Salt And Blood

Cliff Hardy #25

by Peter Corris

I reached gingerly to the back of my head and felt the blood in my hair and the tenderness underneath it. How do they check if a footballer's concussed? Ask him if knows what day it is. I thought I did. I was pretty sure.

An old flame, Glen Withers, has come back into Cliff Hardy's life - but this time it's strictly business.

Former policewoman Glen is now a PI too, and with a much classier clientele than Cliff's - she's been told 'money's no object' by her latest, a wealthy family from Sydney's eastern suburbs. Together, Cliff and Glen take on the case of Rodney St John Harkness, recent inmate of a mental institution and a recovering alcoholic with a murky, possibly murderous, history. But Glen is also a recovering alcoholic - and the combination proves disastrous.

When Rod and Glen vanish, Hardy finds himself in a race against time to untangle Harkness' tortured past and find the pair. The trail leads up to the central coast and some of Sydney's best known beaches. Will Cliff be in time, or will the 'salty tang of blood' fill the air?

Genres: Crime, Fiction, Australia

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Peter 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.

Reviews

[Damo · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the majority of the past 24 novels, Cliff Hardy has worked alone, looking out for himself, keeping erratic hours, accepting the bumps and bruises that come with the territory in the private detective business. In Salt and Blood, the 25th book in Peter Corris' consistently tough and fast moving, hardboiled series, Hardy is working with a partner and remembers why it is that he works alone.

Glen Withers is a private detective and also an ex-lover of Hardy's, although nowadays she's just a friend. She meets with Hardy to offer him a job. She has a wealthy client who has assured her that "money is no object", but the job is really a 2 person operation and she can think of no better partner than Hardy.

The job involves minding, or perhaps babysitting is a better word, Rodney Harkness, an inmate at a mental institution. He is about to be released and his mother and brother want him eased back into society. Rod is a recovering alcoholic prone to falling into murderous rages and his wealthy family, thinking more about themselves than Rod, would like him watched. The second part of the job involves finding Rod's estranged wife and daughter because, as his mother explains, she thought he might respond positively to meeting his daughter again.

Glen has the task of trying to track down Lucille and Rose Harkness while the task of collecting Rodney and installing him in his Bondi flat falls to Cliff.

The last thing that Cliff was expecting while driving Rod home was a bullet through his windscreen, so imagine his surprise when the first bullet was quickly followed by a second! Just like that, Hardy's job changes from minding Rod Harkness to protecting him.

Further complications arise when Glen and Rod meet for the first time and the attraction between the two is instantly obvious to Hardy. This is also a potential problem for Hardy because Glen Withers is also a recovering alcoholic and is finding it increasingly difficult to stay off the sauce. Mixing the two personalities could be disastrous.

The story moves along nicely, particularly once Rodney Harkness comes into the picture. Harkness is a dynamic character eager to carry on with his life after his incarceration, but he's also a highly unpredictable character and it's this side of him that keeps you on your toes. Unfortunately for Cliff, he's too much of a loose cannon and the minder turned protection role soon turns into a hunt for a missing person.

We get a pretty good insight into Cliff Hardy the man in this outing thanks to the fact that he is actually working with a friend and that forces him to bare his soul a little more readily. Towards the end of the book, Hardy is told that his "stoicism's intact" and it's a fitting way to describe his demeanour as he carries out his job. Unfazed by most events he always seems to bounce back no matter how desperate or traumatic things get, and in this case, things get about as hairy as you'd ever want them to.

Among mad dashes around Sydney and an even more hectic hunt up around Newcastle, Hardy also manages to find time for a romance, although I thought the circumstances surrounding this side of the story were pretty flimsy. If there was anything that anchored things down it was the time out for a budding love story. I much rather my tough, hardboiled private detectives unfettered by emotions unrelated to the immediate job at hand and this little distraction took him out of his comfort zone.

