Man In the Shadows by Peter Corris

Publisher's Synopsis

Gareth Greenway wasn't all he seemed, but Cliff Hardy was used to that.What he wasn't used to was the shadowy world Greenway leads him into: neurosurgeons, mental patients, AIDS sufferers, all negotiating a landscape of dreams and delusions. An old friend of Hardy's ends up dead while Hardy chases the shadows, catching some, losing others.

The accompanying stories find Hardy on more familiar ground. When organised crime, political corruption and the Australian army are involved, Hardy battles the odds. But when it comes to a man-to-man contest, put your money on Hardy to win.

My Review 

Man In the Shadows: The title story begins with Gareth Greenway, a rather peculiar man, who creeps into Cliff's office with a strange story about his experiences in a mental hospital in the southern suburbs of Sydney. Greenway explains that he had been forced to receive treatment at the hospital that affected his memory and the same thing was about to happen to a friend of his. He offers Cliff cash to take the case to try to save his friend's life. Cliff accepts and they race out to the Southwood Private Hospital. But the case turns out to be far from what it seems. Cliff winds up unconscious and in the hands of the hospital doctors, caught for trespassing and Greenway has disappeared.

When Hardy is turned loose he faces three questions: where did Greenway get to; what was really going on at the Southwood Private Hospital, and; what was Annie Parker (from the earlier book Heroin Annie) suddenly doing on his doorstep? In answering these questions, Hardy perseveres through a brutal little story that delivers a relentless series of shocks, the odd death and an electrifying showdown to finish.

Man In the Shadows also manages to update the status of Cliff Hardy's occasional relationship with Helen Broadway with this simple statement: "Our six-monthly polygamous set-up hadn't worked." For those who like to keep score, the relationship spanned 5 books in the series - not bad for a hard boiled detective, I reckon.

Cloudburst: The next story takes us back in time (Helen Broadway is still on the scene...hey, I suppose that makes it 5 and a half books!) and Cliff finds himself on a surveillance job with the subject being a local politician. Now, those who know Cliff Hardy knows he hates politicians and the way this case blows up in his face goes a long way towards explaining why. This is a grim story that touches on illegal immigrants and a grimy prostitution racket. It's one of those cases where, once it's closed you're left to wonder whether justice was truly done.

High Integrity: Hardy investigates a credit card fraud that has been taking place within a major department store using forged store credit cards. It's obviously an inside job and Hardy is supplied a list of employees from which to pinpoint the culprit. What he's not prepared for is the extent to which the organisers of the scam are willing to go to keep their activities quiet. This one's a bit of a sleeper, trundling along quietly until it explodes in all-out fury.

'Box On!': Hardy is hired on as a minder for an aging boxer who is in heavy training for a comeback bout. The boxer appears to be committed to the comeback, but Hardy remains dubious about the motives behind the attempt and the likelihood that a fix was in the wind. What he finds is that his suspicions are well founded, but not in the way that he thought - not even close. This is an entertaining fight story with a satisfying twist.

The Deserter: There's plenty of misdirection and just a touch of military intimidation crammed into this story when Hardy is hired by a man whose son has gone AWOL from the army. His disappearance is completely out of character according to his parents but when Hardy tries to question his superiors, they close ranks and he suddenly finds himself on the receiving end of a warning off. Every so often a detective comes across a case that he can't satisfactorily solve and this could very well be one of those for Cliff.

Byron Kelly's Big Mistake: This is a complicated little story involving a missing letter written by a state politician. The letter was in the care of Byron Kelly but was taken by his ex-wife during a bitter argument. The contents of the letter remain somewhat sketchy but one thing is certain, having the letter in your possession is sure to be damaging to your health. Kelly just wants Hardy to try to save his ex-wife from those who want to get their hands on the letter. Although it starts in a rather obscure fashion, this story turns out to be a gritty, thrilling story filled with dark emotion.

Norman Mailer's Christmas: Cliff Hardy is having a bit of an off day when he accepts Henry Quinn's request to find his ex-wife so that he might invite her to share Christmas drinks with him. His suspicions should have been immediately aroused by the flimsy pretext for the job, but they weren't and Hardy is left with having to work extra hard to extricate himself from a tough spot. The good news is that he does so with impressive ingenuity.

This is a fine collection of short detective stories that benefits from the strong lead-off story that could quite easily have been expanded into a quality book in its own right. Each of these stories highlights Cliff Hardy's capability for absorbing punishment and ability to fight on and survive another day. The odd display of remarkable ingenuity and clever plot twists add up to a very enjoyable bunch of stories.