Matrimonial Causes

'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

O'Fear

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

Man in the Shadows

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

The January Zone

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

Deal Me Out

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

Make Me Rich

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

The Big Drop

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

The Greenwich Apartments

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

The Empty Beach

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

Heroin Annie and other Cliff Hardy stories

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

The Marvellous Boy

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

White Meat

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

The Dying Trade

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

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