‘Verdict’ by Agatha Christie Stage Call for Auditions

The Centenary Theatre Group, a company based in Chelmer, Brisbane, has made an official announcement calling for actors to fill roles in Agatha Christie’s inimitable stage production of ‘Verdict’ with opening night in November 2024. You may like Agatha Christie novels, or perhaps keen to tread the boards with this seasoned amateur group, read on—

SYNOPSIS
Karl Hendryk, a brilliant professor who, with his wife and her cousin, have fled persecution in their homeland to find themselves ensconced in London. This stage play revolves around human experience and relationships. ‘It satisfied me completely. I still think it is the best play I have written with the exception of Witness for the Prosecution,’ said Agatha Christie.

AUDITION
For Centenary Theatre Group
PRODUCTION OF ‘VERDICT’
by Agatha Christie (opening November 2024)
TIME & DATE: 2.00PM SATURDAY 14 SEPTEMBER 2024
LOCATION: CHELMER COMMUNITY HALL,
15 QUEENSCROFT STREET, CHELMER, BRISBANE.
GOOGLE https://maps.app.goo.gl/GPWBBYnpwgjcncKS7

‘Verdict’
Written by Agatha Christie
Directed by David Bell
‘Verdict’ is a 1958 stage play by British mystery writer Agatha Christie. It is unusual from other Agatha Christie plays: it is an original not based on a story or novel and, although there is a murder, it is more than a typical ‘whodunnit’ mystery.
https://centenarytheatre.com.au/project/verdict/

CAST REQUIRED
Lester Cole 25 years old.
Mrs Roper 40 years old plus, gruff and rude.
Lisa Koletzky Early 30’s, attractive.
Professor Karl Hendryk 45 and handsome (German accent).
Anya Hendryk 38, invalided in wheelchair and Karl’s wife (German accent).
Dr Stone 60 years old and a typical family doctor.
Helen Rollander age 23 and beautiful.
Sir William Rollander middle age, tall and Helen’s father.
Detective Inspector Ogden 40’s and pleasant nature.
Police Sergeant Pearce sergeant’s age open, mid-thirties plus.
NOTE All cast need to be proficient in English accents.

SETTING
This 2-act play will be set in the year it was written – 1958.
‘Verdict’ is one of only a few Christie plays written directly for the stage and not adapted from another story. It originally opened at Strand Theatre in West End, London, May 1958.

AUDITION REQUIREMENT
Auditions will be a cold read from the script.
For enquiries contact the Director – David Bell
EMAIL dbell6@bigpond.net.au
WEBSITE https://centenarytheatre.com.au/audition-for-agatha-christies-verdict/
Centenary Theatre Group Inc.
Cnr Queenscroft and Halsbury Streets,
Chelmer QLD 4068
Australia.

I hope to be in the audience on opening night!
Compiled 💗 Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2024

Review ‘Silks’ by Hugh McGinlay

After reading Hugh McGinlay’s first book “Jinx” I snapped up a copy of “Silks” from Clan Destine Press with many thanks for such a great read set in the southern city of my birth.

An entertaining author and musician, Hugh McGinlay says he’s surprised that readers accept his imaginary friends. Imaginary or not, I was right there with them every step of the way. This is book four about intermittent milliner (hat-maker) PI Catherine Kint and her offsider barman Boris Shakhovskoy. They witness the death of aerial circus performer, Silver, during her silks (or ribbon/tissu) performance but was it accidental or murder?

Vespa-riding Catherine “felt cold and sad and couldn’t stop thinking about the sound.” Boris felt the same, and he’s shaping up to be my favourite character, right from the start showing his multi-talented skills. I am not really sure I like Catherine calling him “dear” because she sounds like a mother-in-law. But between examining leads and serious allegations their dialogue is often laugh out loud; and this time Boris has two romantic interests.

