Make Me Rich by Peter Corris
Written: Apr 30 '06 (Updated Dec 30 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good character development. Enjoyable for fans of the series.
Cons: Slow developing story
The Bottom Line: The 5th book in the Cliff Hardy series. Hardy is a Sydney-based private eye who is a tough dogged investigator.
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| damieng's Full Review: Make Me Rich Books |
Cliff Hardy is a private investigator who works, lives and plays in Sydney, dividing his time between the mean streets of the inner city and the more friendly locales around the beaches. He’s a tough character, part of the traditional PI set who work alone out of a dingy old-fashioned office, keeps a bottle of scotch in the bottom drawer next to his Colt .45 and never gives up on a case. Make Me Rich continues the series written by Australia’s “godfather of crime” Peter Corris delivering a fairly routine story that is most notable for the development of the series’ regular characters.
Working at a party where his job was to ensure none of the host’s valuables went missing and that the drunks behaved themselves, Cliff Hardy meets 2 people who are about to make life much more exciting, but for vastly different reasons. He and Helen Broadway both recognise the instant spark of attraction that passes between them, but are forced to put their thoughts on hold thanks to the interruption by Paul Guthrie.
Guthrie is a wealthy man who sees in Cliff an understated capability that he can use in solving a problem that is troubling him. He’s willing to pay a lot of money to hire the private investigator and Cliff is more than willing to receive it. The job is to find Ray Guthrie, Paul’s son, who has been missing ever since the two men had had a bitter argument. The big concern for Guthrie was that Ray had been seen around town in the company of some career criminals, a couple of blokes who could only mean trouble for the young man.
As often happens, the original job for which Hardy has been hired takes a bit of a back seat as he digs his way deeper into the case. There are some heavy hitters who also have a stake in Ray Guthrie and would prefer that nosy private investigators keep out of their business.
Make Me Rich exhibits the tight, clipped prose that has distinguished the majority of Peter Corris’ Cliff Hardy series, reflecting the no-nonsense attitude of the protagonist as he tells it like it is. The style is brutally frank and to the point and very typical of what we have come to expect of hardboiled detective novels.
As far as the plot itself is concerned, I found it to be a fairly plodding affair as Hardy makes slow progress in his investigation. Other than a brief moment of excitement when he follows a lead to Queensland, it’s all pretty low key until the loose ends are joined together in a brief whirlwind of a finale. Even then, I had the feeling that there were quite a few unanswered questions that left I would have liked answered.
Make Me Rich heralds the start of the relationship that Cliff will enjoy on a part-time basis over the years with Helen Broadway. It’s an intense and passionate start that reveals a rarely seen semi-soft side of Hardy as he finds in Helen a woman who complements his personality nicely, mainly for her independence and confidence in what she wants.
The 5th Cliff Hardy novel (6th if you count the short story collection, Heroin Annie) has now fallen into a comfortable pattern with a solid network of characters to back Hardy up in his investigation. These characters have been picked up from earlier books and give returning readers a strong sense of familiarity at their reintroduction. Although Make Me Rich is not the strongest book in the series in terms of plot development, it’s still a very enjoyable hardboiled detective story.
The Cliff Hardy series:
The Dying Trade, White Meat, The Marvellous Boy, The Empty Beach, Heroin Annie, Make Me Rich, The Big Drop, Deal Me Out, The Greenwich Apartments, The January Zone, Man In the Shadows, O'Fear, Wet Graves, Aftershock, Beware of the Dog, Burn & Other Stories, Matrimonial Causes, Casino, The Washington Club, The Reward, Forget Me If you Can, The Black Prince, The Other Side of Sorrow, Lugarno, Salt and Blood, Master’s Mates, The Coast Road, Saving Billie, The Undertow
This review has also been published on the Australian Crime Fiction Database at www.crimedownunder.com
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
damieng
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Location: Sydney, Australia
Reviews written: 427
Trusted by: 94 members
About Me:
Stop thanking me for my patience...I don't have any.
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