one to break the chain for the time being. It's not that it's "bad" (although it doesn't hang together as well as it might), just too subtle for my current mood. If it wasn't for the cover photo and blurb, would not have realised I was reading a black sorcery novel until around p. 100 (of 114) as until then, unless I missed something, there's no hint of Satanism or, indeed 'The Pyx'.

The film is supposed to have been alright ...

[Michael Connolly]

May 5, 2010 22:17:40 GMT dem bones said:

John Buell - The Pyx (Quartet, 1974)

Cover photograph by Dennis Rolfe

A Spine-shivering novel of a struggle between good and evil. Now being filmed starring Karen Black and Christopher Plummer

Blurb;
Elizabeth Lucy was dead, but the evil chain of events that claimed her life was still very much alive ...

Most people would have buried the beautiful call-girl and forgotten her. But not Henderson — he was the man who found himself strongly compelled to look into her past — and slowly he learned the secret of Elizabeth's death, the secret of THE PYX ...

`The final revelation of evil, subtle and understated, is shockingly powerful' -New York Times Book Review

Buell's powerful, grim depiction of the junkie hooker's sad and seedy lot was what kept me going through The Pyx. Set in Montreal, the story alternates between past and present, with one chapter taken from the detective's perspective, the next from the victim's in the hours before she plunged from the balcony of a twelfth floor flat, and so on.

Elizabeth Lucy, it transpires, was a heroin addicted high class prostitute, and at time of death she was wearing just an expensive white silk evening dress and a rose in her hair, which to homicide detective Henderson, tends to rule out suicide. There's little by way of evidence, the taxi driver whose vehicle she fell in front of pocketed the most valuable clue. Witnesses are acting scared and Henderson finds it difficult to learn anything useful about the girl, just that her madam, the normally unflappable Meg Latimer, was being leaned on by 'important people' at the time of the incident. Now Meg, too, is dead, after someone tampered with her nightly fix. Henderson's few leads are staff at the Evening Star cafe who looked out for Elizabeth and noticed a blond stranger in her company early on the night of her death. Eventually the trail leads to a pimp, Herby LeFrain, although he too is murdered, shot in the head on a sweltering day (so plenty of flies to suck at the bullet wound). It turns out that Elizabeth, a good Catholic girl before she fell in love with the wrong man, had incurred the wrath of an unbalanced gangster, Keerson, after she helped a young prostitute disappear to a safe-house to fight her addiction. Keerson was obsessed with the girl, and, to avenge himself on Elizabeth, tries to break her by having her defile the host during some bizarre sex game. But Elizabeth saves her soul with one last act of courage whereupon Keerson is possessed by a Devil (!).

Have now read thirteen novels on the bounce but The Pyx is probably the one to break the chain for the time being. It's not that it's "bad" (although it doesn't hang together as well as it might), just too subtle for my current mood. If it wasn't for the cover photo and blurb, would not have realised I was reading a black sorcery novel until around p. 100 (of 114) as until then, unless I missed something, there's no hint of Satanism or, indeed 'The Pyx'.

The film is supposed to have been alright ...

I've just watched THE PYX (1973) online. With Christopher Plummer as Henderson, it's only barely alright. While Karen Black as Elizabeth the cross-eyed prostitute (and still looking great) comes off best, the film plods to an anti-climax. And some of the Satanic chanting sounds like it was contributed by Pinky and Perky. The novel was first published in 1959,which might explain its reticence regarding the occult.

[helrunar]

I saw THE PYX back in 2019 on a DVD a friend loaned me. I thought Karen Black's scenes were the highlight of what I found to be a very disorganized movie. It's filmed in flashbacks and flashforwards which sounds as if it is how the book was written, but this just plays as confusing and muddled rather than artful and intriguing. I personally found the "Satanic" climax/reveal absurd. I am not Catholic and was raised Episcopalian so maybe it would have been more "horrifying" if my religious background were more along the lines of the world the movie delineates. Christopher Plummer was also good but did not really have much to do. His frustrated wife bares her bosom at one point, if that's something you're into.

H.

[Michael Connolly]

For Alfred Hitchcock's production company, Harvey Hart who directed THE PYX also made an hour long TV pilot DARK INTRUDER (1965). It's a pulpy story of demonic possession and musty smells etc set in 1890 San Francisco. The series of murders are investigated by occult expert Brett Kingsford played by Leslie Nielsen. His dwarf assistant is called Nikola. I can see that you don't believe me. Well, I've just watched it online so you can see it yourself. I've seen worse.

[helrunar]

Michael, I watched Dark Intruder some years ago on y.t. and thought it was good value. I think it depends on how much one enjoys that sort of creepy, old fashioned, classic horror kind of aesthetic. I'm obviously a huge fan of all that.

Steve

[sadako]

There’s also this movie tie
-in edition