Experience palpable tension walking home after the late shift, Boris continually looking over his shoulder, checking corners, concerned about being followed by the bad guys seemingly as interested in Silver’s death as the police. And naturally it involves her missing mobile phone. At one point Catherine and Boris escape detection by literally hanging by their finger tips. Later Boris hangs around as Catherine is lured into a life-threatening encounter.

Earlier, Silver’s distraught father Anthony Barwick says to Catherine “You don’t have many rules, and you’re smart. That’s what I’ve been told.” He wants her to investigate his daughter’s death. Can he be trusted? Silver, or Mia, by all accounts was an enigmatic wildchild. A family in crisis, a culture of secrecy and this plot kept me reading far into the night.

The location is again firmly set in Brunswick, Melbourne (Australia) with rainy day scenes and several digs at the cold weather.

“The rain might be cold, but I only notice because I’m living.”
Ciara Beretta Silks chapter 2 page 13

Author Hugh McGinlay writes believable crime fiction and pragmatic lead characters with unexpected traits, edgy yet loveable, cool yet kind. Remaining true to its roots, this series can be habit-forming for crime readers.

❤ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

Illustration only © Circa Academy performance https://circa.org.au/

Book Review ‘The Others’ Mark Brandi

A boy gets a diary for his 11^th birthday, to help with his writing practice. What begins as an innocent account of a child’s daily life quickly becomes for the reader something much darker.

We see the world through the eyes of a child, written with masterful naivety by Mark Brandi that few authors manage to capture. The boy tells us about his daily routine, his schoolwork, the farm work he and his father do, and the names of his favourite sheep. He tells us about his father’s ‘gold tooth’ – the way he knows his father’s smile is genuine, and how he misses seeing it more because the rain hasn’t come. He tells us how he’s learnt ‘being taught something’ is different to ‘being taught a lesson’. Through our story-teller, we begin to cotton on that life on the farm is anything but normal. Our main character has only ever known this world; we know better.

The stick against the tree trunk © Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2021

The story is written in a way that drags you in and pulls you along, unwillingly at times as the brutality of nature is so vividly portrayed (and sketched) by our young protagonist. His father, stern and scarce with his affection, runs through the narrative with an enigmatic, threatening presence – the reader gets to see more than our protagonist does, which adds to the tension. We understand; his son does not.

The cast is light-on. The father and son are central, we have some animal characters, and four people mostly alluded too – his mother, and three Others. The beauty of The Others is that we don’t need anyone else; the sense of Tasmanian isolation and the terror that comes with it really makes the story.

As plots go, there isn’t the traditional rollercoaster ride of some thrillers. Instead, there is a slow rolling on of dread which grows with each secret our protagonist keeps from his father – a note, voices heard in the dead of night, a strange noise in the trees – that finally comes to a traumatic head in the final chapters. The resolution is swift, underwhelming; it leaves more questions than it answers. We puzzle together the last terrible clues and are left with a sense that life could never be the same again.

Only one thing let the book down for me – the voice of our protagonist changed. In the final act he goes from using the childish descriptions of a boy to a very deliberate ‘lyrical’ style of the author. Descriptions took priority and it felt jarringly unnatural from our protagonist to be spouting self-reflective prose. However, for the most part, the ‘voice’ of our main character stayed the same, without ever compromising on storytelling.

The most interesting thing for me was that names were never used. Our main character’s name – Jacob – was never said by his father; only once in a letter, on basically the last page. His father’s name was never given at all. The only character named in full was Jacob’s mother. It was a surprise for me that a story could flow so well without ever really giving itself away – we never quite find out all the details. The mystery is left open for our interpretation, and in the end, that’s the scariest part of all.

I would give The Others 4/5 stars because nothing is perfect but this gets pretty dang close.

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward—in collaboration with Dot Bernet.

________________________________

AUTHOR PROFILE

Mark Brandi’s bestselling novel, Wimmera, won the coveted British Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger, and was named Best Debut at the 2018 Australian Indie Book Awards. It was also shortlisted for the Australian Book Industry Awards Literary Fiction Book of the Year, and the Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year. His second novel, The Rip, was published to critical acclaim by Hachette Australia in March 2019. Mark published The Others in 2021.

