Hades & Hocus Pocus

By Lester Dent

Two classic noir novellas about young men who find treacherous jobs during the Great Depression .

In Hades, Alexander Titus, a former Olympic decathlon star, comes to Hollywood looking for work. He and his friend Haw Gooch are down to their last dollar when they find jobs as bodyguards for erratic film producer Roger Quinlan. Quinlan seems quite paranoid, claiming that he's being stalked by a demon and that he found Hades in a cavern in New Mexico. The story sounds crazy, but when Titus is framed for murder, he realizes Quinlan's alleged hell might be the one place where he can also find the truth.

In Hocus Pocus, two penniless traveling magicians respond to an ad for a mind reader. A psychology professor hires them to infiltrate a group of evangelists who incorporate mind reading into their preaching. Cal 'Marvelous' Merton and his assistant, Imagination Daly, will study the evangelists' methods and report back on whether their mind reading is genuine. But as Merton and Daly join the New Apostles, the air of danger is palpable, and questions arise about their employer and what exactly they're investigating.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Head of Zeus
• Release date: Jun 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781784084196

Lester Dent

Lester Dent (1904–1959) was born in La Plata, Missouri. In his mid-twenties, he began publishing pulp fiction stories, and moved to New York City, where he developed the successful Doc Savage Magazine with Henry Ralston, head of Street and Smith, a leading pulp publisher. The magazine ran from 1933 until 1949 and included 181 novel-length stories, of which Dent wrote the vast majority under the house name Kenneth Robeson. He also published mystery novels in a variety of genres, including the Chance Molloy series about a self-made airline owner. Dent’s own life was quite adventurous; he prospected for gold in the Southwest, lived aboard a schooner for a few years, hunted treasure in the Caribbean, launched an aerial photography company, and was a member of the Explorer’s Club.