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Cliff Hardy #1
The Dying Trade
Meet Cliff Hardy. Smoker, drinker, ex-boxer. And private investigator. The Dying Trade not only introduces a sleuth who has become an enduring Australian literary legend—the antihero of thirty-seven thrillers—but it is also a long love letter to the seamy side of Sydney itself.
256 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
31 people are currently reading
349 people want to read
About the author
Peter Corris
154 books60 followersPeter Corris was an Australian academic, historian, journalist and a novelist of historical and crime fiction. His first novel was published in 1980. Corris is credited with reviving the fully-fledged Australian crime novel with local settings and reference points and with a series character firmly rooted in Australian culture, Sydney PI Cliff Hardy. As crime fiction writer, he was described as "the Godfather of contemporary Australian crime-writing".
He won the Lifetime Achievement award at the Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Writing in 1999 and was shortlisted for best novel in 2006 for Saving Billy and in 2007 for The Undertow.
He won the Lifetime Achievement award at the Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Writing in 1999 and was shortlisted for best novel in 2006 for Saving Billy and in 2007 for The Undertow.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
February 27, 2024
"Australia started its white life at a distinct advantage in the telling of criminal stories. Everyone was a criminal."
So goes the start of Charles Waterstreet's forward for the most recent edition of The Dying Trade. And it's true, Australia should be the home of incredible crime fiction. Thankfully we have Peter Corris because this is quality stuff.
I've read a reasonable amount of detective fiction. At least one book from most of the big authors. Which is why I find it really odd that the only detective I've ever stuck with would be so incredibly similar to this one.
Cliff Hardy could not be more similar to Detective John Rebus if he was written by Rankin himself.
The similarities are uncanny.
Both ex-military
Both Irreverent with no respect for authority and a particular disdain of the weatlhy
Both functioning alcoholics
Both heavy smokers
Both readers (a trait Rankin played down later in Rebus' career)
Both big men
Both full of wisecracks
Both put their bodies on the line time and again
Both struggle in the game of love
Both have a penchant for fast food
Both focus only on getting a result
Both are creatures of their city and know it inside and out
Both are lone wolves
But enough of that comparative stuff. The Dying Trade is a great little detective novel and Corris writes in a way that elevates him out of the pulp genre and into a more nuanced form of crime writing. It's little wonder he's known as the Godfather of crime writing in Australia.
I think of Chandler's comments on the literary detective in The Simple Art of Murder.
"But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean…. a man of honor—by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it…. I do not care much about his private life; he is neither a eunuch nor a satyr…. He will take no man’s money dishonestly and no man’s insolence without a due and dispassionate revenge. He is a lonely man…. He talks as the man of his age talks—that is, with rude wit, a lively sense of the grotesque, a disgust for sham, and a contempt for pettiness. The story is this man’s adventure in search of a hidden truth."
Hardy as a PI instead of part of the plod means he doesn't have the same cage of authority that Rebus has to rage against, because he's not climbing the promotional tree he can be a bit more laid back. He doesn't always have someone breaking his balls over procedure and the like, solving cases is his sole raison d'etre.
Wise quips include things like:
‘Mr Gutteridge didn’t look as if he’d be nice to work for, but I felt sure I could reach an understanding with his money.’
or
'I didn't lock the Falcon because there are no car thieves in Longueville and I didn't take the gun because there are no muggings either. Longuevillians do their thieving in the city five days a week, nine to five, and they get away from it all at home.'
Also barring the eminent Mr Holmes, Cliff Hardy seems perhaps a step ahead of some of the other famous literary detectives.
I often think of Chandler's description of Marlowe:
"I see him always in a lonely street, in lonely rooms, puzzled but never quite defeated."
Cliff Hardy is never really puzzled, he always knows the next course of action. It's more a matter of Hardy choosing the correct path in a garden of forking paths. He's solved the case it's just a matter of delivering that solution in a way that gets him paid and doesn't get him killed.
Corris is a good writer and I thank him for giving me a local series to slowly work my way through over the next 20 years. Some will find it a bit outdated but it's well written and it's Sydney so I'm sticking with it.
