Customer Reviews

Open File (Cliff Hardy series)

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Peter Corris has been dubbed the "godfather" of Australian crime writing and after 35 outings by Sydney PI Cliff Hardy, the title is deserved. However, he is not well known outside his home country and, Kindle excepted, his books are very hard to track down. Open File is one of his more recent books and it contains a clever device for Hardy to travel back in time and recount a case from earlier in his career. Like most literary private investigations (and probably most real life ones too), Hardy is damaged goods - there are few rules in his profession, and Hardy can mix it up with the best (worst) of the compromised and criminal characters he encounters. And there are plenty of those in this story from petty crooks and wayward wives to brutal underworld bosses and over-reaching politicians. This is not the Australia featured in the tourist brochures, but a realistic representation of aspects of contemporary life in any major world city. Hardy has seen enough of this to warrant his cynicism but not enough to have destroyed his inner goodness which peeps through on occasion and allows him (and the reader) to retain some hope for humanity.

I have recently read six of Peter Corris' books and I just ordered his newest one. I have also read Nick Gadd's 'Ghostlines" and a number of books by Gary Disher's mysteries. All of whom are great authors from 'down under'. Any Corris book is fabulous. It's great to read about the culture which is an exciting part of each book.