Mark had shorter works appear in The Guardian, The Age, the Big Issue, and in journals both here and overseas. His writing is also sometimes heard on ABC Radio National.

Mark graduated with a criminal justice degree and worked extensively in the justice system, before changing direction and deciding to write. Originally from Italy, he grew up in rural Victoria, and now lives in Melbourne and is creating his next work of fiction.

PRAISE FOR THE OTHERS
“Spare yet emotionally sumptuous… laced with page-turning suspense, and a creeping sense of dread that turns into something excruciatingly claustrophobic as it builds to its heart-pounding crescendo”
SIMON MCDONALD, POTTS POINT BOOKSHOP AND WORDPRESS BLOGGER

‘Sanditon’ TV Drama Series

Jane Austen’s unfinished heroine, Charlotte Heywood, is invited to Sanditon, a small coastal village undergoing modern changes to become a fashionable seaside resort (with revolutionary sea bathing) and she soon finds herself navigating the high ambitions of its architect Tom Parker, the family affairs of wealthy benefactor Lady Denham, and the secrets of village life. There are, of course, two handsome suitors. But a very important question hangs in the air—will Sanditon be a successful venture?

Sanditon, an eight-part drama from Jane Austen’s last and unfinished novel adapted by Andrew Davies, left fans of the TV series divided by the uncharacteristic ending and the knowledge that there would not be another installment.

Production company Red Planet Pictures is a leading independent UK producer of high-end drama founded by multi-award winning British television writer Tony Jordan in 2006, and run with Belinda Campbell and Alex Jones whose recent productions include Sanditon, a dramatisation which caused much disarray in the Jane Austen fandom.

However, I read these recent quotes—

“A second and third series were commissioned as part of a collaboration between PBS and BritBox in May 2021″

“Masterpiece PBS: After fans were left hanging in suspense by the first season’s finale and clamouring for more, the drama will continue to follow the high-spirited and independent heroine, Charlotte Heywood (Rose Williams) as she returns to the picturesque coastal resort of Sanditon. Charlotte’s journey is one thread of an intricate tapestry of compelling stories full of intrigue, excitement, and romance. Against the backdrop of beautiful vistas, familiar faces return and new inhabitants are introduced—all of whom will be having adventures as joyous and surprising as the seaside town itself.”
https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a30272999/sanditon-season-2/

So, the stars over Sanditon will continue to shine.

In Australia, the first series is free-to-air on ABCTV iView. I found the story very enjoyable and loved the characters. It has been a long time since I was irate about a surprise ending although I did appreciated the way the two actors handled The Moment. Generally, I felt some liberties were taken with etiquette, the background scenery was sometimes questionable but the costumes were suitably detailed and quite lavish when the need arose.

Love it or loathe it, this is another story which will join the long list of adaptations of Jane Austen’s enduring works.

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

Sanditon beach cricket and Charlotte goes into bat.

Lucy V Hay ‘Criminally Good’ Advice

After reading Lucy V Hay’s two informative books “Writing and Selling Thriller Screenplays” and “How NOT to Write Female Characters” the next logical step was to subscribe to her website and learn more.

The first thing I noticed was that Lucy is very active and her site holds a plethora of information. Then I was delighted to receive a free copy of The Lynmouth Stories, three of Lucy’s short stories titled “In Plain Sight”, “Killing Me Softly” and “Hell and High Water”, twisters which certainly pack a psychological punch.

Here’s what it says on her website—

Lucy is an author and script editor, living in Devon with her husband, three children and six cats. She is the associate producer of Brit Thrillers Deviation (2012) and Assassin (2015) both starring Danny Dyer. See Lucy’s IMDB page HERE and other movies and short films she’s been involved in, HERE.

In addition to script reading and writing her own novels, Lucy also blogs about the writing process, screenwriting, genre, careers and motivation and much more at her blog Bang2write, one of the most-hit writing sites in the UK. Sign up for updates from B2W and receive a free 28 page ebook (PDF) on how NOT to write female characters, HERE or click the pic on her website.

