Suspenseful summer reads: Comeback by Peter Corris
‘You read the papers don’t you, Cliff?’ my lawyer, Viv Garner, said.
‘All depends,’ I said.
‘On what?’
‘Whether they’re going to make me angry or not, and a lot of things make me angry—politics, economics, religion, television…’
‘That just about covers it. Bit sour though.’
‘Oh, a lot of things make me happy. Make me laugh. Sometimes the same things that make me angry. I’m not sour. You might say bittersweet.’
‘Okay, I gather you haven’t followed the High Court decision in the case of Wade versus the Commissioner of Police.’
We were drinking coffee in a place in Glebe Point Road that had been recommended to me by a coffee snob. ‘The best, mate,’ he’d said. It was okay, better than some, and they’d served it very hot, the way I like it. Viv had rung wanting to meet and offering to buy. He knew I was broke or very close to it. I’d ordered a croissant to go with the coffee. I’d been skipping meals a bit to save money. I thought I could probably tap Viv for a second cup. I shook my head in answer to his question.
‘Jack Wade was, and will be again possibly, a licensed commercial and private inquiry agent. Like you, the Com-missioner banned him for life.’
That got my interest. ‘What did he do?’
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.
