Bill Crider posted another bunch of scans of paperback covers from the seventies and early eighties on Flicker. There's a Marlowe Taggart book by Ralph Hayes included. Three of these came out in Finland in the early eighties, but in addition there were three more by a Finnish writer, Kari Nenonen. Nenonen is one of the most prolific Finnish paperback writers, with books ranging from women's romance to outright horror. I don't know why Nenonen wrote three more Marlowe books - whether the originals ran out or the Finnish publisher didn't have enough money to buy reprint rights.
The blurb of the last book in the series says: "Marlowe has just one principle: Live and let die!" Not very original, huh? The title means Dealings With Death or some such.
I've read only one novel by Ralph Hayes, who has written lots of stuff for men's adventure and western series. Pusuhuulet/Kissing Lips was published in a series of sex paperbacks in the early eighties, but I don't know its original title, since the Finnish edition doesn't mention it. The book is situated in a hospital and deals with the union strike! There wasn't lot of sex, though, and I thought whether it was a mistake to publish it as a sex novel or whether it should've found its place in a women's romance series. It wasn't bad, though, and I found Hayes's handling of the strike quite interesting.
If I can find my copy of Pusuhuulet, I'll post a scan here.
1 comment:
I'd never have guessed that those books would have been popular enough to require someone to extend the series.
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