Cliff Hardy

PI Cliff Hardy needs a nice smooth job, something to pay the bills-and keep his glass filled-but this job is anything but smooth. Cliff Hardy is stone 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.

It's no secret that the people who hire Hardy have nowhere else to turn-and Lady Catherine needs her heir to be found now. 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.

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.

Cliff Hardy returns in this collection of short stories focused on the private investigator. A client falls from the 20th story 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 harbor, 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 $125 a day (plus expenses), he'll provide a few surprises of his own. . .

Cliff Hardy returns to the Australian criminal underworld in a short novel and six stories focused on the private investigator. 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 organized 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.

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.

In this hard-boiled detective novel, private investigator Cliff Hardy is looking forward to his new assignment. When rich, beautiful Lorraine Master hires him to look into the circumstances surrounding her husband's conviction for smuggling heroin on the island paradise of New Caledonia, Hardy welcomes the idea of a week on a generous expense account under a tropical sky. But his island escape proves to be anything but relaxing as he finds Stewart Master's business associates to be a difficult and dangerous bunch. The action returns to Hardy's normal stomping grounds of Sydney, Australia, where he and his client become targets in an intricate conspiracy gone seriously wrong and tangle with a tricky lawyer and a corrupt ex-cop. With punchy dialogue and exotic settings, this is a fresh adventure for a well-established character with an international following.

Cliff Hardy trades the mean streets of Sydney for the Illawarra escarpment, a rugged undeveloped area of Australia, in this latest hard-boiled detective novel. First hired by the daughter of the late, wealthy Frederick Farmer to investigate his mysterious and fiery death, Hardy is then called in on a second case-the disappearance of the young daughter of Marisha Karatsky, an exotic, dark-eyed interpreter who gets under Hardy's thick skin. Questionable insurance agents and feral bikers round out the colorful cast as Hardy battles through personal turmoil on the road to justice.

Private investigator Cliff Hardy tackles one of his most difficult cases yet in this gripping detective novel that finds him in the far southwestern suburbs of Sydney. When a journalist hires him to find Billie Merchant, a woman with incriminating information about media-giant Joanas Clement and who is being tracked by both Clement and Clement's rival, Barclay Greaves, Hardy must work hard to stay one step ahead. After Hardy tracks her down, he must juggle her self-destructive behaviors while negotiating his escape from Clement and Greaves. Set against the backdrop of a federal election campaign, all outcomes are uncertain in this gritty, action-packed story full of colorful characters and close calls

He's semi-retired and de-licensed, but Cliff Hardy is once again fighting for justice and tracking down evil when his cousin is brutally murdered-did the shotgun blast find its target, or was it meant for Hardy? 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, Malloy is brutally murdered-but perhaps the shotgun blast was intended for Hardy. He is semi-retired, but this investigation is personal. The plot becomes still more personal when Malloy's ex-wife, Sheila, comes onto the scene. Hardy has his own enemies and Malloy's to consider as he searches for the killer. Clues point in many directions-to Sheila's motives, to Malloy's suspect business dealings, and to his time as a mercenary in Angola. The search takes Hardy north to a paramilitary training camp and south to a meeting of Traveller descendants in Kangaroo Valley. Other players have other interests and their playing style is ruthless.

When the battle-scarred but indefatigable PI loses all his dough to an unscrupulous financial advisor, he has to follow the money trail deep into Sydney's underbelly-the territory of big money and bent deals-to get himself back in the black 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 a 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.

Cliff Hardy might have his license back, but does he still have what it takes to cut it as a PI on the seedy streets of Sydney? Cliff Hardy has his PI license back. He 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 license again, but in true Hardy fashion he's managing to find his way into trouble, not out of it.

PI Cliff Hardy's 39th case sees him investigating what a famous 19th century shipwreck has to do with a multi-million dollar heist featuring a cast of characters that shouldn't be trusted. The idea of enjoying creeping along an underground alley in half-light was alien to me. But the secret of getting things done is to do them and not waste energy complaining. A famous 19th-century shipwreck, a search for lost documents, a two-million dollar heist, a Newcastle criminal family tearing itself apart, an undercover cop playing both sides against the middle, and an alluring but fiercely ambitious female journalist give Cliff Hardy all the trouble he can handle. What started as an almost academic exercise-tracing lost documents to do with the 1857 wreck of the SS Dunbar-explodes into a here-and-now power struggle between criminals, police, lovers, and unseen forces. The first person Hardy interviews is shot dead and the body count mounts as he pushes closer to the truth about the people, the documents, and the loot.

Hardy's 40th case finds him bodyguarding a promising politician. When Cliff Hardy signs on as a bodyguard for charismatic populist Rory O'Hara, who is about to embark on a campaign of social and political renewal, it looks like a tricky job-O'Hara has enemies. A murder and a kidnapping cause the campaign to fall apart. Hired to investigate the murder, Hardy uncovers hidden agendas among O'Hara's staff and powerful political and commercial forces at work. His investigation takes him from the pubs and brothels of Sydney to the heart of power in Canberra and the Northern Territory. He teams up with a resourceful indigenous private detective and forms an uneasy alliance with the beautiful Penelope Marinos, formerly O'Hara's PA. A rogue intelligence agent becomes his target and Hardy stumbles upon a terrible secret that draws them into a violent-and disturbing-confrontation.

In the 40th Cliff Hardy book, Hardy plays a cool hand as a decades-old crime resurfaces and old scores are settled. 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 750 cc engines.

One case still haunts Hardy Legendary P.I. 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 1980's. Back then Sydney was awash with colorful 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 raise the stakes and with the sinister figure of Lady Betty Lee Mountjoy pulling the strings, it was odds against a happy outcome.