AustLit

'A is for action. This is a matter of balance. Some writers, such as PD James, have very little; some, like Mickey Spillane, have too much. If the low-action model is adopted, the characterisation, dialogue and descriptions had better be good. They were in James’s early novels but when she padded them out with descriptions of furniture and architecture (‘‘mullioned windows’’ adorn many country houses), things slowed to a halt. Spillane’s violence was overkill, literally.' (Introduction)

'A selection of stories featuring Australia's favourite PI, plus unpublished writing by Peter Corris on crime.

For almost four decades Peter Corris was known as 'the godfather of Australian crime fiction', and Cliff Hardy has been Australia's favourite private investigator since he solved his first case in 1980. This selection of stories starts with Cliff's early days driving round Glebe in his battered Falcon, drinking at the Toxteth Hotel and taking on cases that more often than not leave him as battered as his car. As Cliff becomes older and wiser, he prefers to use his head more than his fists, but the cases are as tricky as ever and Hardy's clients lead him to the murkiest surroundings.

To further celebrate Peter Corris's legacy, editor Jean Bedford has also included a selection of his columns on the world of crime and crime writing, along with his 'ABC of Crime Writing'. From Adultery to Yeti, via Gumshoe, Hit man and The Mob, this entertaining compendium gives a fascinating insight into Peter's vast knowledge of the genre.

Peter Corris was the author of nearly ninety books between 1973 and 2017, 42 of them featuring the legendary Cliff Hardy PI. Other fiction included the 'Creepy' Crawley and Browning series, along with his non-fiction books, including biographies of Fred Hollows and Ray Barrett, and A Round of Golf with Peter Corris.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Robertson is on the right side of history and morality. Surely he can’t be that good, that funny?

'The title of Geoffrey Robertson’s memoir was inspired by the comment of a senior British public servant when a Blair-government minister intended to appoint him to a European judicial position: ‘What a brilliant idea, Minister … But … he is … rather his own man, isn’t he?’' (Introduction)

'As an undergraduate I wrote self-regarding verses (I can’t dignify them as poems), which I submitted to student magazine editors who rightly rejected them. As a postgraduate I tried writing short stories. They were derivative of Hemingway and Maugham and were also rejected. I was discouraged and didn’t try a short story again until I’d abandoned academia and embarked on journalism.' (Introduction)

'From time to time discussion still arises about the difference between literary and popular fiction, and their respective merits. Those of us interested in the topic (and I imagine this would include many NRB readers) are often divided.

'Michael Wilding made his position clear when he wrote somewhere that, ‘Crime fiction [and by extension other forms of genre fiction] is not literature; it’s entertainment.’ As a practitioner I am inclined to agree. While hoping to provide well-written stories with at least some serious matter to engage serious minds, my primary purpose has always been to entertain.' (Introduction)

'A missing teenager, drugs, yachts, the sex trade and a cold trail that leads from Sydney to Norfolk Island, Byron Bay and Coolangatta. Can Cliff Hardy find out what's really going on?

'Will one man's loss be Hardy's gain?

''I'd read about it in the papers, heard the radio reports and seen the TV coverage and then forgotten about it, the way you do with news stories.'

'A missing girl, drugs, yachts, the sex trade and a cold trail that leads from Sydney to Norfolk Island, Byron Bay and Coolangatta.

'The police suspect the father, Gerard Fonteyn OA, a wealthy businessman. But he's hired Cliff to find her, given him unlimited expenses and posted a $250,000 reward for information.

'Finally there's a break - an unconfirmed sighting of Juliana Fonteyn, alive and well. But as usual, nothing is straightforward. Various other players are in the game - and Cliff doesn't know the rules, or even what the game might be. He's determined to find out, and as the bodies mount up the danger to himself and to Juliana increases. ' (Publication summary)

'An unexpected obituary takes Cliff Hardy on a trip down memory lane to a case he's been trying to forget for twenty years: oil, fraud, boxing, racing - and murder.

'One case still haunts Hardy ...

'Legendary PI Cliff Hardy has reached an age when the obituaries have become part of his reading, and one triggers his memory of a case in the late 1980s. Back then Sydney was awash with colourful characters, and Cliff is reminded of a case involving 'Ten-Pound Pom' Barry Bartlett and racing identity and investor Sir Keith Mountjoy.

'Bartlett, a former rugby league player and boxing manager, then a prosperous property developer, had hired Hardy to check on the bona fides of young Ronny Saunders, newly arrived from England, and claiming to be Bartlett's son from an early failed marriage. The job brought Hardy into contact with Richard Keppler, head of the no-rules Botany Security Systems, Bronwen Marr, an undercover AFP operative, and sworn adversary Des O'Malley.

'At a time when corporate capitalism was running riot, an embattled Hardy searched for leads - was Ronny Saunders a pawn in a game involving big oil and fraud on an international scale? Two murders raise the stakes and with the sinister figure of Lady Betty Lee Mountjoy pulling the strings, it was odds against a happy outcome.' (Publication summary)