Cliff Hardy Books in Order

In Cliff Hardy's first outing, a seemingly straightforward missing person case opens onto corruption and danger in Sydney. It lays down the battered, stubborn moral code that defines the whole series.

Bookie Ted Tarleton wants Hardy to find his missing daughter Noni, a spoiled young woman known in rougher circles as white meat. The trail leads through Sydney's seedy edges and into violence.

A wealthy family matriarch hires Hardy to track down a long-lost heir. The search opens into murder, buried history, and the usual hard landings for Hardy.

Hardy is hired to find Annie, the daughter of a friend, and walks into the middle of a major drug deal. The story is short, hard, and morally messy in the best Cliff Hardy way.

When a widow spots her supposedly dead husband walking a Sydney street, she hires Hardy to find out how that can be. The result is one of the classic Hardy mysteries.

What looks like easy security work at a flashy party becomes another hard fall into Sydney trouble. Hardy trades quick money for a case full of ego, money, and violence.

A friend's problem with car thieves leads Hardy into a stranger and much more dangerous hunt for the missing William Mountain. The case gets weirder and deadlier the longer it runs.

The murder of a filmmaker sends Hardy into another Sydney maze of ambition and deceit. It is a neat example of Corris mixing show business, money, and violence.

Hardy is hired to guard a government minister, and the job soon turns political in the worst way. Security work, power, and threat all crowd into the same hot summer zone.

When a friend dies, Hardy goes looking for answers and finds trouble in his last word, O'Fear. The search leads toward prison, old connections, and a solid murder puzzle.

A man dies in an earthquake, but someone claims to have seen him alive moments later. Hardy follows that unsettling clue into a case where nothing stays steady for long.

Hired to find a missing father last seen near the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Hardy uncovers a darker mystery than he expected. The bridge, the harbour, and the city's past loom over the case.

Hardy barely survives the opening shock and spends the rest of the book trying to work out who wants him dead and why. It is a lean, fast case with danger never far away.

This novel goes back to Cliff Hardy's first case. It is part origin story, part hardboiled mystery, showing how Hardy first learned what the work could cost.

A flattering job linked to Sydney's casino world quickly stops looking glamorous. Hardy finds power, greed, and danger behind the polished surface.

Strapped for cash, Hardy is lured into a long-unsolved abduction case and the promise of a huge reward. A suppressed ransom note and a fresh killing turn the scheme deadly.

When a rich woman is charged with murdering her developer husband, Hardy digs into the people and deals around the exclusive Washington Club. Soon the case becomes dangerously personal.

Sex, sport, and steroids make an explosive Sydney mix. Hardy steps into a world of ambition and physical risk where the damage is not limited to the playing field.

The past comes back to Hardy in a case that carries real emotional weight. It blends private investigation with one of the most important turns in Hardy's personal life.

A small suburban moment opens into a dangerous case full of ambushes, pressure, and bad choices. Hardy follows the trail through a Sydney that feels both ordinary and deeply threatening.

A new client leads Hardy into family tensions, violence, and coastal secrets. It is a lean, bruising case with bad blood close to the surface from the beginning.

Old friendships and old betrayals come back when Hardy investigates men who once called themselves mates. It is a strong mix of memory, loyalty, and the hard truth about what time does to both.

Hardy leaves Sydney for a case on the coast, but the change of scenery does not make anything easier. The road trip setting gives this mystery a broader, windblown edge.

Trying to protect Billie turns into one of Hardy's toughest and most personal jobs. To keep one vulnerable life safe, he has to take on people with money, nerve, and no conscience.

A fresh job pulls Hardy into old currents of guilt, memory, and crime. The more he pushes against the undertow, the clearer it becomes that someone wants the past left alone.

A closed case refuses to stay closed when Hardy starts asking the wrong people the right questions. Old decisions, legal pressure, and hidden motives make this a stubborn, dangerous puzzle.

With his PI licence cancelled, Hardy is forced to work from the edges. That only makes the investigation tougher, and the gap between official truth and real truth even wider.

Recovering from major heart surgery, Hardy agrees to help a nurse find her missing father, a Sydney geologist. The search brings him home to corporate secrets and deep trouble.

A fractured family and a messy past turn a new case into one of Hardy's rougher investigations. As the facts come loose, so do tempers, and the danger gets personal.

When the paper trail starts to matter more than the street talk, Hardy follows it anyway. The money leads him into fraud, greed, and people who kill to keep their secrets intact.

Cliff Hardy has his PI licence back, but getting back in the game is not simple. This return-to-work case tests his nerve, judgement, and appetite for the damage the job brings.

A job involving the Dunbar family drags Hardy into money, history, and private grudges that refuse to stay buried. The deeper he looks, the more dangerous the family story becomes.

Hired to protect a politician, Hardy walks straight into corruption, pressure, and political danger. It is a fast, tense later novel with bodyguard work, whistleblowing, and Sydney power games.

Hardy is drawn into a case where guns, old loyalties, and bad judgement make every lead dangerous. What begins as routine legwork turns into a tense Sydney chase through crime and betrayal.

An obituary sends Cliff Hardy back to an old case involving crooked businessman Barry Bartlett and a young man claiming to be his lost son. The memory turns into a murder inquiry with wider consequences.

In Cliff Hardy's final case, a disappearance pulls him back into Sydney money, grief, and violence. It is a fitting farewell, bruising, reflective, and still very much a Hardy investigation.