Dark Summer
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
From the award-winning Jon Cleary, a novel featuring Sydney detective Scobie Malone – who finds the first of several murder victims in his own swimming pool.
In the heat of an Australian summer, Inspector Scobie Malone of the New South Wales police finds the body of a promising informer, Scungy Grime, floating face down in his family’s backyard swimming pool. Scobie is investigating Sydney’s major drug-dealing operation, and Grime’s murder is a clear warning. Malone’s family is put under police protection—a nightmare for Scobie, who had always been able to separate his professional obligations from his home life. But Scobie is determined not to be frightened off the job and leads the search for the murderer.
Scungy Grime turns out to be only the first victim of an innovative killer who injects his victims with curare. The trail leads in many directions: to Grime’s former boss, retired big-time criminal Jack Aldwych; to Aldwych’s son, Junior, who is using his father’s ill-gotten fortune to build a legitimate business empire; to Junior’s unlikely girlfriend, Janis, a tough-nut social worker who counsels drug…
Reviews
PRAISE FOR JON CLEARY:
'When the ruminants and the lucre-chasers are growing lichen on library shelves Jon Cleary will continue to be read'
LOS ANGELES TIMES
'Enough plot twists and conspiracy-making ingredients to satisfy the most demanding aficionado of the genre'
IRISH TIMES
‘The business of a novelist is to tell a story. Jon Cleary has that talent in abundance’ SUNDAY EXPRESS
‘The Malone stories come alive through their setting … Cleary’s writing is seamless and his plots imaginative and mature’ MIAMI HERALD
‘Cleary is a national literary institution… If Australia has a crime writer who deserves to be spoken of in the same breath as Ed McBain, Ruth Rendell, and P.D James, then it is Cleary’ SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
About the author
Jon Cleary, who died in July 2010, was the author of over fifty novels, including The High Commissioner, which was the first in a popular detective fiction series featuring Sydney Police Inspector Scobie Malone. In 1996 he was awarded the Inaugural Ned Kelly Award for his lifetime contribution to crime fiction in Australia. His last novel, FOUR-CORNERED CIRLCE, was published in 2007.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cleary has earned a loyal following with his Aussie mysteries, and this latest will do nothing to blunt his fans' enthusiasm. When Sydney policeman Scobie Malone (hero of Pride's Harvest and Murder Song ), finds the body of an informer floating in the pool outside his home, it's merely the first in a series of seemingly random killings. Injecting his victims with poison, the murderer also claims a couple of dockside union hoods and an old prostitute. Scobie takes to the docklands, once the stomping ground of his estranged father, and uncovers secret deliveries of drugs. Cleary writes with unusual authority but little suspense, choosing instead to let his readers stay a step or two ahead of his sleuth. Thus we eavesdrop on the operations of a pimp, on a chemist turned baker turned dealer, and on an old-time con trying to pass on the family business to his son. A reserved stylist, Cleary shows occasional flashes of wit and wisdom. This time, he plays it safe with a workmanlike plot and some determined detective work as the main orders of business.