September 15, 2022
We meet Cliff Hardy in the exact spot from where all private detectives worth their salt should be introduced, behind his shabby desk in his shabby office. The Dying Trade introduces us to a tough private enquiry agent, an ex-boxer with a no-nonsense attitude, a cynical outlook on life and his surrounding city of Sydney and healthy dislike for fools in power. Peter Corris wastes no time in painting him as the typical hard drinking, chain smoking hard head waiting for clients to come knocking down his door.
In this case no-one walks into his office, instead the phone rings and he is summonsed to the home of Bryn Gutteridge at Vaucluse, one of Sydney’s most exclusive addresses. Gutteridge wants to hire Cliff because his sister, Susan, has been receiving threatening phone calls and letters, harassing her so completely that she has checked herself into a clinic where she is undergoing treatment to deal with the shock. It sounds like a simple job for Cliff - find the source of the harassment and report back to Gutteridge.
As anyone who has read a Cliff Hardy novel will know, though, the seeming simplicity of the original job is usually in direct inverse proportion to the complexity with which it eventually plays out. By simply tracking down Gutteridge’s sister and stepmother, Cliff’s investigation explodes in two momentous ways. The first of these comes when he intercedes in a domestic dispute between Ailsa Sleeman (Bryn and Susan Gutteridge’s stepmother) and her toy boy, chucking the bloke in the backyard swimming pool. The second comes when he shows up at the Longueville clinic to see Susan, confronts the clinic’s owner, Dr Ian Brave, pushing his weight around and getting himself knocked out for the first time in the series.
By the time he scrapes himself up and makes it home nursing the first impressions he has made, Bryn Gutteridge rings to call him off the case in fear for his life. Hard on the heels of this setback comes a call from Ailsa Sleeman - she now wants to hire Hardy after an attempt is made on her life. Hardy’s activities have caused a chain reaction within the Gutteridge family and Cliff is now well and truly roped into it.
What follows is a case that grows in complexity as family secrets are unearthed and picked apart revealing the kind of intrigue that threatens to rip it completely apart. Fortunately with Cliff Hardy’s sharp mind complemented by an even sharper tongue we are guided through a mystery that culminates in the most amazing (and unexpected) ending.
The Dying Trade is not merely a significant book because it is the first in a series that will grow to 30 strong. It also contains a well-constructed mystery that twists first in one direction before almost inexplicably taking off in another, drawing together apparently unrelated scraps into a deviously lurid family drama.
The plotting of the book is tight and the narrative is terse, coming from the mouth of Hardy with a cynical and sometimes harsh delivery. Hardy thrives on confrontation and as a result the story moves from phase to phase very rapidly as the detective mows down each lead, agilely clicking the pieces of the case into place. It’s up to the reader to keep up and make the necessary connections as Hardy uncovers them.
Because the story has opened with Hardy sitting alone in his dismal office, you get the impression that he is a bit of a loner, a tragic detective with a bottom-drawer drinking problem and a bleak, directionless existence. With the possible exception of the drinking bit, Hardy belies these first impressions with an impressive array of friends and contacts who always seem happy to oblige him when he turns to them for favours. There is a magnetic appeal to the man, an ineffable charm that he occasionally uses when brute force doesn’t work.
This is a surprisingly complex and rather sticky first investigation which makes The Dying Trade a memorable series opener. However I think it’s the unflappable nature of Cliff Hardy that has drawn crime fiction fans back time and again.
In this case no-one walks into his office, instead the phone rings and he is summonsed to the home of Bryn Gutteridge at Vaucluse, one of Sydney’s most exclusive addresses. Gutteridge wants to hire Cliff because his sister, Susan, has been receiving threatening phone calls and letters, harassing her so completely that she has checked herself into a clinic where she is undergoing treatment to deal with the shock. It sounds like a simple job for Cliff - find the source of the harassment and report back to Gutteridge.
As anyone who has read a Cliff Hardy novel will know, though, the seeming simplicity of the original job is usually in direct inverse proportion to the complexity with which it eventually plays out. By simply tracking down Gutteridge’s sister and stepmother, Cliff’s investigation explodes in two momentous ways. The first of these comes when he intercedes in a domestic dispute between Ailsa Sleeman (Bryn and Susan Gutteridge’s stepmother) and her toy boy, chucking the bloke in the backyard swimming pool. The second comes when he shows up at the Longueville clinic to see Susan, confronts the clinic’s owner, Dr Ian Brave, pushing his weight around and getting himself knocked out for the first time in the series.
