Meet Cliff Hardy. Smoker, drinker, ex-boxer. And private investigator.

"The Dying Trade" not only introduces a sleuth who has become an enduring Australian literary legend--the antihero of thirty-seven thrillers--but it is also a long love letter to the seamy side of Sydney itself.

Cliff Hardy may still have the moves but he's in trouble. The economy's tanking and he's been conned by an unscrupulous financial advisor and lost everything he's got. Cliff only knows one way, and that's forward, so he's following the money trail. It's a twisted road that leads him down deep into Sydney's underbelly, into the territory of big money, bent deals, big yachts and bad people. Cliff's in greater danger than ever before, but he's as tenacious as a dog with a bone.

The sixth book in the Cliff Hardy series It is just another party in Sydney's eastern suburbs, a routine security job for Cliff Hardy. It leads, though, to an interesting meeting and a dangerous job. No one is more familiar than Hardy with the sleazy back streets and pubs of Kings Cross, and he follows a twisted trail over dangerous ground. As well as a hitman out to get him he deals with politically protected criminals and corrupt journalists - and meets the intriguing Helen Broadway for the first time.

Cliff Hardy goes to Leichhardt gym proprietor Wesley Scott for a 'fitness assessment' and is soon trying to get his son Clinton - known as The Black Prince - back on the rails. A sports star in the making and destined for the top, Clinton is obsessed with tracking down the dealer who sold his girlfriend the steroids that led to her death. Hardy has to find Clinton before he ends up on a murder charge - the trail leads him up to North Queensland and into the shadowy world of illegal boxing.

The forty-second book in the Cliff Hardy series Will one man's loss be Hardy's gain? 'I'd read about it in the papers, heard the radio reports and seen the TV coverage and then forgotten about it, the way you do with news stories.' The police suspect the father, Gerard Fonteyn OA, a wealthy businessman. But he's hired Cliff to find his daughter, given him unlimited expenses and posted a $250,000 reward for information. Finally there's a break - an unconfirmed sighting of Juliana Fonteyn, alive and well. But as usual, nothing is straightforward. Various other players are in the game - and Cliff doesn't know the rules, or even what the game might be. He's determined to find out, and as the bodies mount up the danger to himself and to Juliana increases.

The thirty-eighth book in the Cliff Hardy series This wasn't Hardy's usual brief--uncover the mysteries of a nineteenth-century shipwreck--but he could do with an easy case and the retainer was generous. But is it ever that simple? Not with a notorious crime family tearing itself apart, and an undercover cop playing both sides against the middle. These and an alluring but fiercely ambitious female journalist give Hardy all the trouble he can handle. 'Ever feel manipulated?' Hardy asks. The body count mounts up as he pushes closer to the truth about the mystery and the loot.

Private investigator Cliff Hardy is nothing if not versatile, and this collection of his cases sees him mixing with the good, the bad and the quirky. He tracks delinquent arsonists, hired killers and missing girlfriends, protects eye surgeons and radio announcers, solves old crimes and helps old underworld mates.

This is the sequel to "Browning Battles On", in which Browning encounters passion and death among Tamil guerrillas in old Ceylon. The author also wrote "Beverly Hills Browning", "Browning in Buckskins", "Browning Takes Off" and "Browning PI".

The twelfth book in the Cliff Hardy series When Todd Barnes, war veteran and popular drinking mate, leaves Cliff Hardy a tidy sum to find out who killed him, Hardy can hardly refuse - and he needs the money. Todd's widow and some of his cronies are not always cooperative, however, and it's hard to tell friends from enemies, especially when it comes to the mysterious Kevin O'Fearna, known as O'Fear. Hardy's battered Falcon takes him from the familiar mean streets of Sydney to equally dangerous bushland, where he's on his own up against heavy odds. A not-unfamiliar situation for Sydney's most enduring private investigator.