For more scriptchat, leads and links, join Lucy’s online writing group, Bang2writers. It’s something I am going to explore further!

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

Lucy V Hay http://www.lucyvhayauthor.com/

ADDENDUM—For a free copy of The Lynmouth Stories and more, join Lucy’s EMAIL LIST—My post heading comes from the title of Lucy’s email CRIMINALLY GOOD where she interviews fellow crime writers and asks them five questions. She says “It’s fascinating to read their answers, especially as they are all so different!” Today I have the choice of Ian Rankin, Sophie Hannah or Peter James. GBW.

Book Review ‘Shepherd’ by Catherine Jinks

IMG_20200725_100525

On my first reading attempt

I wasn’t ready for this book. I wanted to enjoy it as much as I enjoyed Catherine Jinks other books but it didn’t work for me right from the start. The setting was vivid but the raw, brutish behaviour and sheer masculinity of the story overwhelmed me. Does that make me a sexist, a bigot, a wimp when it comes to macho bravado? I don’t know. I turned the pages with trepidation, not interest. Maybe the colonial frontier loneliness affected me and I didn’t want to go on.

On my second reading

the story felt less crushing. I concentrated on young English convict Tom Clay, a former poacher transported in chains to Australia, and now a shepherd. I willed him to be okay, to learn and survive intact. His country assignment in New South Wales works well, he didn’t steal from landowner Mr Barrett so he was never flogged and he works hard. Through his eyes, I saw the strangeness of a harsh new land, the vast differences, and the cruel pitiless men he is forced to live and work with guarding sheep against theft and wild dogs.

Tom has a jaundiced eye

when it comes to things like Australian native wildlife and his comment on first seeing kangaroos is less than flattering. I was disappointed with the header on the bookcover which reads “The wolf is not the only hunter”. There are no wolves in Australia, there are dingoes (wild dogs) and that should have been apparent.

Sheep stealing, jumbuck, billabong, Waltzing Matilda, poet Banjo Paterson

The conditions are harsh

and Tom’s fight for life against his arch nemesis Dan Carver is harsher still. These chapters are tightly written. The knock down drag ‘em out battles are horrific, the ghastly metal trap, the shootings, the human and animal deaths… but Tom dearly loves his sheep dogs.

I am not a fan

of an undefined location nor overused nonlinear narrative. Tom’s past comes out in this way. Flashback to eight year old Tom at his mother’s funeral, his former life almost as bad as his current one. He learns “No matter what a convict’s situation might be, he’ll never persuade a trooper that he’s telling the truth.” Flashback to when Tom first met convict Rowdy Cavanagh, a con man who joked, laughed and teased his way to success until he was caught “A single misstep and it ruined me life.”

The age rating

for this tense, chilling, thrilling story eludes me, but it is a tale I did not fully enjoy. I do respect it wholeheartedly for the screenplay fear and fascination it instilled in me regarding the rough and thoroughly inhumane life early convicts were forced to endure.

A sequel?

Tom’s situation could lead to listening and learning from the Indigenous custodians of this ancient land, and perhaps encourage a new phase in his life.

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

Author info

Catherine Jinks ‘Shepherd’ interview on Paperchain Bookstore blog.

Catherine Jinks (Australia b.1963) is a four-time winner of the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year award, and has also won a Victorian Premier’s Literature Award, the Adelaide Festival Award for Literature, the Ena Noel Award for Children’s Literature and an Aurealis Award for Science Fiction. In 2001 she was presented with a Centenary Medal for her contribution to Australian Children’s Literature.

Catherine Jinks, author of over thirty books for children and adults, including the award-winning Pagan Chronicles series, was born in Brisbane and grew up in Sydney where she studied medieval history at the University of Sydney.

She became a writer because she loves reading, as well as history, films and television. Catherine gets ideas for her novels from everywhere, particularly good science fiction films. She lives in the Blue Mountains NSW with her Canadian husband and daughter Hannah.

