Peter Temple

Meet Jack Irish, criminal lawyer, debt collector, football lover, turf watcher, trainee cabinetmaker, and the best Australian crime character we've seen in years....

Jack Irish - lawyer, gambler and people finder - is hunting down the villains who hijacked the winnings from his latest betting coup when he is hired by a mystery client to find missing barman Robbie Colbourne. But Robbie turns up dead of a drug overdose....

When Des Connors, the last link to his father, calls to ask for help in the matter of a missing son, Jack Irish is happy to lend a hand. But sometimes prodigal sons go missing for a reason....

Jack Irish doesn't spook too easy. He's had guns pointed at him too many times - more often since he started hiring himself out as a debt collector - and he saves his nerves for the racetrack. So when he receives a phone message from an ex-client begging for help, he's inclined to ignore it...

The Cold War is long dead but the trade in deceit and lies is still running hot. In Hamburg, John Anselm is hiding from the ghosts he has left behind in foreign war zones. He spends his days working for a surveillance firm. At night he drinks too much, paranoid about the suspicions he glimpses...