Two cops had gone missing, and their boss wanted to know what had happened to them. But he wasn’t sure just who he could trust down at headquarters, so he gave the job to Larry Kent, the only man he felt he could rely on.

Larry soon found himself up to his shoulder holster in trouble. Whatever the missing cops had been investigating, it was big. That’s why the dapper little chili-eating hustler Pete Grills wanted him dead. Why the seductive Ester Newell tried to recruit him rather than fight him. Why the shallow TV personality Grant Kelso had to die...and why the stakes were higher than Larry could ever imagine.

About Larry Kent

Larry Kent started his life as the hero of a half-hour radio show on Australia’s Macquarie Network, and was inspired chiefly by the success of the hardboiled mysteries of Carter Brown. As the popularity of the radio show grew, the Cleveland Publishing Pty. Ltd decided to publish a series of Larry Kent novels. Two authors, Don Haring (an American who lived in Australia) and Des R Dunn (a Queenslander) are primarily associated with the series. Between 1954 and 1983, Larry appeared in well over 400 adventures.

Kent is a typical hardboiled private eye. He smokes Luckies, drinks whisky, and within the first dozen pages or so, has usually met a dame and is fighting for his life. His mean streets are pure New York (although the radio series was set in Australia) and include Harlem nightclubs and Jersey roadhouses.

Generally the body counts are high: about six deaths per novel.

But there’s another side to Larry Kent. He’s a Vietnam war veteran, he used to work for the CIA and still does, usually reluctantly, on occasion. And once, when an attempt was made on his life, the Agency paid for him to have plastic surgery that altered his appearance ... something he never quite managed to get used to.

Larry Kent is fast and fun, and Piccadilly Publishing is proud to be bringing his cases to a whole new generation of fans, complete with their original "good girl" artwork.