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Scobie Malone #12
Winter Chill
Diamond 1990 paperback, fine In stock shipped from our UK warehouse
Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
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About the author
Jon Cleary
127 books24 followersAustralian popular novelist, a natural storyteller, whose career as a writer extended over 60 years. Jon Cleary's books have sold some 8 million copies. Often the stories are set in exotic locations all over the world or in some interesting historical scene of the 20th century, such as the Nazi Berlin of 1936. Cleary also wrote perhaps the longest running homicide detective series of Australia. Its sympathetic protagonist, Inspector Scobie Malone, was introduced in The High Commissioner (1966). Degrees of Connection, published in 2003, was Scobie's 20th appearance. Although Cleary's books can be read as efficiently plotted entertainment, he occasionally touched psychological, social, and moral dilemmas inside the frame of high adventure.
Jon Stephen Cleary was born in Sydney, New South Wales, into a working class family as the eldest of seven children. When Clearly was only 10, his father Matthew was condemned to six months' imprisonment for stealing £5 from his baker's delivery bag, in an attempt have money to feed his family. Cleary's mother, Ida, was a fourth-generation Australian. From his parents Cleary inherited a strong sense of just and unjust and his belief in family values.
Cleary was educated at the Marist Brothers school in Randwick, New South Wales. After leaving school in 1932, at the age of fourteen, he spent the following 8 years out of work or in odd jobs, such as a commercial traveler and bush worker – "I had more jobs than I can now remember," he later said of the Depression years. Cleary's love of reading was sparked when he began to help his friend, who had a travelling library. His favorite writers included P.G. Wodehouse. Before the war Clearly became interested in the career of commercial artists, but he also wrote for amateur revues. In 1940 he joined the Australian Army and served in the Middle East and New Guinea. During these years Cleary started to write seriously, and by the war's end he had published several short stories in magazines. His radio play, Safe Horizon (1944), received a broadcasting award.
Cleary's These Small Glories (1945), a collection of short stories, was based on his experiences as a soldier in the Middle East. In 1946 Cleary married Joy Lucas, a Melbourne nurse, whom he had met on a sea voyage to England; they had two daughters. His first novel, You Can’t See Round Corners (1947), won the second prize in The Sydney Morning Herald’s novel contest. It was later made into a television serial and then into a feature film. The Graham Greene-ish story of a deserter who returns to Sydney showed Cleary's skill at describing his home city, its bars, and people living on the margin of society. Noteworthy, the book was edited by Greene himself, who worked for the publishing firm Eyre & Spottiswoode and who gave Cleary two advices: "One, never forget there are two people in a book; the writer and the reader. And the second one was he said, 'Write a thriller because it will teach you the art of narrative and it will teach you the uses of brevity.'" (In an interview by Ramona Koval, ABC Radio program, February 2006)
Jon Stephen Cleary was born in Sydney, New South Wales, into a working class family as the eldest of seven children. When Clearly was only 10, his father Matthew was condemned to six months' imprisonment for stealing £5 from his baker's delivery bag, in an attempt have money to feed his family. Cleary's mother, Ida, was a fourth-generation Australian. From his parents Cleary inherited a strong sense of just and unjust and his belief in family values.
Cleary was educated at the Marist Brothers school in Randwick, New South Wales. After leaving school in 1932, at the age of fourteen, he spent the following 8 years out of work or in odd jobs, such as a commercial traveler and bush worker – "I had more jobs than I can now remember," he later said of the Depression years. Cleary's love of reading was sparked when he began to help his friend, who had a travelling library. His favorite writers included P.G. Wodehouse. Before the war Clearly became interested in the career of commercial artists, but he also wrote for amateur revues. In 1940 he joined the Australian Army and served in the Middle East and New Guinea. During these years Cleary started to write seriously, and by the war's end he had published several short stories in magazines. His radio play, Safe Horizon (1944), received a broadcasting award.
