Carter Brown

A rumour spread at the height of his popularity that Yates was one of John F. Kennedy's favourite authors – a rumour which helped propel his sales even further in the North American market.

His books, originally published by Horwitz and Signet, were set in the United States and published throughout the anglophone world. In its obituary for Yates in 1985, The New York Times noted that he had written "some 30 detective novels with American backgrounds before ever having visited the United States ... He said he chose American settings because Australians preferred them."

In the early 1980s, Yates and Richard O'Brien of The Rocky Horror Show fame wrote a musical of The Stripper, described in classic Carter Brown terminology as 'the girl who says it all from the neck down'.

1 Donavan (February 1974) 2 Donavan's Day (1975) 3 Chinese Donavan (1976) 4 Donavan's Delight (1979)

1 Murder in the Family Way (August 1971) 2 The Seven Sirens (1972) 3 The Angry Amazons (1972) w/Danny Boyd 4 Murder on High (1973) 5 Sex Trap (1975)

- The Hang-Up Kid (1970). - The Coven (1971). - The Pornbroker (1972). - Ride the Roller Coaster (1975).

- The Never-Was Girl (1964). - Blonde on a Broomstick (1966). - Die Anytime, After Tuesday! (1969).

1 Charlie Sent Me! (November 1963) [rewritten from "Swan Song for a Siren", 1955] 2 No Blonde Is an Island (1965) 3 So What Killed the Vampire? (1966) 4 Had I But Groaned (1968) 5 True Son of the Beast! (1970) 6 The Iron Maiden (1975)

- Publisher of "The Sultan", owner of "The Harem" key club - Murder in the Key Club (1962).

- The Bombshell (1960). A previous shorter version was "Doll for the Big House". - The Hellcat (1962). Trying to identify a pickled head in a jar lands Al Wheeler between an entitled family and a pair of gangsters, one dubbed "The Creeping Terror". - The Dumdum Murder (1962). - Girl in a Shroud (1963). - The Lady is Available (1963). - A Corpse for Christmas (1965). - Until Temptation Do Us Part (1967). - The Up-Tight Blonde (1969).

C. J. McKenzie, an editor for Horwitz, was commissioned to write ten of the Carter Brown novels while Yates was overseas in 1958. McKenzie also wrote crime books as Mike Boon and war novels as Michael Owen.

- The Wench Is Wicked (1956) - Blonde Verdict (1956) (US title "The Brazen"). When a lawyer drops dead at Al Wheeler's feet, poisoned with curare, nobody who knew the guy cares, so everyone is a suspect. - Delilah Was Deadly (1956) - No Harp For My Angel (1956) - Booty For A Babe (1956) - Eve, It's Extortion (1956) (US title "The Victim") - No Law Against Angels (1957) (US title "The Body") - The Blonde (1958). - The Corpse (1958). - The Lover (1959). - The Mistress (1959). - The Dame (1959).

1 The Lady Is Chased (September 1954) Mike Farrell 2 The Million Dollar Babe (February 1961) [rewritten from "Cutie Cashed His Chips", 1955] 3 The Scarlet Flush (1963) [rewritten from "Ten Grand Tallulah and Temptation", 1957]

1 The Lady's Alive! (August 1953) 2 The Hong Kong Caper (1962) [rewritten from "Blonde, Bad, and Beautiful", 1957] 3 Bird in a Guilt-Edged Cage (1963), (US and UK title The Guilt-Edged Cage (1962) [rewritten from "That's Piracy, My Pet", 1957]

1 Sweetheart You Slay Me (September 1952) 2 Blackmail Beauty (1953)

The extraordinary early success of Carter Brown in the 1950s meant that Yates was contracted to produce one short novel and two long novels each month. In reality, Yates was truly prolific with 322 published Carter Brown novels, including multiple series variously featuring protagonists Mike Farrell, Andy Kane, Mavis Seidlitz, Lt. Al Wheeler, Rick Holman, Danny Boyd, Larry Baker, Zelda Roxanne, et al. Yet despite the enormity of his output, a 1963 profile in Pix magazine revealed he approached deadlines 'with the reluctance of a long-distance swimmer shivering on the brink of a cold, grey English Channel. In the manic depressive moments of the third night without sleep – when the deadline is long past and the mental block has set solid as concrete, the writer inevitably descends into self-analysis. He knows, of course, that it will be no more help than the last Dexedrine tablet but still clings to the naïve hope that, somehow, sometime, he will find a way of avoiding the recurrence of his present hopeless situation.’

Born in England, Alan Yates married and settled in Australia in 1948. He began his working life as a film technician, a salesman and in public relations for Qantas before taking up writing full-time.

Carter Brown was the literary pseudonym of Alan Geoffrey Yates (1 August 1923 – 5 May 1985), an English-born Australian writer of detective fiction.