Bad to Worse ‘Good Girl Bad Girl’ by Michael Robotham

I haven’t written a negative book review for a while but I need to express my rebellious thoughts on “Good Girl Bad Girl” by Michael Robotham. I would have liked to give this seasoned author a pat on the back, but it won’t happen. He (and dare I say his publisher) goofed up, disappointing me with this latest offering. As a supporter of the Australian writers scene, it pains me to say I have even compiled a list of unwanted gaffes. And I’m disillusioned by such a rudimentary storyline, further dragged down by Robotham putting believability ahead of plausibility.

First, I’m not keen on psychologist Cyrus Haven, with his generic nightmares and ridiculous spontaneity when it comes to young Evie Cormac, aka Angel Face. Plots, eh, you need to drive them forward. Evie lived a feral existence in a secret room with a dead body outside the door and after rescue she was incarcerated in Langford Hall, Nottingham, a secure children’s home. Being of indeterminate age, she appears mature yet lapses into teenage obviousness as inexperienced Cyrus soon finds out. Her dubious, er, gift, is an attempt at originality until Robotham trots out tropes and formulaic predictability.

Maybe hackneyed phrases could be revised in another edition, do a bit of showing instead of continual telling, and jumping in and out of a character’s head doesn’t necessarily strengthen the story or boost the tension. In “Good Girl Bad Girl” the title hints at naughtiness and a girl dies yet the suspects aren’t new, just the usual line-up. When it comes to fiction, I don’t think crime scene minutia or yet another clichéd pathologist/priest/politician enhances a plot.

“Good Girl Bad Girl” is a ropey book launched into the world too soon.

I noticed these gaffes—

(1) Cyrus Haven does not own a mobile phone. He only has a pager and uses a telephone at the local shop, even DCI Lenny Parvel has to track him down while jogging. How come when he’s at home looking at DVDs of suspect Craig Farley, he has a bright idea and “I punch out her number. She doesn’t answer. It goes to her messages. Beep!”
(2) When Cyrus goes to an old church to talk to the murdered girl’s mother, he can’t get in the front doors because they are locked but when the priest asks him to leave he exits via the front doors.
(3) Poor proof-reading, fluctuating spelling like practice/practise, repeat words not edited out.
(4) Flight risk Evie’s electronic tracker on her ankle must vaporise.
(5) Evie’s POV couldn’t hear both sides of that phone conversation.
(6) I guess that Uber driver drove away fast.
(7) DCI Lenny Parvel is a woman yet “Lenny is signalling me from the road. Aiden is with him.”
(8) Cyrus has his hands taped to a vertical wooden stair spindle so how could “Cyrus grabs my arm” when later Evie frees him?
(9) Reader thinks “Am I missing some kind of joke?”
(10) Reader thinks “Is this an uncorrected proof?”

….. there are more blemishes, I got tired of it but you can easily find them.

A crime reader’s curse but I can also see the mechanics at work, the primary sentences, the leading questions, the verbal punches ready to be pulled, the transparent taunts and retorts used many times before, and I don’t mean just by Robotham. I include contemporary middle-of-the-road crime writers and television scriptwriters all using the same imagery. They must yearn for a movie deal. Unfortunately not even banter escapes the mundane repetition seen in current crime stories.

The arthritic white rabbit is still being pulled out of the narrative hat. Give it a rest!

I have not read any related book reviews so this is my unbiased honest opinion. With more polish “Good Girl Bad Girl” could have risen above the ranks of ordinary. New readers will be supportive, Australian fans will be supportive, but I think it’s a monotonous book and I say that with genuine regret.

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

Three Things #7

THING ONE Reading—The Chain by Adrian McKinty
THING TWO Looking—A Lemon in Disguise
THING THREE Thinking—Don’t Rush the Little Wild Ramblers

THING ONE—READING—The Chain by Adrian McKinty—

The Chain took me by surprise. I had no idea what the title referred to until nice normal cancer patient Rachel O’Neill turns into a desperate, frenzied, tigress of a woman ready to kill to protect her cub Kylie.

