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Russell Teed #1
The Crime on Cote des Neiges
The first in an intriguing new series of vintage mysteries, this gritty detective tale, originally published in 1951, centers on hard-drinking, hard-working private sleuth Russell Teed. When the biggest bootlegger the city has ever known, John Sark, is murdered, Detective Sergeant Framboise is convinced Sark’s widow is the killer. Knowing there was another former Mrs. Sark with an even better motive, Teed sets out to keep the gorgeous Inez Sark out of jail and find the real culprit. Chasing clues from east to west, Russell does whatever he can to find justice, including shooting up a couple of characters and busting up a drug ring in order to expose the victim’s private life.
233 pages, Paperback
First published April 15, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 17, 2020
At times entertaining and suspenseful, but seemingly too many details arbitrarily piled into the solution. I needed to clear my head when all was said and done.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 4, 2012
A very slow mystery where the detective spends a lot of time wandering around asking the same questions until people finally tell the truth. Also the physical violence feels forced to me. While I didn't mind the style of the writing, I found the characters a bit dull, and the detective was a bit dull too.
The nice thing is that the story wasn't so thick with slang that you needed a thug slang dictionary. The fact that it was located in Montreal was interesting, and the fact of how people slipped into the US or ran out of the US was interesting.
The nice thing is that the story wasn't so thick with slang that you needed a thug slang dictionary. The fact that it was located in Montreal was interesting, and the fact of how people slipped into the US or ran out of the US was interesting.
October 29, 2018
Oh this was such a delicious read. A sweet hard boiled detective novel written in and takes place in 50s Montreal.
The author’s turn of phrase fills me with such joy, like:
‘I raised the rye decanter and drank from it like a kid from coke. All right, like a baby from a bottle’
And so many other gems.
The mystery was great; good twists for me. Really enjoyed it. Where’s the tv series?
The author’s turn of phrase fills me with such joy, like:
‘I raised the rye decanter and drank from it like a kid from coke. All right, like a baby from a bottle’
And so many other gems.
The mystery was great; good twists for me. Really enjoyed it. Where’s the tv series?
May 13, 2021
I feel like I’ve been reading this book since the beginning of the semester and I’ve finally ended the task of finishing this book😂 The story isn’t bad or and the book is super short but it’s far from being the best of the books I’ve red for my Detective fiction class (2.5 stars)
August 4, 2017
Vraiment bon, genre noir. J'ai bien aimé le langage coloré de l'époque!
September 19, 2025
I didn't buy the double...
March 13, 2015
The Crime on Cote des Neiges, by David Montrose, was originally published in 1951, and was reissued in 2010 by Vehicule Press in Montreal. Squarely in the vein of noir, it tells the story of Russell Teed, an anglo private investigator living in Montreal and primarily making a living doing high-flying work for mega-corporations. But when the rich Westmount mother of a childhood friend asks Teed to find out what has happened to her daughter's husband, who has not been seen for five days, he is willing to take on a different kind of detective work. It doesn't take long for him to realize that the man is dead, and from there on in the bodies just start piling up, one after another. Who is behind the murders? Could it be one of the three women apparently linked to the dead man? Or some of his business partners who are tired of his high-handed ways? Or perhaps the drug ring that has more uses for a remote cabin than one might think.... Quite dark and rather odd, this book presents Montreal in a very different light to the way the city is now (I live in Montreal, so I can say that with confidence). For one thing, Montreal in the novel appears to be almost entirely Anglophone, with the only French character being Sergeant Framboise ("raspberry"), who is hyper-alert, yet plodding and slow, and whose English is portrayed as very heavily accented and grammar-free. For another, the street names are almost all different now; most have been renamed using French terms or people, whereas in Montrose's day, many street names were English. For example, what is now Rene Levesque Blvd. was once Dorchester Street, and our hero spends a lot of time traveling on that Anglophone road. The women in the book are all scheming and slinky; the men are happy to use their fists, knives and guns any time at all. Oh, and our hero starts drinking (usually beer, sometimes rye or whiskey) from the moment he rolls out of bed, and carries on until he finds said bed once again. Montrose apparently wrote two other books featuring Teed, Murder Over Dorval (1952) and The Body on Mount Royal (1953), and I hope Vehicule Press reissues those two as well. Definitely not for people with tender sensibilities concerning the violence, sexism and racism that was part of the social fabric of the time, but recommended if you're a fan of 1950s pulp!
August 23, 2015
As someone who really loves Montréal I was always curious about the city’s history. Gabrielle Roy’s “Bonheur d'occasion” describes the French Canadian Montréal of 1939, and Mordecai Richler’s books give an idea on Jewish Montreal of 1940s-1950s, but the old-days English Montreal remained a mystery for me. So I hoped that David Montrose would fill in this gap.
Well, “The Crime on Cote des Neiges” is no historic book, but it gives some idea about Montreal life in the late 1940s – early 1950s. We learn for example that people had refrigerators, that 2 bottles of beer cost a dollar, and that it was quite normal to have a couple of “rye” before driving. It was interesting to see names of familiar streets in the downtown.
On every possible occasion, the narrator tries to show how cool he is, and how all the other characters are stupid, awkward, miserable or insignificant. Except several beautiful girls who often try to seduce Teed by taking their clothes off (which is the waste of time for them as Teed is too cool to respond to their sex-appeal).
As for the story itself, it’s neither bad, nor boring. Good enough
Well, “The Crime on Cote des Neiges” is no historic book, but it gives some idea about Montreal life in the late 1940s – early 1950s. We learn for example that people had refrigerators, that 2 bottles of beer cost a dollar, and that it was quite normal to have a couple of “rye” before driving. It was interesting to see names of familiar streets in the downtown.
On every possible occasion, the narrator tries to show how cool he is, and how all the other characters are stupid, awkward, miserable or insignificant. Except several beautiful girls who often try to seduce Teed by taking their clothes off (which is the waste of time for them as Teed is too cool to respond to their sex-appeal).
As for the story itself, it’s neither bad, nor boring. Good enough
May 26, 2020
An outstanding Canadian specimen of the mid-20th century hardboiled murder mystery. Private eye Russell Teed finds himself investigating the murder of the owner of Montreal nightclubs and gambling joints who back in the 1920's had been a bootlegger smuggling booze into the USA during the Prohibition era. Involved are the dead man's sometime wives and various accomplices, and a drug seller dealing in heroin. Lots of turns and twists in this well-plotted search for whodunit.
March 24, 2014
interesting experience of a genre that I've never read before. Nice settings in Montreal in the early 50's. Very well written, but implausible.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews