Peter Corris

Dirty dealings, corrupt cops, computer geeks and a final showdown at an exclusive Sydney beach - is this Cliff Hardy's last adventure?Stripped of his investigator's licence and with his appeal denied, Cliff Hardy faces an uncertain future. Then something very personal happens that sends him off doing what he does best - confronting, questioning, provoking violence - with the lack of credentials not an issue. Is policewoman Jane Farrow bent or straight? Will vertically challenged but charismatic media star Lee Townsend be a help or an obstacle? Taking and dealing out punishment, mostly on Sydney's North Shore, Hardy encounters corrupt cops, bereft wives and computer geeks. In a shadowy showdown at Balmoral Beach, Hardy sorts out those who need to be sorted, but his future remains even more clouded than before. 'Corris is a tried and true crime writer. Until you've read the Cliff Hardy series, you can't call yourself an aficionado of Aussie detective fiction.' - The Age 'Hardy has grown into a vulnerable and engaging human being . . . Cheap motels are still his milieu.' - The Weekend Australian

The indefatigable Cliff Hardy helps out an old police mate with an unresolved case, involving dodgy doctors, an illegitimate child and a violent confrontation.Frank Parker, retired senior policeman and Cliff Hardy's long time friend, has a problem. A case from early in his career involving two doctors, one of whom was convicted of hiring a hit man to kill the other and went to gaol for the crime, is coming back to haunt him. The convicted, now dead doctor may have been innocent, and Parker had been the lover of the beautiful Catherine Castiglione, the doctor's wife. Hardy tracks back through the now ageing names and faces, trying to tease out the truth. If the doctor was set up, who was responsible and why? Along the way Hardy encounters dodgy plastic surgeons, a broken-down ex-copper, a voyeuristic cripple and a hireling who wields a mean baseball bat. A charismatic player is the son of Catherine Castiglione, a super-bright charmer, who just may be Frank Parker's love child. Animosities, arrogance and ambition create a spider's web around the violence that breaks out as Hardy searches for the spider.

Peter Corris' latest crime classic sees Private Investigator Cliff Hardy leaving the mean streets of Sydney for the Illawarra escarpment, and a gripping combination of a mysterious death, a missing child and a complex trail of violence and police corruption.Wealthy Frederick Farmer died when his weekender burned to the ground. Death by accident, the police found. But his daughter, Dr Elizabeth Farmer, a feisty academic who resembles the younger Germaine Greer, hires Cliff Hardy to investigate. Is her only motive jealousy of her father's attractive second wife, now very rich? Hardy's search takes him from the Illawarra escarpment to Wollongong and Port Kembla, and the police are far from co-operative as he tries to unravel the truth. He has his hands full when a panic-stricken call leads to a second case the search for the precocious daughter of Marisha Karatsky, an exotic, dark-eyed interpreter who gets well and truly under Hardy's guard. Hardy has narrow escapes and people die as his probing hits nerves. Corrupt cops, compromised insurance agents, feral bikies as well as a few good guys are drawn into the maelstrom. Hardy battles on through personal turmoil and vicious opposition with all outcomes uncertain and justice a remote ideal. 'I don't know how many Cliff Hardy novels there are, but there aren't enough.' - Kerry Greenwood, The 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, The Weekend Australian 'There has been no more efficient, entertaining and amusing writer of detective thrillers in Australia than Peter Corris.' - The Age

Australia's favourite PI, Cliff Hardy is back in a story set against the backdrop of a Federal election campaign.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

"The Black Prince is a brutal historical tale of chivalry, religious belief, obsession, siege and bloody warfare. From disorientating depictions of medieval battles to court intrigues and betrayals, the campaigns of Edward III, the Black Prince, are brought to vivid life. This rambunctious novel, based on a completed screenplay and the notes for an unfinished novel by Anthony Burgess and approved by the Burgess estate, showcases Adam Roberts in complete control of the novel as a way of making us look at history with fresh eyes, all while staying true to the linguistic pyrotechnics and narrative verve of Burgess's best work."--Dust jacket flap

