Master's Mates (Cliff Hardy series) [Paperback]

Peter Corris (Author)

Book Description

Series: Cliff Hardy series | Publication Date: June 1, 2005

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

After a couple of decades, your typical mystery series tends to get a little stale. But there are exceptions: Westlake's Dortmunder novels (35 years), McBain's 87th Precinct series (49 years), and Corris' Cliff Hardy series, which is now at the quarter-century mark and still going strong. Unlike the oft-reprinted novels of Westlake and McBain, however, Australian Corris' work is not widely available in the U.S. The publication of this representative Hardy novel should help change that. In Master's Mates, Hardy is hired by a beautiful woman to look into her husband's heroin-smuggling conviction. He uncovers a nasty little conspiracy that threatens his own life, but as usual he has the guts to get himself out of the scrape. The Hardy series doesn't depend on snazzy prose, flashy characters, and stunning plot twists. Rather, Corris sticks to basics--a likable lead, a solid mystery, plenty of action and humor--and keeps grinding them out. This series could go on another quarter century, easy. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Breezy but focused prose, a Miami Vice-like atmosphere, and an attractive hero will appeal to hard-boiled fans." —Library Journal

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Allen & Unwin (June 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1741141362
• ISBN-13: 978-1741141368
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,953,939 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the great hardboiled PIs, March 8, 2010

By 

D. R. M. "wicmar" (Minneapolis, MN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Master's Mates (Cliff Hardy series) (Paperback)

Here in America we have our Travis McGees, our Spensers, our Doc Fords, our Lew Archers, our Elvis Coles. In Australia they have Cliff Hardy. If you love hardboiled first-person PI yarns, as I do, you're going to love Peter Corris's Cliff Hardy. Corris has written almost 40 Hardy novels and a number of short stories. Some of them were published in the US in the 80s and 90s, but are now out of print. Happily, Amazon has many of them available through 3rd party merchants. Master's Mates is as good a place to start as any. The Coast Road is another good one. Give 'em a try. If you do, I'm pretty sure you'll come back for more Cliff Hardy.

4.0 out of 5 stars Always enjoyable, March 1, 2011

By 

wild reader (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Master's Mates (Cliff Hardy series) (Kindle Edition)

I enjoyed this Cliff Hardy novel. I have now read three or four of Peter Corris's Cliff Hardy books and will read more. So far they have all been easy to pick up and easy to read and enjoyable.

They are very Australian. They are also the classic old struggling PI getting caught up in all sorts of wild criminal activity novels. If you want police procedurals forget it. This is one man struggling to understand what is going on, and survive it.

As the previous reviewer said if you like the classic PI novel you will enjoy the Cliff Hardy books. I read his "Lugano" first but it's not listed here on Kindle.