Cleary's These Small Glories (1945), a collection of short stories, was based on his experiences as a soldier in the Middle East. In 1946 Cleary married Joy Lucas, a Melbourne nurse, whom he had met on a sea voyage to England; they had two daughters. His first novel, You Can’t See Round Corners (1947), won the second prize in The Sydney Morning Herald’s novel contest. It was later made into a television serial and then into a feature film. The Graham Greene-ish story of a deserter who returns to Sydney showed Cleary's skill at describing his home city, its bars, and people living on the margin of society. Noteworthy, the book was edited by Greene himself, who worked for the publishing firm Eyre & Spottiswoode and who gave Cleary two advices: "One, never forget there are two people in a book; the writer and the reader. And the second one was he said, 'Write a thriller because it will teach you the art of narrative and it will teach you the uses of brevity.'" (In an interview by Ramona Koval, ABC Radio program, February 2006)
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 11, 2022
Winter Chill is the 12th book in the Detective Scobie Malone series and starts off with the body of a dead American lawyer doing circuits of Sydney on an empty monorail at 3 in the morning. The man had died from a single bullet to the chest.
It turns out the dead man was Orville Brame, the president of the American Bar Association, and was hosting a convention of lawyers which was being held at Darling Harbour. Rather than make things easier, the connection to the convention only makes things more difficult because it provides Malone with around a thousand suspects who may have wanted him dead.
Before Malone and his partner Sergeant Russ Clements can get their feet under them in the investigation, they are facing a second murder which may be linked to the first. The security guard who discovered Brame’s body is soon being fished out of Darling Harbour. Two murders in two days is too much to be a coincidence.
It turns out Brame was originally Australian and has a brother, Rodney Channing who is also a lawyer, who lives in Sydney. Failing any other leads, Malone and Clements decide to pay Channing a visit at his office.
They discover that Channing hadn’t spoken to Brame for more than 30 years and claims to have had no contact with him at all. All well and good, but during the get-together the company’s office manager, June Johns becomes adversarial, virtually kicking them to the curb. Her attitude and demeanor set both detectives antennae twitching.
But it’s not until a third murder, this time that of a police officer, that the case takes off in earnest.
This is a story that involves an intricate legal plot combined with tricky financial wrangling with, of course, a great deal of money at stake. Obviously, enough to kill for. In other words, it’s a case that demands the full attention of the investigating officers. However…
Personal turmoil strikes at Scobie’s door with the revelation that his wife, Lisa, has been diagnosed with cervical cancer. The news hits Scobie hard and has the effect of putting him completely on edge whilst at work.
His usual measured approach to his investigative work is challenged, turning him into a much harsher and less tolerant version of himself. It definitely has an effect on the way he goes about the investigation.
It appears that Winter Chill places Scobie Malone at a crossroads in his life, mainly due to the dark cloud hanging over his wife’s. The case he was working doesn’t exactly get pushed to the background, but it certainly doesn’t consume him like the ones in the earlier books have. There is a distinct feeling of a change of gears and a realigning of priorities going on here - as you would expect.
I felt Winter Chill was a strong entry in the outstanding Scobie Malone series. The harsher, more confrontational Scobie Malone that we see throughout this investigation was a bit of a breath of fresh air. Coupled with the constant worry about Lisa’s health, it is one of the more harrowing books in the series and it takes a noticeable toll on Malone himself.
The book concludes the “Four Seasons” collection (Dark Summer, Bleak Spring, Autumn Maze, Winter Chill) in which Cleary explores the darker underbelly of urban life.
It turns out the dead man was Orville Brame, the president of the American Bar Association, and was hosting a convention of lawyers which was being held at Darling Harbour. Rather than make things easier, the connection to the convention only makes things more difficult because it provides Malone with around a thousand suspects who may have wanted him dead.
Before Malone and his partner Sergeant Russ Clements can get their feet under them in the investigation, they are facing a second murder which may be linked to the first. The security guard who discovered Brame’s body is soon being fished out of Darling Harbour. Two murders in two days is too much to be a coincidence.
It turns out Brame was originally Australian and has a brother, Rodney Channing who is also a lawyer, who lives in Sydney. Failing any other leads, Malone and Clements decide to pay Channing a visit at his office.
They discover that Channing hadn’t spoken to Brame for more than 30 years and claims to have had no contact with him at all. All well and good, but during the get-together the company’s office manager, June Johns becomes adversarial, virtually kicking them to the curb. Her attitude and demeanor set both detectives antennae twitching.
But it’s not until a third murder, this time that of a police officer, that the case takes off in earnest.
This is a story that involves an intricate legal plot combined with tricky financial wrangling with, of course, a great deal of money at stake. Obviously, enough to kill for. In other words, it’s a case that demands the full attention of the investigating officers. However…
Personal turmoil strikes at Scobie’s door with the revelation that his wife, Lisa, has been diagnosed with cervical cancer. The news hits Scobie hard and has the effect of putting him completely on edge whilst at work.