By the time he scrapes himself up and makes it home nursing the first impressions he has made, Bryn Gutteridge rings to call him off the case in fear for his life. Hard on the heels of this setback comes a call from Ailsa Sleeman - she now wants to hire Hardy after an attempt is made on her life. Hardy’s activities have caused a chain reaction within the Gutteridge family and Cliff is now well and truly roped into it.
What follows is a case that grows in complexity as family secrets are unearthed and picked apart revealing the kind of intrigue that threatens to rip it completely apart. Fortunately with Cliff Hardy’s sharp mind complemented by an even sharper tongue we are guided through a mystery that culminates in the most amazing (and unexpected) ending.
The Dying Trade is not merely a significant book because it is the first in a series that will grow to 30 strong. It also contains a well-constructed mystery that twists first in one direction before almost inexplicably taking off in another, drawing together apparently unrelated scraps into a deviously lurid family drama.
The plotting of the book is tight and the narrative is terse, coming from the mouth of Hardy with a cynical and sometimes harsh delivery. Hardy thrives on confrontation and as a result the story moves from phase to phase very rapidly as the detective mows down each lead, agilely clicking the pieces of the case into place. It’s up to the reader to keep up and make the necessary connections as Hardy uncovers them.
Because the story has opened with Hardy sitting alone in his dismal office, you get the impression that he is a bit of a loner, a tragic detective with a bottom-drawer drinking problem and a bleak, directionless existence. With the possible exception of the drinking bit, Hardy belies these first impressions with an impressive array of friends and contacts who always seem happy to oblige him when he turns to them for favours. There is a magnetic appeal to the man, an ineffable charm that he occasionally uses when brute force doesn’t work.
This is a surprisingly complex and rather sticky first investigation which makes The Dying Trade a memorable series opener. However I think it’s the unflappable nature of Cliff Hardy that has drawn crime fiction fans back time and again.
June 23, 2014
For a change Private Investigator Cliff Hardy didn’t have a hangover – he had run out of booze and with it being a Sunday, he was unable to buy more. So come Monday morning he was clear-headed and minus the usual headache. When he received the telephone call from a man calling himself Bryn Gutteridge who wanted to employ his investigative skills, Hardy was bemused. He hadn’t had a client in awhile, so cash was a little tight – this could be worth his while. Meeting with the wealthy Gutteridge, he ascertained that blackmail of his sister seemed to be the problem. Or was it?
As Hardy began his investigation he discovered secrets that had been deeply hidden for years; then learning of the suicide of Mark Gutteridge (Bryn’s father) four years previously set off alarm bells – suddenly he was fired by Bryn but then rehired by his stepmother, Ailsa. His talk with Bryn’s sister, Susan definitely didn’t go well – she was also hiding something. Was anyone telling the truth in this twisted and strange case?
As the danger escalated, Hardy found himself on the receiving end – he had one friend in the police force, but that was the extent of it. He needed to find some answers and quickly before the body count became too high. But the horrors were set to continue until a shocking confrontation turned everything upside down…
I have only read one other Cliff Hardy mystery – Comeback – so thought I’d go back to the beginning. Written in 1980, The Dying Trade is different to today’s writing but still enjoyable. The drinking (to excess), smoking (also to excess) Hardy is a character in his own right. I can see why the author has had phenomenal success with this series. Definitely recommended.
As Hardy began his investigation he discovered secrets that had been deeply hidden for years; then learning of the suicide of Mark Gutteridge (Bryn’s father) four years previously set off alarm bells – suddenly he was fired by Bryn but then rehired by his stepmother, Ailsa. His talk with Bryn’s sister, Susan definitely didn’t go well – she was also hiding something. Was anyone telling the truth in this twisted and strange case?
As the danger escalated, Hardy found himself on the receiving end – he had one friend in the police force, but that was the extent of it. He needed to find some answers and quickly before the body count became too high. But the horrors were set to continue until a shocking confrontation turned everything upside down…
I have only read one other Cliff Hardy mystery – Comeback – so thought I’d go back to the beginning. Written in 1980, The Dying Trade is different to today’s writing but still enjoyable. The drinking (to excess), smoking (also to excess) Hardy is a character in his own right. I can see why the author has had phenomenal success with this series. Definitely recommended.
