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Larry Kent series for Cleveland

Blackjack Blonde. Sydney: Cleveland, [195?]; Red, Hot and Deadly. Sydney: Cleveland, [195-?]; Five Gets You Ten!  Sydney: Cleveland, [195-?]; Calling Larry Kent. Sydney: Cleveland, [195-?]; This Way Sucker! Sydney: Cleveland, [195-?]; Evens, Buster! Sydney: Cleveland, [195-?]; Bottle Blonde. Sydney: Cleveland, [195-?]; Slay Ride for Sandra. Sydney: Cleveland, [195-?]; Sin Siren. Sydney: Cleveland, [195-?]; V for Vixen. Sydney: Cleveland, [1966]; Love is Hell, Baby! Sydney: Cleveland, [195-?]; Mating Season. Sydney: Cleveland, [195-?]; No Mink in a Shroud. Sydney: Cleveland, [195-?]; Cult Creatures. Sydney: Cleveland, [1957?]; Curves Can Kill. Sydney: Cleveland, [1966]; Cesspool. Sydney: Cleveland, [1958?].

‘Larry Kent’ was in fact Don Haring, an American who had settled in Australia after the war, and Des R. Dunn, who was from Queensland. They both wrote some 400 ‘Larry Kent’ novels for Cleveland Publishing, with the first novelette appearing in April 1954.

Most of the plots were set in New York City, where Larry hung out at nightclubs and steakhouses, smoking his ‘Luckies’ and downing whisky. The covers usually featured paintings of leggy, full-figured babes and sported such snappy titles as Kill Me a Little, This Way, Sucker!, Dig Me a Dame! and Stand Up and Die!*

Cleveland is still in the pulp fiction business. Les Atkins (son of Jack) and his daughter, Stacey, run Cleveland Publishing and still produce eight westerns a month, with the workload split between head office at Brookvale and Les’s home at Sanctuary Cove on the Gold Coast.

*full call references are in the ‘Pulp Fiction’ hand-list.