Adrian McKinty has written 14 books and I’ve read them all, so I know he can write ‘other stuff’. Guns, cops, drugs and tricky, desperate situations. But never with the strong emotion which The Chain evoked in me.

The sequence of events is based on real bandits who kidnap people and hold them to ransom until their families pay to have them released. Not very nice, and neither is what happens to Rachel and Kylie. This sophisticated version of The Chain involves snatching a child and holding them prisoner to save your own child who has been captured and the next person snatches a child and holds them prisoner until their child is released, etc…with brutal consequences for broken links.

IMG_20190813_161920 — Hachette Australia bookcover 2019

The winners in all of this are The Chain initiators who demand that huge sums of money be paid into their off-shore account otherwise they will force the family to kill your child. The fear, panic and high stress levels are well realised and the pressure applied to Rachel and her ex-army drug addicted brother-in-law Pete (he goes into Bruce Willis mode) never lets up.

Half way through the plot, things take a sharp u-turn (Australian version is chuck-a-youie) but the reader has to trust the writer to follow-through. Trust him I did. And the result was definitely worth it. As always, McKinty writes in his own unique style. There are warnings of social media over-exposure which ring true and even though this suspense thriller is set well and truly on American soil, it holds a universal truth ‘Watch over your children’.

A poetic excerpt from The Chain, Chapter 40, Sunday 11.59 p.m.
“She merges with the traffic.
The highway hums. The highway sings. The highway luminesces.
It is an adder moving south.
Diesel and gasoline.
Water and light.
Sodium filament and neon.
Interstate 95 at midnight. America’s spinal cord, splicing lifelines and destinies and unrelated narratives.
The highway drifts. The highway dreams. The highway examines itself.
All those threads of fate weaving together on this cold midnight.”
Author Adrian McKinty 2019

WordPress link to my previous post reviewing McKinty’s Rain Dogs.
I am wrestling with my new Goodreads account.

THING TWO—LOOKING—A Lemon in Disguise—

IMG_20190806_160745 — Saw this lemon doing undercover surveillance in an abandoned fruit bowl. He looked a bit out of place with his onion skin hair.

THING THREE—THINKING—Don’t Rush the Little Wild Ramblers—

This beautiful quote from Wilder Child Nicolette Gowder struck a cord with me. I thought about young family members who were forever picking up small objects and bringing them home after school. Everything was of interest when out walking, items had to be investigated for smoothness, brightness, weight or lightness. The best treasures were those which once were alive, like a crab claw, rat skull or insect exoskeleton.

I thought about my mother who used to point out the delicate things in nature, things which tend to get overlooked. I inherited her spy-eye for detail especially seed pods. She was more of a beachcomber…but always putting those glistening seashells back where she found them ♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

Wilder Child The Dawdlers The Inquisitive Ones — Nicolette Gowder nature-connected parenting https://wilderchild.com/ and blog Sweet Breathing https://sweetbreathing.com/blog/

One post in three parts, Reading Looking Thinking, a neat idea started by blogger Paula Bardell-Hedley. Check out Book Jotter her informative, interesting and book-related website!

Louise Candlish ‘Our House’ Book Review

Quote “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying he was psychopathically charismatic or anything like that. He didn’t set out to use his powers for evil. More likely his powers were no match for the evil he chanced upon.” Chapter 34, Fi’s Story >1:59:07

That quotation from Bram Lawson’s wife Fiona appears to be a fair assessment of her husband’s character but is it accurate? Bram made one faulty decision which started the ball rolling over and over until it rolled into a brick wall, and the wall started to topple.

The unforced yet headlong pace of this novel has to be read to be understood. It is full-on right from the opening line: “London, 12.30 p.m. She must be mistaken, but it looks exactly as if someone is moving into her house.”

Author Louise Candlish has the knack of subverting expectations, making her characters do things I hadn’t anticipated, and making them believable. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong in a progression of events at 91 Trinity Avenue in the London suburb of Alder Rise where property values are in the millions.

