Jon Cleary (1917-2010) was an Australian writer, publishing about 50 novels in a range of genres. A number of them were adapted for film and television. His most famous book is The Sundowners (Werner Laurie, 1952 UK; Scribners, 1952 US), which describes a year in the life of an iterant Outback Australian family in the 1920s. They move from place to place, encountering vivid characters of all kinds. The plot is based on stories Cleary’s father told about his own adventures in Queensland. It was adapted for Australian radio in 1953 and then for a film starring Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum and Peter Ustinov in 1960.
His first book about Scobie Malone, a Sydney homicide inspector, appeared in 1966 and evolved into a series of 20 books. His stand-alone thriller Peter’s Pence received an Edgar award in 1975. He was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Australian Crime Writers Association and the inaugural Ned Kelly Award for Lifelong Contribution to the Crime, Mystery and Detective Genres in 1996. He won the 2004 Ned Kelly award for Best Novel for the last Scobie Malone story, Degrees of Connection, and was shortlisted for three other titles over the years.
Scobie Malone’s second appearance was in Helga’s Web (Collins, 1970; Morrow, 1970). It is as much character analysis as it is mystery, perhaps more since the reader learns about two-thirds through who the killer is. Helga Brand is a high-end call girl from Germany. She has been in Sydney, Australia, for a few years with a rotating well-paying clientele. By now though she has grown restless with the raw and uncultured society of her adopted city and decides to return to Germany. A spot of blackmail of the current customers, an ambitious politician and a flailing film producer, seems the best way to collect the means to do so. They are understandably dismayed by her demands.
As often happens, the blackmailer ends up dead. Malone and his partner are on call when the body of an anonymous woman is found at the construction site of the now-iconic Sydney Opera House. Malone’s father is on one of the subcontractor teams and he actually found the victim, which results in some entertaining dialog between father and son in what should have been a straightforward police interview.
The story changes point of view every chapter, from Malone in his off-duty hours to Malone at work to Helga in the weeks before her death to the intended blackmail targets. The history of the opera house, which was quite controversial at the time it was built, is only one of the local byways the story strays into. A number of pithy observations about Sydney and the nation as a whole are worked into the narrative.
I have only read two of this series but it’s clear from that limited exposure that Cleary deserved every accolade he received and likely a few more. Recommended.