Luke Dunlop is in Witness Protection. He has one job - to make people disappear. And that’s not easy when there’s no margin for error and each case is a matter of life and death. Convicted felon Kerry Douglas Loew, recently married in prison, makes a deal to turn informer for a new identity and a new life. Loew can expect no mercy from his former mates, on trial for the murder of an assistant police commissioner. If they reach him, he’s dead. Finding a way to hide a man married to a TV star is bad enough, but when Dunlop meets Cassie May Loew the trouble really starts. “Corris’s portrayals of Australian crime stand out as uniquely forceful, hard-driven, compassionate.” James Ellroy**

Is brilliant young filmmaker Carmel Wise the innocent victim of gangland violence or is she enmeshed in a pornography racket as the press and the police imply? Carmel's businessman father hires Cliff Hardy to find the real reason 'the video girl' was shot dead outside the Greenwich Apartments in Kings Cross.Hardy follows a trail which is broken but clear - houses and flats with the power on and the rent paid, stand empty; photographs and other documents lead to Lionel Darcy, owner of the Champagne Cabaret; banks and business houses will supply just enough information to keep Hardy warm.The trail takes him to the sunny peninsula, leafy Lane Cove and the industrial waterfront. Hardy finds that every question and every answer has to be paid for in pain and fear. And to some questions there may be no answers at all...'Indigenous thrillers are better than any others, and the best of all are Peter Corris' accounts of his Sydney private detective, Cliff Hardy.' - Mark Thomas,...

William Cyril Moxley was hanged at Sydney's Long Bay Gaol in 1932 – the first execution in New South Wales for eight years. His crime was the brutal rape and murder of 21-year-old Dorothy Ruth Denzel and the vicious beating and killing of her boyfriend, Frank Barnby Wilkinson. How did this World War I army deserter, small-time thief, conman and police informer come to be the infamous murderer 'Mad Dog' Moxley? Was it simply a robbery gone wrong? Did his blackouts and migraines stem from a head injury as he claimed, or was he the monstrous sociopath described by the prosecution lawyers and the tabloids? Why did he leave such an obvious trail? Would he be found guilty today?

Vintage Cliff Hardy, as Australia's favourite private eye finds himself literally fighting for his life in the murky violent underworld of Bondi.The early 1980s found Cliff Hardy well established as a private investigator but still battling his demons. He has quit smoking and moderated his drinking. The memory of his brief marriage still haunts him along with other ghosts from his past.A case in Bondi attracts him as an ex-surfer and admirer of the suburb. It began as a routine investigation into a supposed drowning. But Hardy soon finds himself literally fighting for his life in the murky, violent underworld of Bondi.The truth about John Singer, black marketeer and poker machine king is out there somewhere amidst the drug addicts, prostitutes and alcoholics. Hardy's job is to stay alive long enough in that world of easy death to get to the truth.The truth hurts.

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.

One case still haunts HardyLegendary PI 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 1980s. Back then Sydney was awash with colourful 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?...

Cliff Hardy is distracted by a romantic entanglement, but low on funds, and with his private investigator's licence restored, he is persuaded to take on a dubious case - a scheme to claim the reward on an abduction. When one of those involved is murdered, the problem takes a whole new turn.Cliff's relations with the police have never been easy, and the boys in blue are far from helpful as he tries to piece together a puzzle that can only end in violence.