Review: Naked Curse: A Larry Kent Mystery - Don Haring

Larry Kent was the protagonist of an Australian radio crime drama in the early Fifties called I HATE CRIME. The character was an American reporter who moved to Australia and became a private eye. The show was successful enough that enterprising paperback publisher Cleveland decided to put out a line of Larry Kent novels. In those books, Larry was an American private detective operating out of New York City. “Larry Kent” was both the main character and the by-line. Nearly all of the 400 novels that followed were written either by Des R. Dunn or Don Haring, an American who had moved to Australia, just like the character. Several years ago, the fine folks at Piccadilly Publishing began doing e-book reprints of some of the Larry Kent novels by Don Haring, teaming up with Bold Venture Press for the paperback editions. I’d been intrigued by the series, so I tried one of the e-books, and to my surprise, I didn’t like it and stopped reading after a couple of chapters.

However, I had a strong hunch that the fault lay with me as much as it did with the book. I just wasn’t in the right mood for it. That happens sometimes. When it does, especially when it’s a series that I expected to like, I give it some time and then try another of the books. Which is how I came to read NAKED CURSE.

In this one, Larry gets three cases, one right after the other, in short order. He’s hired because a beautiful young female artist is being stalked by an ugly brute. Then another beautiful woman hires him because she’s being blackmailed. And finally, he’s hired by an invalid millionaire stockbroker to find the man’s missing son. Sure enough (and you don’t get any bonus points for seeing this coming), those three cases turn out to be connected.

And this is one of those books where very little is what it seems to be at first. As he carries out his investigation, Larry runs afoul of a gangster and his hulking henchman, meets another beautiful young woman who may or may not be trustworthy, stumbles across several corpses, and gets knocked out more than once. In other words, classic private eye novel stuff. There’s a late twist that raises the stakes even more before Larry straightens everything out and winds up romancing one of the gorgeous babes he’s run into in the course of the story.

I enjoyed NAKED CURSE and plan to read more of the Larry Kent books. The story is interesting and moves right along, and Larry is a pretty good protagonist, smart and tough enough to deal with the trouble he encounters but far from superhuman. Haring’s writing strikes me as a little flat and I wish he’d had a bit more of a distinctive voice, but the prose certainly isn’t bad. And I don’t want to sound like I’m damning with faint praise. If you’re a fan of private eye novels, NAKED CURSE is well worth reading. It’s available on Amazon in e-book and paperback editions.