Unidentified sleaze paperback

Here's still another one of those sex papebacks I've been unable to obtain any reliable information about. It's by one Jo Ann Sheer, and it's supposed to be called Alayne's Secret Pleasures. It came out in Finnish with a stupid and irrelevant title "Rinnat kuin revolverit", which means "Breasts like revolvers", which bears no relation to the novel. It came out in 1978. I can't find any book as by Jo Ann Sheer and certainly not "Alayne's Secret Pleasures". 

The book is not crime, as some of the previous examples are. This is a rather loosely narrated story of Evan, who works in a men's mag, and Alayne, who's an ex-ballerina and living with Evan. They have a fight, as Alayne asks for too much sex, and Evan whips her with a belt, which Alayne of course enjoys immensely and says later that at that time he could finally respect Evan. They part their ways, only to meet later in Germany at the launch party of a new sex magazine called European Views. The way Alayne gets her money to travel to Europe is an especially nasty one: she and her lesbian friend fight each other naked in a bar (and when I say fight, I mean it), and when Alayne wins, she has to whip her friend in front of the audience. If she declines, her friend gets thrown in the river. After the whipping the women are raped. It's no pleasure reading this stuff, though there are titillating moments. The ending is a happy one: Evan and Alayne get back together, now that Evan knows how Alayne should be treated.

There are some inside jokes and references in the book: the editing office of European Views, the new sex mag, is described in detail (I'll translate back to English): "The gay photographer, the shabby office hasn't officially been rented, the staff writers are two homeless and rootless guys, who have nowhere else to rest their heads." The publisher of European Views could be modeled after a real person, there's that certain ring to it. In one scene Evan is seen reading a copy of a 0008 book by Clyde Allison. (There's no way a Finnish writer could know this, since they have never been translated.) I believe this a bona fide American sex novel published by an obscure house, and it was written by someone who was in the industry him- or herself. 

A reader of this blog found a book that was written and published as by another writer in one of these posts: H. P. Jaye wrote a gay porn novel The Go-Down Man in 1969, published by CAJ, which could be an off-shoot of Publishers Export Center hailing from El Cajon, California. PEC seems to have ceased in 1971, so these may have been one of their latest books, which might explain why they can't be found. 

One thing more: I noticed there's a character called Joe Sheer in the first Parker novel, The Hunter, but there's no way Westlake would've written this. Is there?

Another paperback sleaze problem: Jason Brown: Little Girl Gone

In my previous post, I was asking about two crime-cum-sex paperbacks that were published in Finland as by Ralph Hayes, but didn't actually seem to be Hayes's work. At least he himself denied that, and as I said in the post, I couldn't locate the possible original books via WorldCat, Abebooks or other sites. 

Now here's another one. It's also situated in the sub-genre of crime novels that have lots of explicit sex in them, and it's a pretty good one at that. I can't find anything about the book or the author, and it has come to me that maybe the Finnish publisher came up with non-existent titles so as not to have to pay the author or the original publisher for the work. 

The book in question is by one Jason Brown and the Finnish edition gives the original title as "Little Girl Gone" (the Finnish title Reittä pitkin kuolemaan is impossible to translate back to English). Now, that does sound like a legitimate sleazy crime novel, but I can't find anything to match the time frame (it was published in Finland in 1978) or the description. Jason Brown doesn't seem to have published anything in English language. 

The book takes place somewhere in the South, and in it one Berk Marshall, a young guy in his twenties or thirties, goes back home to find out his grandpa is dead, seemingly by accident, but Berk can't fathom how his grandpa could've shot himself, since he was always so careful with guns. Berk finds out someone's been selling grandpa's forest behind his back all the time. The sex scenes involve Berk's two teenage crushes Sammy and Mary Ellen, between whom he really can't choose. There is also a scene with the forest caretaker's wife that the caretaker ushers on to be able to snatch photos of his wife and Berk making it out together so he can file for divorce. In the end, Berk gathers all the suspects together to reveal the guilty one. 

