Cliff
Hardy, private investigator
finds that he has bitten off
more than he can chew when he
agrees to take on two new
clients.The first is Dr Elizabeth
Farmer who hires him to
investigate the death of her
father in a suspicious house
fire in Wombarra.The second client is
Marisha Karatasky who hires
Cliff to find her errant
daughter, 15 year old Kristina
who she believes has been taken
in by a paedophile pimp. Both of
these cases have their own
unique sets of complications,
for which Cliff was unprepared.
Figuring
the disappearance of a 15 year old girl to be the easier of the two cases
he heads of to Alexandria in Sydney and has some measure
of success there.He at least
manages to find her, but then he also manages to lose her.The mother is the complicating factor in this case.Cliff must wrestle with his own feelings as she draws him into her
net using sex and lies.
When
he heads down to the Illawarra to investigate the death of Frederick
Farmer he finds that he has stirred up more trouble than he could possibly
have anticipated.There seems
to be far more involved than just a simple house fire.
This
book has loads of descriptions
of the Illawarra and I enjoyed
the references to areas that I
knew.I found that I could
picture the spots he was talking
about even if he didn't go so
far as to name them. The
descriptions of the residents of
the Illawarra were nowhere near
as nice however, and I found
them to be rather patronising.Describing wearing a
"flannie " over a
t-shirt, jeans and with sandals
as a good south coast outfit was
going too far for me especially
in Thirroul?Any self-respecting
flannie wearer knows that you ,
don't wear sandals; you got to
have your thongs.
Containing
corruption on the police force
and of dead bodies turning up
this was a very easy to follow
conspiracy which made it a very
easy read.It was a bit clichéd in
parts, i.e. bikies in Port
Kembla, man-hating dykes living
in cottages in Wombarra, the
tough but vulnerable newspaper
writer, which wound up being
irritating and caused me to feel
a bit uncomfortable.I don't think that this
book gives a very good
impression of the people of the
Illawarra and it surprised me to
learn that the author is a
local.
