I enjoy Scobie Malone mysteries. He's a good character, an honest, hard-working detective. I've been a bit critical about some of the Malone novels before because the suspect is settled on too early, with not really enough clues and the rest of the book is about how Scobie finally gets his man. T...
In the meantime they worked with the only other clue they had. “It’s the wrong half of the tab,” said the manager of the dry-cleaning chain. “If it was the other half it’d give us the number of the shop where the dressing gown was cleaned. This’ll mean going through every order book in every shop...
He did not invite any of the women aboard his own carriage and we were left to make ourselves comfortable in the single carriage, instead of the two promised, that the Railway Superintendent was able to make available to us. “The engine just won’t be able to pull any more,” he explained. “Not wit...
Diplomatic circles did not get much of a run in State capitals; they are as peripheral as a species that not even conservationists could care about. No editor could tell you the number of embassies in Canberra nor the names of 95 per cent of the ambassadors. But this case was a juicy fruit and th...
said Andy Graham. “For the whole of March and April 1966. There’s plenty on the Springfellow disappearance, but nothing on anyone else missing, no one that hasn’t been accounted for since. Same with Missing Persons, those files that are still there. I’ve drawn a blank.” Graham was an oversized yo...
O’Brien instantly about-turned and stepped back into the building. Bousakis, considerably bulkier, took a little longer to turn round and follow him, like an oil tanker trying to catch up with its tug. “What the bloody hell are they doing here?” O’Brien demanded. “I don’t know, Brian. I guess the...
said Clements. “Where’d they find her?” “She’s a blackjack dealer at the Harbour Casino. Changed her name to Joanna Everitt. They never miss, do they? Always the same initials.” “They’re the smart ones, just in case they’ve got something with their initials on it, something they want to keep. Hav...
he said to Clements over a country breakfast of sausages and eggs and bacon, toast, honey and coffee. “Did you learn anything?” “A few things. Nothing to do with the case, though.” Malone refrained from asking if what he had learned had come from Mrs. Potter. “Well, we’ll get down to work this mo...
said Jefferson, handing the photograph to Malone. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have told the butler to tell you I had something for you. You were expecting some news, weren’t you?” Malone nodded, looked at the photo of Lisa, then put it carefully away in his wallet. “Did you ru...
Flags flew everywhere; the city threatened to be airborne under the pull of fluttering bunting. Citizens walked around with bemused smiles, as if wondering how they had arrived at this anniversary: history is not comfortable if one has to wear it personally. The Lucky Country over the past year h...
Not in Sydney, but in Melbourne, as Andy Graham found out within half an hour of being put on the trail by Malone. In past years co-operation between the police departments of the various States had been only a little above that between the old KGB and the CIA; the rivalry had been on a par with ...
“Jesus Christ Almighty! Where was the bloody surveillance?” He went on through a stream of obscenities that would have made even a street kid’s eyes pop. “I’ll have someone’s neck for this—” “Get off the boil, Inspector,” said Clements, waiting till the fury at the other end of the line had eased...
Said Rosalind, “You two didn’t show much concern over Rob’s death.” “’Lind,” said Ophelia, “your stepson was a shit.” “Why did Cormac give him a job then?” “Because he wanted a favour from your Derek, something political. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. Or your son’s.” Rosalind did not q...
said Malone. “What did you talk about?” “World politics,” said Lisa. “Women's rights. Public transport.” “Neither of you ever travel by public transport.” They were in the kitchen, she at the stove, he sitting at the table sipping a light beer. It was a very modern kitchen, refurbished a year ago...
She had joined the Courier on the day Richard Nixon left the White House; she became associate editor of the paper on the day that Jimmy Carter was given the Democratic nomination for President. She did not go up to Madison Square Garden to cover the convention, though she would dearly have loved...