Peter Corris

The thirty-eighth book in the Cliff Hardy seriesThis wasn't Hardy's usual brief--uncover the mysteries of a nineteenth-century shipwreck--but he could do with an easy case and the retainer was generous. But is it ever that simple? Not with a notorious crime family tearing itself apart, and an undercover cop playing both sides against the middle. These and an alluring but fiercely ambitious female journalist give Hardy all the trouble he can handle. 'Ever feel manipulated?' Hardy asks. The body count mounts up as he pushes closer to the truth about the mystery and the loot.

The thirty-sixth book in the Cliff Hardy series 'When beautiful young women kiss you on the cheek you know you're over the hill, but I didn't really feel like that. As Wesley said, I still had the moves.' Cliff Hardy may still have the moves but he's in trouble. The economy's tanking and he's been conned by an unscrupulous financial advisor and lost everything he's got. Cliff only knows one way, and that's forward, so he's following the money trail. It's a twisted road that leads him down deep into Sydney's underbelly, into the territory of big money, bent deals, big yachts and bad people. Cliff's in greater danger than ever before, but he's as tenacious as a dog with a bone.

The thirty-fourth book in the Cliff Hardy seriesStill reeling from the shock death of his partner, Cliff suffers a heart attack-but this isn't enough to keep him from investigating the disappearance of the father of the woman nursing him back to health.The search for the renowned geologist takes Hardy behind the scenes at one of Sydney's biggest basin aquifers and ignites the wrath of local big businesses which stand to lose even bigger money if his discoveries are revealed.

When journalist Louise Kramer hires Cliff Hardy to find Billie Marchant, Hardy heads for unfamiliar territory of the far south-western suburbs of Sydney. Billie claims to have information about media big-wheel Jonas Clement -- the subject of an incriminating expose by Kramer. Clement doesn't want Billie found and Clement's enemies want to find her first. Hardy tracks Billie down, but saving Billie' means not only rescuing her, it means saving her from herself. Billie, ex-stripper, sometime hooker and druggie, is a handful. Hardy gets help from members of the Pacific Islander community and others, but the enemies close in and he is soon fighting on several different fronts.Clement and his chief rival, Barclay Greaves, have heavies in the field, and Hardy has to negotiate his way through their divided loyalties. Some negotiations involve cunning but others involve guns. The action takes place against the backdrop of the Federal election campaign, and all outcomes are uncertain.'I don't know how many Cliff Hardy novels there are, but there aren't enough.' - Kerry Greenwood, Sydney Morning Herald'Hardy is a wonderful creation still, under Corris's magisterial narrative control, capable of those odd echoes and resonances, the elegiac interludes, that characterise the best crime writing.' Graeme Blundell, Weekend Australian odd echoes and resonances, the elegiac interludes, that characterise the best crime writing.' - Graeme Blundell, Weekend Australian