October 18, 2021
So my local public library has a nice collection of the Text Classics series. I've been slowly working my way through them and i came to this one.
I saw it was a detective novel and paused, not really my genre, but, i thought, if it's in the Text Classics series it must be a classic right? It must have something special about it that's made it last down through the years right?
Wrong.
This was cliched nonsense, lowest common denominator stuff. So silly and formulaic that i couldn't stand it.
There is nothing in this book that isn't in any of the thousands of other detective novels clogging up the shelves of airport bookstores. I don't understand why this is labelled a classic.
I feel a bit let down, like i wasted my time to be honest, which is dissapointing because i've had nothing but good experiences with the Text Classics series so far.
Oh well, the charmed run had to end sometime.
I saw it was a detective novel and paused, not really my genre, but, i thought, if it's in the Text Classics series it must be a classic right? It must have something special about it that's made it last down through the years right?
Wrong.
This was cliched nonsense, lowest common denominator stuff. So silly and formulaic that i couldn't stand it.
There is nothing in this book that isn't in any of the thousands of other detective novels clogging up the shelves of airport bookstores. I don't understand why this is labelled a classic.
I feel a bit let down, like i wasted my time to be honest, which is dissapointing because i've had nothing but good experiences with the Text Classics series so far.
Oh well, the charmed run had to end sometime.
January 24, 2017
‘A quintessentially Australian literary icon.’
Age
‘Australia started its white life at a distinct advantage in the telling of criminal stories. Everyone was a criminal. But until Peter Corris invented Cliff Hardy and introduced him in The Dying Trade in 1980, we had, as with many of our natural resources, left great seams of these stories in the ground for others to find. Corris may have forged the international reputation of Australian crime fiction almost single-handedly, but I could be wrong, as he uses two hands to type.’
Charles Waterstreet
Age
‘Australia started its white life at a distinct advantage in the telling of criminal stories. Everyone was a criminal. But until Peter Corris invented Cliff Hardy and introduced him in The Dying Trade in 1980, we had, as with many of our natural resources, left great seams of these stories in the ground for others to find. Corris may have forged the international reputation of Australian crime fiction almost single-handedly, but I could be wrong, as he uses two hands to type.’
Charles Waterstreet
September 7, 2015
5 stars from the get go! Having it set in Sydney might have helped. PI Cliff Hardy is hired by a man to find out who is harassing his sister. He is summarily hired and hired right away by the beautiful step mother. The job turns out to be a lot less easy and a lot more complicated than Hardy thought, Good cops and bad cops all make an appearance. There are a lot of players in this game and some don't show their hand until much later in the book. Very enjoyable book!
April 4, 2019
The end of the Cliff Hardy series was announced when WIN, LOSE OR DRAW was released in 2017, and then with the subsequent death of Peter Corris, I made a promise to myself to re-read this excellent series, every year, during the Boxing Day Test, as I'd been doing with every new release.
The problem is I can't count and simple arithmetic defeats me, but even I've now managed to work out that 2020+41 = 2061. As I'm unlikely to still be alive in 2061, I'd better get a move on because I'm determined that I will re-read the Cliff Hardy series from start to finish before I too die. So, with fingers crossed on at least a few years left, that means a minimum of 2 books a year. Might make that 4 just in case.
In 1982 the Commodore 64 8-bit computer was released; Malcolm Fraser was PM and Bill Hayden was Opposition Leader; autobiographer Albert Facey died; the movies Monkey Grip and Running on Empty, as well as Far East were released (starring Bryan Brown who was also in the movie THE EMPTY BEACH, based on the Cliff Hardy novel of the same name); athlete Ian Thorpe was born and THE DYING TRADE was first published.
When Text Publishing re-released THE DYING TRADE in 2012 as part of their "Text Classics" series, they included a quotation from The Age:
‘A quintessentially Australian literary icon.’
