Peter Corris

Peter Corris, "the godfather of Australian crime fiction," is the author of the acclaimed Cliff Hardy series as well as non-crime books such as The Journal of Fletcher Christian (2005).

Last year he applied the Page 99 Test to Appeal Denied.

Earlier this week I asked him what he was reading. His reply:

My reading lately has been dictated by media responsibilities and the constant need to make money. I recently read and reviewed Penelope Nelson's novel, Bligh's Daughter for the Weekend Australian. A modest book, full of interesting female insights into life in the infant colony of New South Wales. Some serious shortcomings resulting from its being virtually self-published, but I gave it a pretty good rap.

I'm to appear on ABC TV's Tuesday book club program in a few weeks. The two books to be read by the participants are Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. It would be close to 50 years since I first read the Hemingway book. I've been a Hemingway fan all my life while preferring some books to others. His short story 'Fifty Grand' I count as one of 2 all-time best in my experience. I was mightily impressed by A Farewell to Arms all over again - easy to see what a breakthrough book it was in style and content. Still atmospheric and powerful after all these years.

I'm about half way through the Larsson. Scandinavian crime writers are all the rage at the moment. They have the bleakness of the climate on their side - crime writing requiring an element of bleakness. I'm enjoying the story but I have feeling, at over 500 pages, that the book is a bit padded.

Read The Page 99 Test: Appeal Denied, and learn more about the full Cliff Hardy series and Peter Corris's other fiction and non-fiction at his website.

--Marshal Zeringue