That Empty Feeling

September 5, 2016
Ned Kelly Award–winner Corris’s 41st book featuring Australian PI Cliff Hardy (after 2015’s Gun Control) doesn’t pull its punches. The death of former client Barry Bartlett prompts Hardy to reminisce to his grown daughter, Megan, about his work for Barry some years earlier. In a flashback, Barry, a crooked Sydney businessman who has somehow managed to stay out of prison for more than 25 years, is visited by a young man claiming to be the son, Ronald, whom he hasn’t seen for decades. As Ronald has no proof to back up his claim, Barry, a lonely man who’s eager to believe him, asks Hardy to investigate. Before the detective can get much traction on the assignment, Ronald disappears, Barry suffers a stroke, and the case eventually turns into a murder inquiry with broad implications. Hardy doesn’t shy away from using violence, and Corris doesn’t hesitate to present the consequences of that proclivity. The author’s effective humanizing of his sometimes-brutish lead makes Hardy a believable character who engages the reader’s sympathies.

November 1, 2016

Private investigator Cliff Hardy is feeling his age when he reads Barry Bartlett's obituary in the Sydney Morning Herald. Hardy worked a case for Bartlett back in the 1980s, trying to discover if a con man was passing himself off as Bartlett's son. Ronny Saunders was raised in England, along with his sister, Barbara, by their mother, after she left Australia and remarried. More bodies pile up among the aging population of former criminals, now gone straight. Corris is known as the godfather of Australian crime fiction; this is his 41st book featuring Hardy (after Gun Control), the essential world-weary PI who isn't afraid to use his fists to find answers. VERDICT Cracking dialog moves the pace along. A solid choice for mystery buffs who appreciate rough-hewed Australian humor and hard-boiled PI series.

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2016
Corris continues his exploration of Australian PI Cliff Hardy's early years with this 1980s-set mystery. A prominent (if ethically questionable) businessman hires Hardy to find out whether a man claiming to be his son is telling the truth or working an elaborate con. But while he's digging into the alleged son's life, Hardy uncovers some uncomfortable things about the businessman's own past. The Hardy novels have a solid noir feel to them but tempered by a nice sense of humor; Cliff's the kind of guy who takes his cases seriously, but himself not so much. Having recently ended Hardy's career, and then (sort of) resurrected it, the author is now taking the series full circle, telling stories set during the period when the series was new (the first novel was published in 1980, and we're up to about 40 now). Perfect for both longtime series fans and newbies.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)