That quote sums up the entire Cliff Hardy experience to a tee. Succinct and pointed, as all these novels are, Cliff Hardy is quintessentially Australian. From the Ford he drives, to the city he lives in, the pubs he drinks in, his propensity to wade in where others may have feared to tread, his dry, acerbic wit and laid back style, a propensity (in the early novels) to drink and smoke way too much, and his absolute refusal to age (gracefully or disgracefully). Cliff Hardy was always our Australian lone wolf, and over the 42 books in this series, he indeed became a literary icon.
THE DYING TRADE is an introductory novel. Right from the start it sets a standard that readers came to expect. It's pointed, it's dry, it's observational and it gets on with "it". Whatever "it" is, there are always some givens. Hardy will take a case that he probably shouldn't, he will care, he'll get a thumping along the way, he'll solve the case, he might even get the girl, but he'll lose her again, and he'll return to his small terrace house, park his Ford out the front, open a bottle of wine, stare at the walls and spend a few moments wondering about what could have been. Never long, never drawn out, never overly reflective.
Early 1980's Sydney is a world away from current day Sydney and yet in many ways it's not, and the Hardy series is a testament to the similarities and changes. Hardy is a product of this place, and he inhabits a world that Peter Corris seemed to love, understand and despair of. The descriptive elements of the novels are beautifully done, crisp, pointed, short, sharp, Corris was a master at the art of the precise and the pithy.
It's comforting to go back to the start of such a long series and see that right from the start there's the pattern, the style and the structure that carried forward for so many years. You can also see very clearly, after a long, drawn out battle to get publishers to take note and realise that we needed to hear stories in our own voices, set in our own locations, that they were bloody lucky to get the Cliff Hardy series.
https://www.austcrimefiction.org/revi...
The problem is I can't count and simple arithmetic defeats me, but even I've now managed to work out that 2020+41 = 2061. As I'm unlikely to still be alive in 2061, I'd better get a move on because I'm determined that I will re-read the Cliff Hardy series from start to finish before I too die. So, with fingers crossed on at least a few years left, that means a minimum of 2 books a year. Might make that 4 just in case.
In 1982 the Commodore 64 8-bit computer was released; Malcolm Fraser was PM and Bill Hayden was Opposition Leader; autobiographer Albert Facey died; the movies Monkey Grip and Running on Empty, as well as Far East were released (starring Bryan Brown who was also in the movie THE EMPTY BEACH, based on the Cliff Hardy novel of the same name); athlete Ian Thorpe was born and THE DYING TRADE was first published.
When Text Publishing re-released THE DYING TRADE in 2012 as part of their "Text Classics" series, they included a quotation from The Age:
‘A quintessentially Australian literary icon.’
That quote sums up the entire Cliff Hardy experience to a tee. Succinct and pointed, as all these novels are, Cliff Hardy is quintessentially Australian. From the Ford he drives, to the city he lives in, the pubs he drinks in, his propensity to wade in where others may have feared to tread, his dry, acerbic wit and laid back style, a propensity (in the early novels) to drink and smoke way too much, and his absolute refusal to age (gracefully or disgracefully). Cliff Hardy was always our Australian lone wolf, and over the 42 books in this series, he indeed became a literary icon.
THE DYING TRADE is an introductory novel. Right from the start it sets a standard that readers came to expect. It's pointed, it's dry, it's observational and it gets on with "it". Whatever "it" is, there are always some givens. Hardy will take a case that he probably shouldn't, he will care, he'll get a thumping along the way, he'll solve the case, he might even get the girl, but he'll lose her again, and he'll return to his small terrace house, park his Ford out the front, open a bottle of wine, stare at the walls and spend a few moments wondering about what could have been. Never long, never drawn out, never overly reflective.
Early 1980's Sydney is a world away from current day Sydney and yet in many ways it's not, and the Hardy series is a testament to the similarities and changes. Hardy is a product of this place, and he inhabits a world that Peter Corris seemed to love, understand and despair of. The descriptive elements of the novels are beautifully done, crisp, pointed, short, sharp, Corris was a master at the art of the precise and the pithy.
It's comforting to go back to the start of such a long series and see that right from the start there's the pattern, the style and the structure that carried forward for so many years. You can also see very clearly, after a long, drawn out battle to get publishers to take note and realise that we needed to hear stories in our own voices, set in our own locations, that they were bloody lucky to get the Cliff Hardy series.
https://www.austcrimefiction.org/revi...