So Little Girl Gone, whoever wrote it, is a legitimate crime novel, with some gun action, fist fights and car chases, with a healthy dose of X-rated sex thrown in. Who wrote it, who published it and when did this happen? Inquiring minds need to know!

Mind you, this is not the only crime novel I've found in the midst of the American sex paperbacks I've been going through lately. There's also Alexander Keith's The Love Gun (published possibly by Bee-Line Books in the early 1970's) that features a murder of a hunting party's member and even some police work. The book takes place in Canada, and Alexander Keith was the name of a famous Canadian politician and businessman, so I presume the writer is actually Canadian, hiding behind a pseudonym which means something only to other Canadians. The book's not bad, though reading these in a row makes it difficult to judge. (I couldn't find exact publishing date for this, but I was able to buy it on Kindle, and the AdultBookCovers site has two other smut titles by Alexander Keith, and they were published by Bee-Line Books, so I presume it's a real book!) 

Anyone recognize these two sleaze paperbacks by Ralph Hayes?

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Sixties' sleaze twofer: Mark Clements's The Boss's Daughter & Ken Kane's Racket Babe

Hello again, it's been a while, huh? I got back to doing my book on American sleaze paperbacks translated in Finnish and read these two old paperbacks, both written in the mid-sixties and published in Finland in the early seventies. Neither one was very good, and not much is known about the authors, but here goes nevertheless. I realize both of the translations are possibly abridged, but I have no reasonable way to check it.  

Mark Clements's The Boss's Daughter (Midwood, 1965) is about Brad Kirby, a well-to-do newspaper man, whose wife is beautiful, but frigid at times. The wife also happens to be Kirby's employer, a wealthy and influential business tycoon. Kirby finds out his wife might possibly have an affair, and in a jealous rage he has sex with the neighbor's wife. After this his wife's good-looking bombshell of a little sister is coming to visit. She is a nymphomaniac and has decided to have sex with as many men as possible, so he starts immediately to hit on Kirby. The kid sister's own escapades are also described. The climax should be a thrilling foursome, but for some reason it all boils down to a short ending chapter, where it's just stated some of the folks were arrested. Brad Kirby's marriage also didn't cease. It's all somewhat interesting, but not very intriguing. The crime element of many other sleaze novels is missing completely. The description of class differences between Brad Kirby and his wife and father-in-law are dealt with, but not in detail. The scene between Kirby and his employer seems to be missing, so the book leaves much to be desired. 

Ken Kane's Racket Babe (Bell-Ringer 1965) is a less interesting book, though it has some merit as a lesbian prison novel. The episode which is mentioned in the original cover (see below) is very short, though. Racket Babe is like two different authors wrote it: the beginning and the ending are intolerably sweet and romantic, while the middle part is dark and relentless, with all its violent depictions  of swindles, the chaste system of the women's prison and the difficulties to get work while in parole. 

The racket babe of the title is Connie, who falls in love with a young soldier named Derek. They are separated (because of a stupid scheme to meet in three weeks' time) and Connie is running on empty. He falls in with a guy called Duke, who plays poker for money and sets up Connie with married men to strongarm them. Connie and Duke get arrested, and Connie is sent to prison, where she keeps company to a butch called Timmy and gets protection in return. After the prison, she's on parole, but the only job she gets is a lousy diner where she doesn't get enough pay and is told to lie about the money to the parole officer. Then she gets the proposition to become the diner's owner's paid lover. Connie flees, but notices soon she can't hold up on her own and is ready to become the lover, but - then she suddenly meets Derek again! Derek is now handsome and wealthy and bears absolutely no grudges. Happy end. You hear what I'm saying? No way this is a one-man job! 

One other thing that bothered me: there's a mention of the Korean war like it happened just some years ago. And yet this

was published in 1965, 12 years after the war! Is this really a reprint of a fifties' book that no one edited for its second edition? 

One thing that keeps me from blogging is how lousy Blogger's photo editor is nowadays! It was perfectly okay, but then they messed it up this Fall. I've uploaded some of the photos in this post for four or five times already, and now I just can't do it anymore, so let the chips fall where they may.