All in all, this is another solid detective thriller slotting nicely into the hardboiled genre. The plot weaves wildly before coming to an extremely dramatic ending that definitely caught me on the hop. The way things panned out would have had a lesser detective gasping and ready to give up, but not Hardy whose heart appears to have remained as hard as his head (which once again takes a helluva pounding).

[Ron Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot of this novel quickly gained my attention. There were a number of paths the story could have travelled. Unfortunately, It seemed to take a few wrong terms. It all ended rather gruesomely. I wonder about how much plot development Corris puts into his stories, especially this one. There were a number of well-developed characters, however, as the novel unfolded the story became somewhat crowded with characters. I find this happens with a number of Cliff Hardy stories.
One is given a geographical tour a variety of Sydney suburbs and southern coastal parts of that fine city of Newcastle. Corris captures the look and feel of Dudley, Red Head, Lake Macquarie area.
I wish I had Cliff’s ability to bed attractive ladies as quickly as he does.
Corris has great turn of description. In the opening scene he is in a Paddington pub. He described the patrons as . . . . . the crowd was youngish and mixed. Men and women and a few indeterminates, gays and straights. Here and there I spotted a face old enough to remember Bob Menzies and 6 o’clock closing, not many. Some wouldn’t even remember Bob Hawke.”
In another, he describes the chance of morning showers depended if you were about to play a round of golf or you grew roses.
The book held my interest till the last chapter. The story had the feel of Corris wanting to finish it, so the villain was finally introduced, a few people died and that was it. Mental health was used as the reason for numerous deaths. I enjoyed most of the book but found the ending somewhat out of place in a Corris novel.

[Sandy Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again enjoying re-reading the Cliff Hardy series as I track them down in secondhand shops. Both the author and the protagonist are mature and well established by this time. I enjoyed this a lot with the plot line being moving along engagingly without ‘clunks’. Also brought out Hardy’s sense of resignation with life and the limits and uncertainties of what can be achieved.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite Cliff Hardy outing. I found the violence and sadness in this story excessive, even for Corris. But it is noteworthy in that Cliff finally gets a computer. Pretty much of a downer, but worth reading, I suppose, if you are as committed to the series as I am.

[Anne Fenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining setting in Sydney but old Cliff is not a man for #metoo times. Ebook from BorrowBox.

[Gavan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A typical Cliff Hardy book - fast paced, witty, entertaining, Cliff gets beaten up, Cliff ends up in bed with someone, Cliff works out, everyone drinks way too much & a quick read. I'd rate this as one of the better ones, without being in the top group. The finale took me completely by surprise.

[Don · Rating 3 out of 5]

Salt and Blood is a typical mystery/murder with interwoven subplots only revealed at the last moments. It was good to have an Australian story to listen to again.

Having a story set in Australia and written by an Australian made it even more enjoyable. I will look for Cliff Hardy/Peter Corris titles (both audio and hard copy books) more often in book stores now the.

The only negative in the book was the language. I do not consider myself a prude and have worked many years in rough environments where the degree of language, as exhibited in this book, did not prevail.

[Mumbler · Rating 1 out of 5]

ugh - some bits are good, but this one is too destructive for me. not dark in a compelling way, for me.

I don't know how often you have to have the detective fail badly, destructively, in these series, to keep the reader from feeling we're reading the same script again and again. bit I don't think that's enough for me to go with an ending like this.

I am a Pollyanna in these matters, or whatever would be a more neutral term for that.

[Suzana Vuksanovic · Rating 2 out of 5]

The same as his other P.I. novels. I enjoy the glimpses of Sydney because I come from there myself, but somehow this story was not satisfying. The plot seems too improbable - and it's not as if I lost track of it. I read it in a few days.

[Helena]

I found this book under my guest bed ,Has to be an austraslian who left it behind form the price label Maube i should go for a licence I am delighted to find a new PI and in Australia wonderful !!

[Mike Taverner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another great Cliff Hardy story. I didn't like the issues with alcoholics - all a bit negative