Peter Corris' world weary but always charismatic hero Cliff Hardy has long been established as Australia's favourite investigator. Often bloodied but never bowed in this latest gripping novel, Hardy is in pursuit of missing millions from Sydney to the Pacific Islands.When rich, attractive Lorraine Master hires Cliff Hardy to investigate the circumstances surrounding her husband's conviction for smuggling heroin from New Caledonia, Hardy welcomes the assignment. A week on generous expenses sniffing about under a tropical sky, escape from a cold, dry spell in Sydney just the job. But Stewart Master's mates in Noumea prove to be a difficult and dangerous bunch. The danger follows Hardy back to Sydney where he and his client become targets when an intricate conspiracy goes seriously wrong. Hardy deals with a tricky lawyer, a man on the run and Sydney's most corrupt ex-cop. He has allies as well, but in the end his survival will depend on his own guts, experience and savvy. Peter Corris's world weary but always charismatic hero Cliff Hardy has long been established as Australia's favourite investigator. Often bloodied but never bowed in this latest gripping novel, Hardy's legions of fans will relish another pacy adventure, branching further afield than his traditional mean streets territory to the steamy island paradise of French New Caledonia. 'There has been no more efficient, entertaining and amusing writer of detective thrillers in Australia than Peter Corris.' - The Age

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Vintage Cliff Hardy, as Australia's favourite private eye finds himself literally fighting for his life in the murky violent underworld of Bondi.The early 1980s found Cliff Hardy well established as a private investigator but still battling his demons. He has quit smoking and moderated his drinking. The memory of his brief marriage still haunts him along with other ghosts from his past.A case in Bondi attracts him as an ex-surfer and admirer of the suburb. It began as a routine investigation into a supposed drowning. But Hardy soon finds himself literally fighting for his life in the murky, violent underworld of Bondi.The truth about John Singer, black marketeer and poker machine king is out there somewhere amidst the drug addicts, prostitutes and alcoholics. Hardy's job is to stay alive long enough in that world of easy death to get to the truth.The truth hurts.

Starting with the birth of Hewlett-Packard in the 1930s, Malone illustrates how decades of technological innovation, driven by the need for better hardware, laid the foundation for the meteoric rise of the Valley in the 1970s. Drawing on unvarnished interviews, he punctuates this history with incisive profiles of early luminaries, including William Shockley and Steve Jobs, when they were struggling entrepreneurs.

(Rev. M.A. thesis, Monash University, 1966); Sources for accounts, Howitt (1838), Dawson (1881), Curr (1886); Wimmera-Wotjobaluk trading group (McCarthy); Yauerin class formula, council of elders conducted affairs (Howitt); Religion Bunjie initiation; Belief in extraction of kidney fat; Bangals, medicine men; Western District description of camps; Terang district meeting place for trade; Totems, female descent Government hereditary right, paramount powers of chief (Dawson); Religion - totemism, initiation ceremonies, magic (Bunjie), tribal all-father; Varied diet, fisheries constructed, beal (native fermented drink); First contacts to 1842; Portland Bay area, C. & J.^ Mills (Mills Family of Portland, Papers) & Western District, Hentys (Memorial of the Hentys ...); Clashes with natives, killings & stealing cattle; Wedge (1840) & formation of Protection of Aborigines Port Phillip district; Killing by Aborigines cited; Failure of missionaries east of lakes 1839-49, undermining religious beliefs, dispossession of land, enforced contact with traditional enemies; Colac tribe killed by hostile neighbours, Buntingdale Mission; Geelong - Colac area; dependency on Europeans, effects of alcohol (N.S.W. Legis. Council); West of lakes 1840s - struggle for possession of land, appointment of Sievewright as Aboriginal Protector; Mount Rouse established, food allotment, attendance & provision tables 1842-48, inadequate supplies; Mount Rouse closed 1848, end of Protectorate 1849; Citings of clashes with tribes Wimmera district, some cases of settlers, Aborigines & the law cited; Poisoning of natives Port Fairy; Condition of Barrobool tribe, i.e.^ habits & movements, number employed, capacity of employment, payment tabulated; Native police expeditions; European attitudes & conditions of Aborigines, half-castes, alcohol & traditional customs discussed briefly; Estimate of Aborigines killed before 1860; Areas mentioned; Portland Bay, Geelong, Port Fairy, Warrnambool, Ararat, Dimboola, Camperdown, Colac, Warracknabeal; Five Tasmanian Aborigines lived with Chief Protector (Robinson), later 2 were hung after killing 2 whites.