'Tell me about your first case Cliff. You must remember it.'
'Sure, but Christ, I haven't thought of that in a long, long time.'
'What was it about?'
'Back then? Divorce - what else? But there was a bit of perjury, fraud and murder as well.'
The...Read more
Everybody liked Barnes Korean War veteran, slightly dodgy businessman, good drinking mate. When he was wiped out in a car sout of Sydney, people were lining up to say how sorry they were. Head of the queue was Todd's widow Felicia, closely followed by his business and army cronies.So how...Read more
Cliff Hardy returns to the Australian criminal underworld in a short novel and six stories focused on the private investigator
Gareth Greenway wasn't all he seemed, but Cliff Hardy was used to that. What he wasn't used to was the shadowy world Greenway leads him...Read more
Politician Peter January is having trouble staying alive so he hires Cliff Hardy to help him. Hardy dislikes the role of politician's 'security consultant' but he dislikes bombers, hit men and hatemailers even more. Protecting January leads to protecting his assistant, Trudi Bell, which is...Read more
Cliff Hardy starts out to help a friend but before long he's looking for an enemy - William Mountain: a boozer, TV scriptwriter, would-be novelist who is missing and searching for adventure. Mountain's adventure is Hardy's 'case' which rapidly becomes a case he would rather not have....Read more
‘One of the bayonets came to rest just below my Adam’s apple. I looked down at the shiny steel and then slowly looked along the length of the rifle barrel up into the face of my executioner. He wore thick glasses with metal rims and he had gold fillings in his teeth. I could see the teeth...Read more
Cliff Hardy is at the party to look after the paintings and throw out the drunks - gently.
But there he meets Helen Broadway, who interests him; and Paul Guthrie, who wants Hardy to look for his stepson, Ray.
Hardy delves into the sleazy Kings Cross backstreets and...Read more
I'm in love with Vivien Leigh, and I'm the most miserable bastard on earth.
When Browning's old drinking mate Peter Finch utters these words, Browning realises that trouble looms. Within the space of a few short hours he finds himself caught up in a London bar room brawl, held in...Read more
A client happens to fall from the twentieth story of a building; a rock star goes missing; an erotic Mongol scroll vanishes; a film star has a problem that has nothing to do with creativity - it's all in a day's work for Cliff Hardy. Yachts dance on the sparkling waters of the harbour, and...Read more
"I wanted to give him an uppercut for his arrogance and to get him to lift his head. He was still looking at his boots. He'd lit the cigarette and smoke was drifting past his face. It's hard to tell from the top of someone's head, but I was sure that I know him from somewhere..."...Read more
Is brilliant young filmmaker Carmel Wise the innocent victim of gangland violence or is she enmeshed in a pornography racket as the press and the police imply Carmel's businessman father hires Cliff Hardy to find the real reason 'the video girl' was shot dead outside the Greenwich...Read more
After being coerced into doing time in The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Richard decides the mounties life is not for him and escapes via The Yukon and Chicago.Read more
When Cliff Hardy, an Australian private detective, investigates an apparent sighting of John Singer, who disappeared two years ago, he encounters a series of murdersRead more
‘The big black car came up out of nowhere… I heard a siren and slowed down and pulled over like an honest citizen. The next thing I knew two men with hats pulled down over their eyes and sunglasses on above their tough expressions were pulling open the front doors of my car. I heard May Lin...Read more
He's a one-man army for $125 a day, plus expenses, and Hardy was finding his fee harder to earn all the time.
From reformed junkies to high fashion models, from radical politics to corporate, every type of face with every type of problem eventually walked through Hardy's door....Read more
It's no secret that the people who hire Hardy have nowhere else to turn.
Take Lady Catherine Chatterton, widow of the eminent judge. She's desperate to hand down the mantle of her husband's legal reign (not to mention the money) to someone more deserving than her boozy daughter...Read more
‘Well, what do you know,’ he said. ‘I’m very pleased to meet up with you at last, sport.’ I leaned back against the door and started into the mocking grey eyes of Errol Flynn.
Down on his luck in southern California in the middle of the Depression, Richard Browning falls back on...Read more
'I felt lucky. I was heading for the U.S.A., Hollywood and a million dollars. "Deal the cards, Jesse," I said.'
But not all the cards dealt to Browning turn up trumps. And Richard Browning has a marvellous talent for mucking up even lucky breaks. In fact, he's only really good...Read more
PETER CORRIS BLOWS THE LID OFF WITNESS PROTECTION
It's not easy making people disappear, but if Luke Dunlop screws up, someone dies.
In Witness Protection there's no margin for error....
Every case is a matter of life and death.
Ava Belfante just...Read more
He needs a nice smooth job, something to pay the bills - and keep his glass filled. But smooth this one isn't. Ted Tarleton is a very rich bookie whose beautiful, spoiled daughter, Noni, is missing. Tarleton wants Hardy to find her.
The logical place to start is with Noni's...Read more
Richard 'Box Office' Browning, the Australian-born actor, recollects his early days from his decidedly ungraceful old age. The escapades with the famous and the infamous are a delight.Read more
Meet Cliff Hardy. Smoker, drinker, ex-boxer. And private investigator. The Dying Trade not only introduces a sleuth who has become an enduring Australian literary legend—the antihero of thirty-seven thrillers—but it is also a long love letter to the seamy side of Sydney itself.Read more
The second collection of stories by Australian writers of crime, mystery and psychic violence, including Alex Juniper, Peter Corris, Claire McNab, Marele Day and Jennifer Rowe.Read more
The third collection in the Crimes for a Summer Christmas series, featuring stories by 14 Australian writers, including Elizabeth Jolley, Marion Halligan, Peter Corris, Brian Castro, Marele Day and Jean Bedford.
There are probably more, but immediate reactions on getting a book of short stories, is that there are precious few Crime Fiction short story collections by Australian authors around (I'm probably about to be proven totally wrong!). But there's something very engaging about a good...Read more
A body in a billabong...
The bridegroom who disappears on his wedding day...
A murderer for all the right reasons...
The Australian thriller tradition is rich and some of the early examples almost completely unknown. This collection, selected by...Read more
Cliff Hardy is cleaning out his office after losing his Private Investigator's licence. He comes across a folder with the paperwork for a missing person's case going back to 1988, Australia's Bi-centennial year.
OPEN FILE is a look back at how Cliff did his job twenty years ago...Read more
A series of real cases investigated by Australian crime writers who were asked to take a famous Australian murder or mystery - and solve it! Have they really stumbled onto new information, or are their speculations merely fiction?Read more
Cliff's back - Lazarus with a quadruple bypass no less. He's resigned to never getting his licence back and his agency is now in the hands of his daughter Megan and her PI boyfriend. He still misses Lily, and he's still driving "a" trusty Falcon, and he's no longer so pressed for money...Read more
Before everything comes across just a bit gushy, there was a point somewhere in the middle of the Cliff Hardy series where I seriously lost interest. Whilst there are some elements of the books that are always going to be the same, somehow the sameness became very obvious, there was...Read more