January 4, 2017
I was between Christmas and New Year and needed a bit of a lazy read, so this seemed to fill the bill. Loved the pithy summations of the various Sydney suburbs in which the action takes place. For example on Longueville: 'I didn't lock the Falcon because there are no car thieves in Longueville and I didn't take the gun because there are no muggings either. Longuevillians do their thieving in the city five days a week, nine to five, and they get away from it all at home.'
The plot verges on fantasy (what am I saying, it is all fantasy). But for a change from the usual pace, a drunken private detective, crooked cops, and various colourful characters hit the spot.
The plot verges on fantasy (what am I saying, it is all fantasy). But for a change from the usual pace, a drunken private detective, crooked cops, and various colourful characters hit the spot.
December 9, 2020
DNF. I honestly tried, but apart from the vivid descriptions of Sydney circa 1980, this is dreck. Cliched, unlikable, unbelievable characters and a plot both boring AND far-fetched. Plus, Corris couldn't even use commas correctly - and apparently nobody edited him. It was driving me crazy. This guy won a lifetime Neddy?
April 1, 2025
A solid first book in the Cliff Hardy series by the Godfather of Australian crime fiction.
This first investigation is under the patronage of Ross McDonald - Lew Archer is even quoted - with its rich affluents and sordid secrets.
I would have liked something more deeply Australian, but that's just a detail. Hardy is there, slightly disillusioned- though not overtly cynical- but with a human decency that puts him above the mire he has to dig through.
This first investigation is under the patronage of Ross McDonald - Lew Archer is even quoted - with its rich affluents and sordid secrets.
I would have liked something more deeply Australian, but that's just a detail. Hardy is there, slightly disillusioned- though not overtly cynical- but with a human decency that puts him above the mire he has to dig through.
September 12, 2018
4.5 stars – more in my September Good Reads blog at https://www.sandiwallace.com/blog/ at the end of the month.
August 1, 2015
Cliff Hardy is a formidable, messy, straight-talking character who's graduated from the hard-boiled school of detective work. His wry descriptions bring a pithiness and charm to the story telling, but I found the central mystery to be too far-fetched for my liking.
September 3, 2015
An inauspicious start for Mr Hardy, average at best, though it was written 35 year ago.
November 13, 2023
I'm not a huge consumer of crime fiction, but every now and then I have an itch I need to scratch. I have never read any Peter Corris before this book (the first of his Cliff Hardy series) but I will certainly be reading more in the future. I can see why Corris has been crowned the unofficial King of Australian crime literature, and why he went on to write another 41 books featuring the rumpled, hard-drinking army veteran Cliff Hardy.
The Dying Trade is a suitably convoluted story about illegitimate children, blackmail, and money. While the plot is a page-turner and keeps the reader on their toes, in many ways it's not the most important part of the book. Corris has written a piece of "Sydney noir", where we have all the ingredients of the style, except set in a sunny harbourside city. The juxtaposition of the hard-bitten detective genre with wonderful harbour views and expensive restaurants makes this book a little different from other books of this type.
Hardy is smart and world-weary, but no so much that he doesn't make mistakes, get beaten up, or expose his vulnerabilities to women. He's a man who has seen some active service, has lost a wife, regrets not having children and drinks white wine with soda at breakfast time. He is also a man who knows how to use a library to get ahead, which I found particularly endearing.
I can't vouch for the rest of the series, but The Dying Trade contained no gangsters, no criminal masterminds and no massive plots to destabilize the World: just a nice refreshing PI investigation that led to unexpected places.
Those few people who read my reviews would remember that during COVID I read Peter Temple's Jack Irish series. I now see where he got his inspiration. I think I prefer the source to the simmer.
Check out my other reviews at http://aviewoverthebell.blogspot.com.au/
The Dying Trade is a suitably convoluted story about illegitimate children, blackmail, and money. While the plot is a page-turner and keeps the reader on their toes, in many ways it's not the most important part of the book. Corris has written a piece of "Sydney noir", where we have all the ingredients of the style, except set in a sunny harbourside city. The juxtaposition of the hard-bitten detective genre with wonderful harbour views and expensive restaurants makes this book a little different from other books of this type.
