Cliff Hardy's investigation into the murder of a rich developer takes him into the high flying world of corporate Sydney. The beautiful Claudia Fleischman has been charged with the murder of her husband, and Cliff takes on the job of finding the real killer. He finds his way blocked on all sides, but when a friend is killed, it gets personal. Cliff has to take drastic action.One of Hardy's toughest cases ever.

A fast-paced and entertaining collection of stories featuring Australia's favourite PI, Cliff Hardy.I was starting to get interested. As someone who thinks stockmarkets, futures trading and currency speculation ought to be illegal, I was aware that I was radically out of step with the times. I dimly grasped what Marriott was saying, enough to understand that it sounded like being allowed into the mint with a U-haul van. Cliff Hardy is no financial genius. But in Taking Care of Business he pursues white collar crime with the same doggedness he applies to his more downmarket villains. Hardy's tasks are many and his clients are from all walks of life. He is minder for Thomas Whitney, the highly strung whistle blower, whose company is siphoning money off through Vanuatu. He is hired by computer genius Charles Marriott, whose shady dot com partner wants control of the business and is letting nothing and no one get in his way. And ever keen for some spare cash...

Peter Corris' latest crime classic sees Private Investigator Cliff Hardy leaving the mean streets of Sydney for the Illawarra escarpment, and a gripping combination of a mysterious death, a missing child and a complex trail of violence and police corruption.Wealthy Frederick Farmer died when his weekender burned to the ground. Death by accident, the police found. But his daughter, Dr Elizabeth Farmer, a feisty academic who resembles the younger Germaine Greer, hires Cliff Hardy to investigate. Is her only motive jealousy of her father's attractive second wife, now very rich? Hardy's search takes him from the Illawarra escarpment to Wollongong and Port Kembla, and the police are far from co-operative as he tries to unravel the truth. He has his hands full when a panic-stricken call leads to a second case the search for the precocious daughter of Marisha Karatsky, an exotic, dark-eyed interpreter who gets well and truly under Hardy's guard. Hardy has narrow escapes and...

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 bikies 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 bikie 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 750cc engines.

Although the meaner streets of inner Sydney are his traditional stamping grounds, Cliff Hardy finds that crime can flourish in the leafy, well-heeled outer suburbs as well. Lugarno may be an unlikely centre for drug dealing and corruption but the trail starts with the daughter of a wealthy client and leads quickly to threats of violence from some serious characters.Once again, Hardy treads a fine line between police and suspects, coming up against blackmail and bullets before a surprising finale.

Cliff Hardy always finds it hard to turn down a job, but in the case of Paula Wilberforce he should have followed his instincts. Against his better judgement, he becomes involved in a wealthy family's disputes, where old rivalries and hatreds come to the surface and murder is the result.His gun is stolen, and when he finds himself wanted in relation to a shooting, Hardy must find the murderer before he strikes again.

Meet Cliff Hardy. Smoker, drinker, ex-boxer. And private investigator. When the wealthy Bryn Gutteridge hires Hardy to help his sister, it looks as if blackmail is the problem. Until the case becomes more brutal, twisted and shocking than even Hardy could have guessed.'A quintessentially Australian literary icon.' AgeIntroduction by Charles Waterstreet.Peter Corris's first Cliff Hardy novel, The Dying Trade, was published in 1980. It not only introduced a sleuth who was to become an enduring legend, but was also a long love letter to the seamy side of Sydney itself. Over more than three decades Corris has now written thirty-eight Cliff Hardy books, and the city of Sydney is as significant a presence in the books as the figure of Hardy. The third in the series, The Empty Beach, was made into a film starring Bryan Brown. In 1999 Corris was presented with a Ned Kelly Lifetime Achievement Award.Charles Waterstreet is...