In this transfixing drama of house fraud and so much more, the main players are Bram and Fiona; their two young sons; would-be homeowners David and Lucy Vaughan; neighbour Merle; Mike and Wendy; the website of crime podcast The Victim.

Told by Fiona (Fi) and Bram, their retrospective sides of the story nearly overlap yet never quite converge, building a strong sense of unease. With foreboding I followed their newly separated, and prickly, domestic rituals with bird’s nest custody arrangements. I almost shouted at the book a couple of times—I can’t reveal why—as deception and indiscretion insinuated themselves into the story.

Woven through the redolent London background are family moments, some more heart-wrenching than others, before a nasty turn of events and the final dénouement. While the catastrophic narrative honour goes to Bram, the overarching theme is home ownership and who legally owns the house. Apparently it is, or was, a possibility that this kind of deed transfer could happen.

“Our House” is the best crime book I’ve read this year, well crafted and written with an ending which sends out shock waves. If you like incomparable award-winning psychological thrillers, I urge you to read this one.

Five Star Rating

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

About the Author:

Louise Candlish is the author of eleven previous novels, including “The Sudden Departure of the Frasers”, “The Swimming Pool” and the international bestseller “Since I Don’t Have You”. Louise studied English at University College London and worked as an advertising copywriter and art book editor before writing fiction. She lives in South London with her husband and teenage daughter. “Those People” is her next book.
Author website http://www.louisecandlish.com/

I also recommend author and WordPress reviewer Rachel McLean
https://rachelmclean.com/book-review-our-house-by-louise-candlish-a-gripping-psychological-thriller/

There are perceptive book club questions in a Reader’s Guide at the end of “Our House”.

Peter Corris Crime Writer Cliff Hardy Crime Fighter

Peter Corris 01 — The final Peter Corris crime novel featuring PI Cliff Hardy.

A few years ago I was going through a rough patch in my professional and personal life. I wanted to close the door and read, read, read myself back to normality.

Search and ye shall read

The trouble was I hadn’t seriously knuckled down and read a well-written book for a long time. I felt distanced from northern hemisphere writers (what’s snow?) and never really got the whole Scandi-noir buzz. Several genres, including the ambiguous literary fiction, didn’t hold my interest. I felt I needed comedy, something I could relate to and laugh at. Also I wanted characters and places I understood, and possibly had visited.

Readers of my blog will know I like quirky writing so, rather than reach for self-help books, I began to search for way-out humour on the library shelves. Unfortunately back then humorous Australian writers were thin on the ground so I hung around the bookshops until the next Thursday Next dilemma or Ankh-Morpork debacle was published. Yes, Messrs Fforde and Pratchett saved my sanity with their insane books.

From comedy to crime

After trial and error, and iffy recommendations from friends, I discovered Australian crime writers. The good old Aussie turn-of-phrase drags me in every time. I know the cities, the vast distances between those cities, the weather, the beaches, the Great Dividing Range, the smell of gum trees and especially the food. Our food is a mish-mash of many cultures but in there somewhere is real Aussie tucker and nobody does a Chiko Roll or TimTam like we do. And our criminals are a bit special too.

I read in no particular order (and by no means all our contemporary crime writers) Garry Disher, Kerry Greenwood, Peter Temple, Leigh Redhead, Geoffrey McGeachin, Jane Harper, Robert G. Barrett, Honey Brown, Matthew Condon, Emma Viskic, Adrian McKinty (adopted Irishman) Candice Fox, Shane Maloney, Barry Maitland, Michael Robotham and my absolute all-time favourite, the iconic Peter Corris.

And Peter Corris came with Sydney private investigator Cliff Hardy

Peter Robert Corris (8 May 1942 – 30 August 2018) was an Australian academic, historian, journalist, biographer and novelist of historical and crime fiction. As a crime fiction writer, he was described as “the Godfather of contemporary Australian crime-writing”. After writing 42 books in his PI Cliff Hardy series, from 1980 to 2017, Corris announced in January 2017 that he would no longer be writing novels owing to “creeping blindness” because of type-1 diabetes and passed away the next year.