Hardy is smart and world-weary, but no so much that he doesn't make mistakes, get beaten up, or expose his vulnerabilities to women. He's a man who has seen some active service, has lost a wife, regrets not having children and drinks white wine with soda at breakfast time. He is also a man who knows how to use a library to get ahead, which I found particularly endearing.
I can't vouch for the rest of the series, but The Dying Trade contained no gangsters, no criminal masterminds and no massive plots to destabilize the World: just a nice refreshing PI investigation that led to unexpected places.
Those few people who read my reviews would remember that during COVID I read Peter Temple's Jack Irish series. I now see where he got his inspiration. I think I prefer the source to the simmer.
Check out my other reviews at http://aviewoverthebell.blogspot.com.au/
February 23, 2024
Was great to pick up the first three Cliff Hardy novels in an omnibus at a second hand bookshop recently and to re-visit this quintessential Sydney crime fiction series, that has not been bettered since.
The Dying Trade is probably 3.5 starts but introduced a wonderful series, so gets rounded up to 4 stars.
There’s lots of rural and regional Australian crime fiction now but little that’s successfully set in the big cities and especially not in my town, Sydney! Corris always gave you that essential sense of place in the suburbs of Sydney and up and down the coast and inland, and reflects the corruption and politics of the times, here being late 70s into the 80s
Hardy is an aggressive, impulsive, alcohol-abusing, class-conscious, action-oriented, cynical and left-leaning, dogged connection-making private detective, for whom his idea of just (or at least) acceptable ends generally justifies corner cutting means. He almost always ends up sexually involved with someone caught up in the investigation and hence morally conflicted.
I’m glad to say there is some maturing and mellowing with age throughout the series.
The Dying Trade is probably 3.5 starts but introduced a wonderful series, so gets rounded up to 4 stars.
There’s lots of rural and regional Australian crime fiction now but little that’s successfully set in the big cities and especially not in my town, Sydney! Corris always gave you that essential sense of place in the suburbs of Sydney and up and down the coast and inland, and reflects the corruption and politics of the times, here being late 70s into the 80s
Hardy is an aggressive, impulsive, alcohol-abusing, class-conscious, action-oriented, cynical and left-leaning, dogged connection-making private detective, for whom his idea of just (or at least) acceptable ends generally justifies corner cutting means. He almost always ends up sexually involved with someone caught up in the investigation and hence morally conflicted.
I’m glad to say there is some maturing and mellowing with age throughout the series.
December 23, 2023
This drops you into 80s Australia brilliantly and is an economical pulp detective novel.
Told in the first person, you’re shown that Cliff is a loner, that he’s a Han Solo type. He has values, suspicious of the rich, usually rightly. He’s also judging everything. Suburbs are either safe places you leave your car unlocked in, or a place you have to park off the street. His judgement of drinkers makes you realise he judges himself pretty lowly. Helps you empathise with him.
This was written in the 80s. Means that girls are often damsels in distress, getting judged for their looks. Cliff is surprised at a receptionist that can actually type and judges the business employing her as professional.
It all rings true of life in the 80s. The detective plot here is engaging too. We go into the homes of the rich and Cliff pushes into their mind for their sordid secrets.
It’s all fun and I want to read more of it. I wouldn’t recommend it for all because of that pulpy 80s outlook.
Told in the first person, you’re shown that Cliff is a loner, that he’s a Han Solo type. He has values, suspicious of the rich, usually rightly. He’s also judging everything. Suburbs are either safe places you leave your car unlocked in, or a place you have to park off the street. His judgement of drinkers makes you realise he judges himself pretty lowly. Helps you empathise with him.
This was written in the 80s. Means that girls are often damsels in distress, getting judged for their looks. Cliff is surprised at a receptionist that can actually type and judges the business employing her as professional.
It all rings true of life in the 80s. The detective plot here is engaging too. We go into the homes of the rich and Cliff pushes into their mind for their sordid secrets.
It’s all fun and I want to read more of it. I wouldn’t recommend it for all because of that pulpy 80s outlook.
