Matt Harding was one of more than twenty pseudonyms used by Lee Floren (1910-1995) during his long and prolific career. Floren was born in Montana and had moved to California by the early 1940s. He published his first short story in 1939 and his first novel in 1944. He specialized in westerns but wrote in other genres as well. "Matt Harding" first appeared in 1960 and went on to produce a couple dozen books for the sleaze paperback market. In all, Floren wrote about 220 books and even more short stories.
Young Widow by Matt Harding. Beacon (1960), 154 pp.
Auto dealer Jim Watson, in his mid-twenties and not long out of prison, realizes that things aren't going that well. The business, which he cares little about, has trouble meeting routine expenses. Still worse, he's not satisfied with the women in his life. His wife, Janet,"dumb as grass" and hoping to start a family, may be withholding needed money from him. His girlfriend, Rowena, server at his favorite restaurant, wants to expand the relationship beyond rental payments. And Mabel, his office assistant, is making sexual demands that exceed his desires. When he meets a potential customer, recently widowed Cynthia Adams, he's instantly smitten. Exotically gorgeous, she's his age, exudes wealth and seems interested in getting together with him. She may be the solution to his problems.
The author, using a third-person narrator, spends a lot of time in his protagonist's head. It's not a pleasant place. Jim cares only about himself. He obsesses about his female companions and their shortcomings. In doing so, he continues to lay out his relationships with them even after Cynthia, the novel's source of dramatic tension, shows up on the first page. The book tells enough about selling cars and running a small business to put the story into larger context. The sex scenes -- the publisher specialized in sleaze -- consist of little more than descriptions of women with the clothes off. The author furnishes a quick read, but he may hedge a bit as the novel comes to a close.