“He felt the winter chill of death: not his own but of a loved one, which is worse.”
His usual measured approach to his investigative work is challenged, turning him into a much harsher and less tolerant version of himself. It definitely has an effect on the way he goes about the investigation.
It appears that Winter Chill places Scobie Malone at a crossroads in his life, mainly due to the dark cloud hanging over his wife’s. The case he was working doesn’t exactly get pushed to the background, but it certainly doesn’t consume him like the ones in the earlier books have. There is a distinct feeling of a change of gears and a realigning of priorities going on here - as you would expect.
I felt Winter Chill was a strong entry in the outstanding Scobie Malone series. The harsher, more confrontational Scobie Malone that we see throughout this investigation was a bit of a breath of fresh air. Coupled with the constant worry about Lisa’s health, it is one of the more harrowing books in the series and it takes a noticeable toll on Malone himself.
The book concludes the “Four Seasons” collection (Dark Summer, Bleak Spring, Autumn Maze, Winter Chill) in which Cleary explores the darker underbelly of urban life.
August 29, 2012
I don't know if Jon Cleary is still alive, but if he is, he'd be 95 years old. His Australian crime fiction legacy is staggering. Actually that statement probably is unfair, as not all of his books are crime thrillers. The first Cleary book that I read, would have been High Road to China when I was in high school. It was much later that I would discover Scobie Malone.
I have only read three Malone stories, however whenever I see one I don't have in a second hand book shop, I always pick it up. The first I read was Winter Chill, which I picked up in the late 1990s (this post is more of a reminisce, than a review).
Two of Cleary's Malone stories have been made into films. The easiest to track down is Nowhere To Run, starring Rod Taylor as Malone. You may also know the film by the title, The High Commissioner , which is also the name of the book on which the story was loosely based.
The other film is Scobie Malone, starring Jack Thompson, which is currently MIA on DVD (or Bluray). However, on a recent post over at Andrew Nette's Pulp Curry, in the comments, a person has done us all a great favour by highlighting that the film is on Youtube under the title, Murder at the Opera House.
But, back to Winter Chill - in the mid 1990s, like now, I was very much interested in Australian genre fiction (and films), and knowing a long running series of thrillers had been written, featuring a Aussie cop, that I had not sampled, and had virtually no knowledge of, was in my mind, criminal.
As I alluded to above, I joined the series quite late. Winter Chill was the twelfth book in the series, and the fourth in what was known as the Four Seasons books – the other three being Bleak Spring, Dark Summer, and Autumn Maze.
The story begins with the president of the American Bar Association (law, rather than alcohol), Orville Brame, found dead on the Sydney monorail. Scobie Malone is woken at an un-Godly hour to investigate. Brame is in town, with another 1000 lawyers, for a conference. As you can imagine, this sets the scene for quite a complicated case. It gets even more complicated, when the security guard who found Brame, is found dead in Sydney Harbour. Coupled with the investigation, Malone's wife Lisa, has a serious health problem, which throws his home life into turmoil.
The story is self contained, and you do not have to have read any other Malone stories to enjoy and appreciate Winter Chill. However, as it is a series, there are characters and plot threads that follow on from previous books. For example, Malone met his wife, Lisa in London, when she was working for the Australian High Commissioner, John Quentin – as featured in the book The High Commissioner (1966). Therefore if you have the time and money to track down the previous stories in the series, and read them in order, I would suggest you would gain a more satisfying reading experience. But I have not done this myself, and I had no problems – so a casual reader would have no difficulty jumping into the Malone series.
From the blurb:
Cleary, like Peter Corris, should be an Australian literary institution. Every home should have at least one of his books – and if you don't, then you should rush straight to your local bookshop and rectify the situation immediately.
I have only read three Malone stories, however whenever I see one I don't have in a second hand book shop, I always pick it up. The first I read was Winter Chill, which I picked up in the late 1990s (this post is more of a reminisce, than a review).
Two of Cleary's Malone stories have been made into films. The easiest to track down is Nowhere To Run, starring Rod Taylor as Malone. You may also know the film by the title, The High Commissioner , which is also the name of the book on which the story was loosely based.
