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Peter Corris

The second book in the Cliff Hardy series

Cliff Hardy is stony broke, which makes it hard to resist a job from the man he's been losing money to. Ted Tarleton is a rich bookie with a beautiful, spoiled daughter who's gone missing, and Ted wants Hardy to find her. Her boyfriend is no help, and Hardy faces opposition from all sides as he delves into the increasingly violent wreckage of Noni's past.

Allen & Unwin

Cliff Hardy Series

White Meat

The third book in the Cliff Hardy series

Lady Catherine presides over the declining fortunes of the Chatterton estate, which is lacking a suitable heir. When she hears of a grandson she never knew, Cliff Hardy takes the job, reluctantly, of finding him. From the run-down boarding houses of Darlinghurst to the social set of Canberra, Hardy finds the case forcing him into some of the strangest roles a private detective has ever had to play.

The Marvellous Boy

The seventh book in the Cliff Hardy series

A client falls from the twentieth storey 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 the back alleys are busy: the city's high and low classes go about their daily business. But nothing really surprises Hardy, and, for a hundred and twenty-five a day (plus expenses), he'll provide a few surprises of his own...

The Big Drop

The sixth book in the Cliff Hardy series

It is just another party in Sydney's eastern suburbs, a routine security job for Cliff Hardy. It leads, though, to an interesting meeting and a dangerous job.

No one is more familiar than Hardy with the sleazy back streets and pubs of Kings Cross, and he follows a twisted trail over dangerous ground. As well as a hitman out to get him he deals with politically protected criminals and corrupt journalists - and meets the intriguing Helen Broadway for the first time.

Make Me Rich

The eleventh book in the Cliff Hardy series

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 into: neurosurgeons, mental patients, AIDS sufferers, all negotiating a landscape of dreams and delusions. An old friend 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.

Man in the Shadows: A Short Novel and Six Stories

The twelfth book in the Cliff Hardy series

When Todd Barnes, war veteran and popular drinking mate, leaves Cliff Hardy a tidy sum to find out who killed him, Hardy can hardly refuse - and he needs the money. Todd's widow and some of his cronies are not always cooperative, however, and it's hard to tell friends from enemies, especially when it comes to the mysterious Kevin O'Fearna, known as O'Fear.

Hardy's battered Falcon takes him from the familiar mean streets of Sydney to equally dangerous bushland, where he's on his own up against heavy odds. A not-unfamiliar situation for Sydney's most enduring private investigator.

O'Fear

The thirty-third book in the Cliff Hardy series

Cliff Hardy, with his PI licence cancelled and his career in Sydney at an end, is preparing for a trip overseas. Cleaning out his office, he comes across an open file-an unsolved case. He starts reading and is thrown back to his investigation. At first glance a straightforward missing persons matter, the investigation took on twists and turns involving military history, Sydney criminals and corruption at high levels. Twenty years later, can he crack the one that got away?

Open File

The thirty-fourth book in the Cliff Hardy series

Still 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.

Deep Water

The thirty-fifth book in the Cliff Hardy series

Hardy has never been much of a family man, so when he meets his second cousin Patrick Malloy it's like being hit with a left hook to the solar plexus - Malloy is his double. Cliff and his cousin become friends and travel to attend a gathering of the Irish Travellers - the gypsy-like folk from whom they are descended. On their return, a shotgun blast shatters their camaraderie. But who was the bullet aimed at, Malloy or Hardy? And why is Malloy's ex-wife, Sheila, now making her presence known to Hardy?

Torn Apart

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.

Follow the Money

The thirty-seventh book in the Cliff Hardy series

Cliff Hardy has his PI licence back - but does he still have what it takes to cut it on the mean streets of Sydney?

Cliff reckons the skills are still there, if a little rusty, and actor Bobby Forrest's case looks promising. Bobby's a nice-enough guy, but why is he being stalked by a red-hot brunette? And why did he have to go online to find a date?

When Bobby is murdered, it comes as a shock. Cliff's only solid lead is a white Commodore, the most ubiquitous car around. When a surprising connection with his own past surfaces, Cliff is forced to put some of his skills to the test. But is he heading in the wrong direction?

Somehow he has to put it all together without losing his licence again, but in true Hardy fashion he's managing to find his way into trouble, not out of it.

Comeback

The thirty-eighth book in the Cliff Hardy series

This 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 Dunbar Case

The fortieth book in the Cliff Hardy series

Is Sydney gun city? It certainly seems so when Cliff Hardy is hired by entrepreneur and one-time pistol-shooting champion Timothy Greenhall to investigate the violent death of his troubled son. Soon Hardy is pitched into a world of crooked cops - former members of the Gun Control Unit - outlaw bikers and honest police trying to quietly clean the stables.

Two more murders raise the stakes and relationships are stretched to breaking point. Hardy hooks up with a determined policewoman and forms an unlikely alliance with a charismatic biker chief.

Uncovering the tangled conspiracy behind the murders takes Hardy to the Blue Mountains and Camden, to plush legal chambers and a confrontation in an inner-west park - all against the roar of 750cc engines.

Gun Control

The forty-first book in the Cliff Hardy series

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 raised the stakes and with the sinister figure of Lady Betty Lee Mountjoy pulling the strings, it was odds against a happy outcome.

That Empty Feeling

The forty-second book in the Cliff Hardy series

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.'

The police suspect the father, Gerard Fonteyn OA, a wealthy businessman. But he's hired Cliff to find his daughter, 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.

Cliff Hardy Series - The book series

Cliff Hardy Series - The book series

Cliff Hardy Series books in order

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