Publisher's Weekly
Australian ``enquiry agent'' Cliff Hardy investigates the death of a trucking entrepreneur in this smartly paced caper. In a first-chapter twist, Hardy learns he's been offered the job via a note left posthumously by the victim, Barnes Todd, who has been killed in a car crash. Hardy has no idea what Todd suspected or why he himself was designated to look into the case, but in short order, he learns that Todd had been an accomplished painter and photographer whose works are worth a mint, that a U.S. Army captain had once sworn to kill him and that a business rival had been sending thugs to tear up the Todd industrial terminal. Hardy also finds out that Todd's last words in the hospital had been ``O'Fear,'' thereby leading him to a prison where Hardy's old friend, the shady Kevin O'Fearna, is awaiting trial. O'Fear, who persuades Hardy to put up his bail, is stabbed before his release; Hardy is persistently tailed; Todd's widow's house is ransacked. Is somebody after the art? Through one surprise after another, Corris ( Man in the Shadows ) reveals his red herrings and various truths about the many players in this engaging yarn.

Library Journal
Corris, an established Australian voice being published by Doubleday for the first time, quickly ingratiates himself with the reader by utilizing a steadily mounting suspense that erupts in violent confrontation. Australian businessman Barnes Todd left instructions--in case of his own ``accidental'' death--that private eye Cliff Hardy should investigate for murder. Thus begins the insinuating but tough approach that characterizes Hardy's efforts to ascertain Todd's last movements and involvements. Although rapidly falling in love with the grieving widow, Hardy realizes he cannot take everything at face value.