July 5, 2018
Cliff Hardy is an alcoholic, smoking, divorced private investigator. Sounds pretty generic, but this takes place in Sydney, Australia and environs. This is Peter Corris' first mystery in the series, and establishes Hardy as a character, in what starts off as a blackmail case, but soon involves psychological manipulation, hit-and-run, and murder.
Corris' writing is clean, full of necessary detail, but not overburdened by it. Hardy is an everyman detective, often outwitted, out-wisecracked and out-thought but persistent enough to follow the trail to the end.
Corris' writing is clean, full of necessary detail, but not overburdened by it. Hardy is an everyman detective, often outwitted, out-wisecracked and out-thought but persistent enough to follow the trail to the end.
December 20, 2018
This is a book that you see and hear as you read; especially as there was a movie made starring Bryan Brown apparently. It was written in 1980 and now has historical interest as well. Cliff Hardy is an anti-hero, smoking, drinking, drinking some more. It is quite hilarious at times and the plot is quite tangled but it’s no wonder that the author continued to write many more Cliff Hardy stories; it was most enjoyable.
March 3, 2020
No more Cliff Hardy books!!! What will I ever do? Will certainly be re-reading as many as I can, and there are many. Loved them all though admittedly some were a little weaker than others and the years were starting to catch up with Cliff. He certainly is a survivor.
Great to read books set in my home city of Sydney. Hardy is always good at chronicling the changes in city life as asides in his books.
Hopefully Cliff is sitting back with a sweeping view over a beach somewhere, enjoying a nice cold beer. He certainly has earned a rest.
Great to read books set in my home city of Sydney. Hardy is always good at chronicling the changes in city life as asides in his books.
Hopefully Cliff is sitting back with a sweeping view over a beach somewhere, enjoying a nice cold beer. He certainly has earned a rest.
March 17, 2023
I’ve read and enjoyed a large number of the Cliff Hardy novels but I had never read the first book in the series. Now I have and it didn’t disappoint. Both Cliff and the author seemed a bit rough in patches but this was definitely a classic Cliff Hardy novel that I thoroughly enjoyed. It was fast paced and suspenseful to the very last page.
May 13, 2023
DNF. 40%. A clichéd mess. I didn't like anyone, and the plot was a bit silly. The writing is okay, but I decided life's too short to waste on something I'm not enjoying.
Early on, the hero of the tale says something about another character having read too much Chandler and that's probably true about the author as well.
Early on, the hero of the tale says something about another character having read too much Chandler and that's probably true about the author as well.
February 13, 2024
I love the Text Classics series. I’d read a number of Cliff Hardy novels over the years and enjoyed them. Alas this first novel was a let down and I gave up half way. Perhaps the forty years since publication is too big a gap and the characters don’t read right nowadays. I wish I could give praise as I enjoy the Australian novel and Peter Corris, but for this novel I can’t.
June 21, 2024
The first of many Cliff Hardy Sydney private detective stories. While many written over the next 40 years would be better, this is a great introduction. Shows a softer side to Cliff that diminishes over time. It establishes the tangled web that characterises Peter Corris plots, and the need of alcohol for Cliff to function on a daily/hourly basis.
May 1, 2025
This is a good story with lots of twists. However, be forewarned: the main character, an alcoholic sexist PI, is incredibly tropish. If you enjoy James Bond-style characters, you'll enjoy this. If not, maybe find another story.
If I could, I would've rated it 3.5
If I could, I would've rated it 3.5
July 24, 2025
Compulsively readable, funny and wonderfully descriptive. The ending was wild and maybe left a couple too many loose threads for my liking but overall a really enjoyable start to this long-running classic series.
November 4, 2025
This is my introduction to Cliff Hardy. Pretty stock standard detective story. Probably worth 3 stars but I have to tack on another one because of the Sydney locales. Always nice to read a book set in your home town.
August 31, 2017
A well-written story about a smart, tough PI operating in Sydney in the 1970s. I read them all many years ago and this one still holds up. I enjoyed it a fair bit.
September 9, 2018
Wonderful - will definitely be reading more of Cliff Hardy, very glad I read this "old-school" Aussie crime novel. Fabulous characters, fast moving and engaging.
December 17, 2020
Interesting, well written,
Read
February 14, 2021inner west pub to your left, to your right, if not in front - schhpplllaattt
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