Wet Graves by Peter Corris

Publisher's Synopsis

Someone's trying to cancel Cliff Hardy's licence, and he needs to find out why.

He also needs to work out why the case of missing schoolteacher Brian Madden keeps leading him back over fifty years to the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Finding the answers takes all his contacts - police, underworld and press - and keeps Hardy moving across Sydney, asking questions, probing the past...and finding the bodies.

My Review of Wet Graves by Peter Corris

Hardy was just contemplating the letter he had received in the mail summoning him to appear in court to explain why he should not have his private enquiry agent's licence cancelled when Louise Madden walked into his office. Wanting to appear as professional as possible he manages to ignore the accusatory summons long enough to listen to what she has to say, even squeezing out a wisecrack or two to meet the expectations of how a PI should act.

Madden's father has disappeared and she wants to hire Hardy to try to find him. Brian Madden was last seen walking across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and one of the suspicions raised by the police is that he may have committed suicide. This is a possibility that is completely rejected by Louise Madden. When Cliff begins his investigation it becomes clear that suicide was most unlikely, considering all of the plans that Madden had made for the coming weeks, plans that a man intending to kill himself just wouldn't make.

As Hardy continues his investigation, he slowly realises that the Harbour Bridge is becoming a recurring feature in all of his interviews. Apart from being the last place Madden was seen, it turns out that his father was an engineer who worked on its construction. In fact, engineers and builders families who were involved in the construction become a growing theme. Somehow they must be tied together, but Hardy has no idea what the crucial connection might be.

Distracting his attention from the case is the threat of losing his licence that the looming summons holds. Try as he might he can't stop wondering what it is that he's supposed to have done to jeopardise his job. With his usual precision it doesn't take long for him to get to the heart of the problem - and in the process uncovers a rotten stinking mess. He finds himself at the centre of an elaborate set up, complete with phoney taped conversations detailing a planned hit that he was organising. Not only is it designed to ensure that he will lose his licence but, when he tracks down the culprits, he winds up facing the possibility that he will lose a lot more.

Wet Graves is a dour detective mystery that begins as a regulation missing person enquiry that escalates into a far more serious investigation, threatening to fly far beyond Hardy's capabilities. But as he's proven numerous times, his resourcefulness and determination sprinkled with a healthy dose of luck ensures that he's got a good chance of holding it all together.

During the investigation Hardy has need to make a foray onto Sydney Harbour so he contacts a former client. Paul Guthrie had hired Cliff in Make Me Rich to help him find his son, Ray. Now he wants to use Ray's boating skills and, while admitting to himself that he was particularly poor at maintaining friendships, he finds it a rewarding experience to catch up with the Guthries. Actually, as someone who read the earlier book, I quite enjoyed the opportunity for the follow up, too.

So the personal development of Cliff Hardy continues with very little to show for it. But then, the attraction of Cliff Hardy is not his social skills and warm personality, it's his intuition and refusal to take a backward step. In this case he excels in both areas, particularly in the face of a body count that begins to mount at an alarming rate.

Peter Corris makes good use of one of Australia's best-known landmarks to give the story wide appeal. The history of the building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge proves vital to the success of solving the case and makes for some inspiring reading. Once again a cleverly devised mystery has been put together to create another satisfying case for Cliff Hardy.