Dunbar Case

August 19, 2013
In Australian author Corris’s intriguing well-paced 32nd novel featuring Sydney PI Cliff Hardy (after 2012’s Comeback), the investigator tries to untangle a mystery surrounding the sinking of the luxury ship Dunbar in 1857. Academic Henry Wakefield enlists Cliff’s help with researching a previously unknown Dunbar survivor, William Dalgarno Twizell, whose only living descendant, great-grandson John Dalgarno Twizell, is in jail. John’s a rough character, and the even rougher family headed by mobster Jobe Tanner has it in for him, so when Cliff makes contact with John, the Tanners make contact with Cliff. At issue are valuable historical documents and a hidden fortune, and there are some who are willing to kill for these treasures. Cliff, despite a quadruple bypass and a permanent limp, remains tough enough and savvy enough to give as good as he gets, while complications and the body count both mount.

October 1, 2013

Nineteenth-century maritime disasters aren't his usual territory, but PI Cliff Hardy wades into the ultimate cold case with his usual bravado. Corris is one of Australia's premier crime writers; this is his 38th case for Hardy (after Comeback).

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2013
It's been a few years since Australian PI Cliff Hardy got his license back. He's still getting back up to speed when a university professor approaches him with a mystery involving the century-and-a-half-old wreck of a luxury liner. Cliff figures it should be smooth sailing, but, as fans of the long-running Hardy series know, Cliff's cases have a tendency to get real complicated, real quick. What starts out as a mostly research job (Cliff is trying to find out if there was a previously unrecorded survivor of the wreck and whether the survivor's descendant, a man named Twizell, might know anything about some jewels that were on board the ship) turns into a potentially dangerous situation involving a powerful crime figure (whose daughter, it seems, Twizell brutally assaulted and for which assault he's currently in prison, although he'll happily provide information on his ancestor in exchange for parole). This series debuted nearly 35 years ago, and, despite its being relatively little known in the U.S., you won't find too many mystery series that run this long with such consistently high quality.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)