Naturally I was saddened to learn of his death but it hit me in another way. I never wrote and told him how his Cliff Hardy books lead me into the badlands and showed me that my life was all right. Well, in comparison to the criminal underworld Hardy inhabited. Despite the sleaze, the drugs, the murder, Hardy had his own set of morals, he was a good judge of character and played fair. However, he knew how to defend himself and fought hard when necessary. Forget that it’s fiction. Compared to his daily grind, I had nothing to worry about.

As Bowie said Ch-ch-ch-Changes

These Corris crime novels also documented a changing way of life through Hardy, especially the Sydney cityscape and his beloved Newtown. For nearly 40 years, semi-permanent characters came and went, and mobile phones and laptops took hold. High tech digital devices and spyware increased; electronic locks, security cameras and internet surveillance replaced skeleton keys and good old shoulder-to-the-door. I feel the loss of a metal filing cabinet, its papers viewed by torchlight in the middle of the night.

But through it all, Corris always managed to side-step technology, keeping Hardy real, doing the leg work, nailing the bad guy. His astute observations of human nature, and how he wrote plausible characters, made me feel I’d just met a crooked barrister or a smarmy crime baron.

Peter Corris 02

The book on the right is one of my favourites. Recognise the bridge? These days I do read more widely but I’m missing my yearly dose of hard-boiled Hardy—to use Corris’ own description.

Below I have listed all the Cliff Hardy books even though it doesn’t have the visual appeal of the bookcovers. If you wish to check out more about each story, please visit Allen & Unwin Publishers website:

https://www.allenandunwin.com/authors/c/peter-corris

But—do authors and their books really die?

There could be reprints, anniversary issue, possible screenplay, theatre adaptation, prequel, or Grandson of Hardy for younger readers. I won’t give away the ending of the last book because I expect you to BINGE READ the complete oeuvre, then see for yourself whether or not you like Cliff Hardy’s final installment.

My sincere condolences to Jean Bedford, wife of Peter Corris, and his family.

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

PI Cliff Hardy book series

The Dying Trade        (1980)
White Meat                 (1981)
The Marvelous Boy (1982)
The Empty Beach      (1983)
Heroin Annie and Other Cliff Hardy Stories (1984)
The Big Drop and Other Cliff Hardy Stories (1985)
Make Me Rich           (1985)
The Greenwich Apartments (1986)
Deal Me Out            (1986)
The January Zone      (1987)
The Man in the Shadows: Cliff Hardy Omnibus (1988)
O’Fear                      (1990)
Wet Graves                 (1991)
Aftershock                  (1992)
Beware of the Dog (1992)
Burn and Other Stories (1993)
Matrimonial Causes (1993)
Casino                        (1994)
The Reward            (1997)
The Washington Club (1997)
Forget Me If You Can (1997)
The Black Prince        (1998)
The Other Side of Sorrow (1999)
Lugarno                  (2001)
Salt and Blood           (2002)
Master’s Mates          (2003)
Taking Care of Business (2004)
The Coast Road         (2004)
Saving Billie              (2005)
The Undertow             (2007)
Appeal Denied            (2008)
The Big Score: Cliff Hardy Cases (2008)
Open File                (2009)
Deep Water                (2009)
Torn Apart                   (2010)
Follow the Money     (2011)
Comeback                     (2012)
The Dunbar Case       (2013)
Silent Kill                    (2014)
Gun Control           (2015)
That Empty Feeling    (2016)
Win, Lose or Draw     (2017)

NOTE: “See You at the Toxteth” Published by Allen & Unwin August 2019
https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/fiction/See-You-at-the-Toxteth-Peter-Corris-9781760875633
A selection of stories compiled by Jean Bedford featuring Australia’s favourite PI, plus unpublished writing by Peter Corris on crime.