The other film is Scobie Malone, starring Jack Thompson, which is currently MIA on DVD (or Bluray). However, on a recent post over at Andrew Nette's Pulp Curry, in the comments, a person has done us all a great favour by highlighting that the film is on Youtube under the title, Murder at the Opera House.
But, back to Winter Chill - in the mid 1990s, like now, I was very much interested in Australian genre fiction (and films), and knowing a long running series of thrillers had been written, featuring a Aussie cop, that I had not sampled, and had virtually no knowledge of, was in my mind, criminal.
As I alluded to above, I joined the series quite late. Winter Chill was the twelfth book in the series, and the fourth in what was known as the Four Seasons books – the other three being Bleak Spring, Dark Summer, and Autumn Maze.
The story begins with the president of the American Bar Association (law, rather than alcohol), Orville Brame, found dead on the Sydney monorail. Scobie Malone is woken at an un-Godly hour to investigate. Brame is in town, with another 1000 lawyers, for a conference. As you can imagine, this sets the scene for quite a complicated case. It gets even more complicated, when the security guard who found Brame, is found dead in Sydney Harbour. Coupled with the investigation, Malone's wife Lisa, has a serious health problem, which throws his home life into turmoil.
The story is self contained, and you do not have to have read any other Malone stories to enjoy and appreciate Winter Chill. However, as it is a series, there are characters and plot threads that follow on from previous books. For example, Malone met his wife, Lisa in London, when she was working for the Australian High Commissioner, John Quentin – as featured in the book The High Commissioner (1966). Therefore if you have the time and money to track down the previous stories in the series, and read them in order, I would suggest you would gain a more satisfying reading experience. But I have not done this myself, and I had no problems – so a casual reader would have no difficulty jumping into the Malone series.
From the blurb:
Concluding the acclaimed Four Seasons tour of Sydney's urban underside, the latest Scobie Malone investigation introduces death's winter chill to the Detective Inspector's own front door.
3:30am. The Sydney monorail performs its endless circuit like a pale metal caterpillar. All for the benefit of one dead passenger. Elsewhere in the city's bleak midwinter, Darling Harbour buzzes to the sound of one thousand American lawyers attending an international conference. And that means one thousand opinions as to who killed their president.
Two bodies later, the Homicide Unit has lost one of its own. But establishing the connection is like trying to stick labels on a barrelful of eels. The more Malone fillets the heart of the city's legal profession, the more he cuts into an intrigue of international proportions...
Cleary, like Peter Corris, should be an Australian literary institution. Every home should have at least one of his books – and if you don't, then you should rush straight to your local bookshop and rectify the situation immediately.
November 11, 2021
Decent police murder squad series set in urban Australia
May 29, 2013
This is my 3rd Cleary novel of Detective Scobie Malone series (after Yesterday's shadow & Five ring circus) and I can confidently say I have become a fan of both Cleary and Malone! Cleary's relaxed and simplistic mystery novels are such smooth and gripping reads, it rivets you from the beginning and you can't stop till the end. And he always keeps a sub-plot apart from the main-plot which mostly involves a family or close to the ordinary man's heart, which gives this murder mysteries a common touch!
In this book, the protagonist, Scobie Malone starts with the investigation of a mysterious death of American high profile lawyer and the numerous twists and turns it take before revealing the plot slowly to his reader. The person connection is also exposed when the detective, like all family man, fights with his wife's illness, inspite of the work pressure of unraveling the murder at work.
Very good read, I felt this book is better than the other two books which I read till now from Cleary.
And now, I would chase all the Malone stories from Cleary.
In this book, the protagonist, Scobie Malone starts with the investigation of a mysterious death of American high profile lawyer and the numerous twists and turns it take before revealing the plot slowly to his reader. The person connection is also exposed when the detective, like all family man, fights with his wife's illness, inspite of the work pressure of unraveling the murder at work.
Very good read, I felt this book is better than the other two books which I read till now from Cleary.
And now, I would chase all the Malone stories from Cleary.
February 19, 2017
2* Still not sure why it was so hard for me to get into this audiobook, but I persevered and finished it. Some clever writing and social commentary that I enjoyed, but overall I didn’t care for it as much as I did for others in the series.
... previously. I have given this one lengthy and another short try, but alas, find it too annoying to continue. I'm not exactly sure why as I have enjoyed previous instalments in the series.
... previously. I have given this one lengthy and another short try, but alas, find it too annoying to continue. I'm not exactly sure why as I have enjoyed previous instalments in the series.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews