1 October 2008
The great Cliff Hardy re-read of 2008 : part 2
Posted by Miroslav under: Books .
Ok..since the middle of last month i’ve continued my marathon read of the Cliff Hardy detective series of novels written by Peter Corris at a pretty steady pace.
Cliff Hardy, born and raised in working class Maroubra, ex-army, law student dropout, insurance company investigator turned Private Eye, has a love-hate relationship with his time and place. He embraces the best aspects of Australian life – the tolerance, the classlessness, the vigorous urban and rural culture – while despising the greed and the conservatism that are constantly threatening to undercut what he sees as “real Australia”.
Inevitably drawn into the ambit of the people he deplores, Hardy struggles to resolve his cases while remaining true to his own threatened values. The professional challenges spill over into his personal life where he is never on firm ground.
When i last reported on the 12th of September, i had just finished re-reading the 8th book in the series called “Deal me Out”.
It’s now moved onto the 1st day of October and last night i finished re-reading the 17th book in the series called “Matrimonial Causes”.
The Greenwich Apartments
Is brilliant young film maker 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 Apartments in Kings Cross.
Hardy follows a trail which is broken but clear – houses and flats, with the power on and the rent paid, stand empty; photographs and other document lead to Lionel Darcy, owner of the Champagne Cabaret; banks and business houses will supply just enough information to keep Hardy warm.
The tail takes him to the sunny perninsula, leafy Lane Cove and the industrial waterfront. Hardy finds that every question and every answer had to be paid for in pain and fear. nd to some questions there may be no answers at all…
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, hitmen and hate-mailers even more.
Protecting January leads to protecting his assistant, Trudie Bell, which is a more enjoyable assignment. It also takes Hardy to Washington DC where the threats are real and the rules are different.
To stand close to January is to stand close to danger and corruption, but there are even greater evils and Hardy cannot back away…
Man in the Shadows
Gareth Grenway 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 into: neurosurgeons, mental patients, AIDS sufferes, all negotiating a landscape of dreams and delusions. An old firend of Hardy’s ends up dead while Hardy chases the shadows, catching some, losing others.
The accompanying stories find Hardy on more familiar ground. When organised crime, political corruption and the Australian army are involved, Hardy battles the odds. But when it comes to a man-to-man contest, put your money on Hardy to win.
O’Fear
Everybody liked Barnes Todd: 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 did a simple car accident suddenly become a murder?
Cliff Hardy hadn’t a clue, but business in the private eye game was slow, so he agreed to try and find out. And quickly came into contact with a lot of less-than-lovely people… especially the enigmatic Kevin O’Fearna, known as O’Fear.
Wet Graves
Someone’s trying to cancel Cliff Hardy’s licence, and he needs to find out why.
He also has to work out why the case of missing schoolteacher Brian Madden keeps leading him back over fifty years to the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Finding the answers takes all his contacts – police, underworld and press – and keeps Hardy moving across Sydney, asking questions, probing the past… and finding the bodies.
Aftershock
When Oscar Bach’s body was found crushed under rubble, his death was classified as another tragic statistic of the Newcastle earthquake. So how could he have been seen alive five minutes after the quake? Who would want this man dead?
Oscar’s quiet life was not all that is appeared to be. He was a man with no apparent past. But something and someone has caught up with him now, and they are trying to stop Cliff Hardy finding the answers.
Hardy thought he needed the work, but did he need it this badly?
Beware of the Dog
The woman was dangerous, even over the phone. Cliff Hardy knew he should have listened to his instincts when he first met Paula Wilberforce.
Instead he becomes embroiled in a high-society family full of old rivalries and hatred, his gun is stolen and he is wanted in relation to a shooting.
He has to find the answers quickly, before the murderer strikes again. The only lead he has is a mutilated photograph. Whose face is it? And what are those strange shadows in the background?
Burn and other stories
This collection of stores finds Cliff Hardy in his usual milieu of inner Sydney mixing with the good, the bad and the quirky as he works on his cases.
With his wisecracks and fists in readiness, Hardy goes about his daily business of tracking delinquent arsonists, hired killers and missing girlfriends, protecting eye surgeons and radio announcers, solving old crimes and helping past acquaintances in the underworld.
Always on the outside, but his sympathies with the underdog, Hardy’s cases are never what they seem and his solutions are not always what the client expects. All in all, normal time for Cliff Hardy but a great deal more for his readers.
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 early 70s, and in Cliff Hardy’s first case there were perjury, fraud, murder, crooked cops, lawyers, PIs and a call girl – scarcely an honest citizen in sight.
Hardy was caught in the middle with a client he couldn’t trust and nothing but questions for guidelines. In the end his survival became more important than the answers.
That leaves 16 books left to go :)
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