Peter Corris Books In Order

Publication Order of Cliff Hardy Books

Publication Order of Cliff Hardy Collections

Publication Order of Ray Crawley Books

Publication Order of Richard Browning Books

Publication Order of Luke Dunlop Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Peter Corris is one of prominent authors from Australia, who is famous for writing novels based on historical fiction, nonfiction, thriller, mystery, and crime fiction genres. He is particularly well known for writing the Cliff Hardy series. But, he is also popular for writing books featuring his other well known characters such as Luke Dunlop, Ray Crawley, and Richard Browning. In addition to be a successful author, Corris is also a journalist, historian, and academic. As a writer of crime fiction books, Corris often described as the Godfather of the contemporary crime writing of Australia. The first novel written by him was released in 1980 and since the year 1982, Corris has been writing as a full time author. During the time of the 50s, 60s, and 70s, the crime story writing of Australia was up to the writers who produced mass market novelties. Such writers included the likes of Alan Yates. However, in spite of being written in the Australian style, the stories were usually given pseudo British or American settings. Author Corris is given the credit of reviving the full fledged crime books in Australia having local settings. He is also known to give reference points and create a character which is rooted firmly in the culture of Australia. An example of such a character introduced by him is Cliff Hardy. Riding on his successful career as an author, Corris hopes that all his recent crime publications will also find wide audiences and help him increase his popularity as an established historical novelist. His recent book titled The Journal of Fletcher Christian is expected to circle back to Corris’s earlier career in the form of a journalist, having interests in the Pacific affairs, and a ‘Pacific Historian’.

Author Corris believes that a novelist does not have a better training than journalism and history. Corris was born on May 8, 1942, in Stawell, Victoria, Australia. When he was 5 years old, his family moved to Melbourne. Corris received his high school education from the Melbourne High School. Following this, he enrolled at the Melbourne University as a student of Bachelor level. He earned his Master’s degree from the Monash University and then went on to obtain a Ph.D from the National University of Australia in history. Author Corris worked as an academic and was involved in teaching at numerous universities as well as researching until the year 1975. At this point, Corris decided to give up academia to focus on journalism. He began by working as a literary editor at The National Times, in 1980-81. For a short period of time, author Corris has travelled and resided in Britain, Pacific, USA, and Europe. Other than spending time in writing and reading books, he has interests in weight training, swimming, playing golf, and watching films. Corris married another writer named Jean Bedford and has 3 daughters. As of today, he resides in Sydney along with his family and spends most of his time writing crime novels. Corris has described Cliff Hardy as a hardboiled detective. He is shown working as a private eye and living in Sydney. Cliff Hardy is tall and well built. Throughout his life, he has taken up numerous roles such as soldier, boxer, lumberjack, and finally insurance investigator. Cliff holds a Colt .45 and a Smith and Wesson .38.

The Cliff Hardy series written by Peter Corris is comprised of a total of 42 novels, which were released between the years 1982 and 2016. All the books feature Cliff Hardy as the chief protagonist. One of the early books released in the series is entitled ‘White Meat’. It was published in 1986. At the start of the novel, Clif Hardy is shown as needing a smooth job so as find a means to pay his bills and make his glass remain filled all the time. But, the job that comes his way does not appear to be smooth at all. Ted Tarleton is introduced into the plot as a highly rich bookie. He has a beautiful and spoiled daughter named Noni. The problem is that Noni has gone missing and Ted Tarleton has hired Cliff Hardy to help him find his daughter. The first place where he starts looking from is the boyfriend of Noni, who works as an actor. But, he claims that he has ceased all his contacts from Noni since a long time. Cliff Hardy visits Seedy La Perouse, where he shows Noni’s photo to some local aboriginals. Luckily, a few of them recognize her. They know her by the name white meat. Soon Hardy follows Noni’s trail to her past life’s violent wreckage. But, the path seems to be very difficult and it appears that he will have to take several more blows before being able to know her whereabouts.

One of the other popular books of the series is titled as ‘The Marvelous Boy’. It was published in the year 1986 by the Fawcett publication. Author Corris has depicted the main characters in this novel as Lady Catherine Chatterton, Bettina Chatterton, and Cliff Hardy. The beginning of the story shows that Cliff Hardy is hired by people who do not have anywhere else to go for help. One such client is Lady Chatterton. She is introduced as an eminent judge’s widow. Lady Chatterton seems very desperate to hand over the mantle of the legal reign of her husband as well as his enormous wealth to the one who is more deserving as compared to her daughter Bettina. She knows that Bettina is too boozy and is not capable of taking care of such a huge wealth and reign of her father. Therefore, Lady Chatterton decides to hire Cliff Hardy to search the missing grandson of the Chatterton family. Hardy finds it a hard nut to crack as the only proof of the existence the young man had come around a couple of years before and that too from a heavy drunkard. The case becomes even more intriguing when Hardy finds a useful photograph in possession of the drunkard. And when he visits him after an hour, he finds him dead. This increases the level of difficulty in finding the lost grandson of Lady Chatterton. As the death of the drunkard gets added to the case, Cliff Hardy gets loaded with a murder investigation along with the investigation of the missing grandson. But, as Hardy has the reputation of solving each and every case that he takes in his hand, he becomes determined not to rest until he has solved both the cases. Later in the investigation, Cliff Hardy comes to know that the disappearance of Chatterton’s grandson is linked to a secret from the family past.