I'm willing to look elsewhere when the books are not interesting, but these two books as by Ralph Hayes are too good not to try find out who published them originally and when.
Hayes is an interesting character in his own right, having published lots of genre fiction from the sixties onwards. He might still be alive, since Paperback Warrior interviewed him almost two years ago (read the interview here), and I've asked the gentlemen at Paperback Warrior to find out if that is indeed so and if Hayes himself can shed any light on this.
So, anyone know anything about these two? The other one is called "Smiling Lips" or some such in Finnish, and it's about a young doctor in a hospital, and there's a farmers' demonstration (!) which ends up in violence and the hospital has take lots of wounded farmers in. There are lots of gay and lesbian sex scenes, and there's also lots of romance, so this is not just another jerk-off book.
The other one is called "Unvirtuous Wife" in Finnish, and it's a very good book in its own genre: a mix of hardboiled thriller and porn book. It also boasts a contemporary Western feel, since it's located in Texas on a horse ranch, and the book's climax (sic!) is a big shoot-out at the ranch. The head character is a young and beautiful woman, who has to tend to the farm almost all by herself, since her husband is in Vietnam. The bank keeps asking about mortgages, and the woman has sex with the bank manager to fend him off. She also gets help from a mysterious stranger, who seduces her to give him blowjobs. Then the husband comes suddenly back from the war. The sex scenes are all motivated and move the plot forward, which is amazing, since in many of the sex paperbacks I've read they exist almost in a vacuum.
Both books were published in Finnish as by Ralph Hayes (the name is in the title page, hence it doesn't show on the cover), but I can't locate their original American publisher, nor the publishing year. No original titles are given in the books, so I can't check with those either. They can of course be by any other writer, and Hayes's name is in them by mistake. The covers are not American.I'd appreciate any comments.
EDIT: Ralph Hayes commented later saying these are not his books. So whose books are they?