Bear pit - Jon Cleary

Jon Cleary's latest novel sees Scobie Malone crossing swords with a number of old adversaries following the assassination of a leading politician on the steps of the Olympic Tower.

As the Sydney 2000 Games draw ever closer, the city's great and good assemble to celebrate the opening of the Olympic Tower. But the gala turns grisly when the State Premier is shot by a sniper.

In his twenty years at the head of the Labor Party The Dutchman had made any number of enemies. Rivals claimed he'd reached his sell-by date and should retire. But who wanted him out of the way badly enough to hire a hitman? And with ruthless casino boss Jack Aldwych and his son flanking the Premier at the time of the shooting, who can be sure that the hitman found his true target?

As if politcal skulduggery and high-stakes gambling weren't enough to contend with, Scobie finds that his daughter Maureen, now a tabloid-TV journalist, is working the same case - with terrifying consequences.

Jon Cleary, who died in July 2010, was the author of over fifty novels, including The High Commissioner, which was the first in a popular detective fiction series featuring Sydney Police Inspector Scobie Malone. In 1996 he was awarded the Inaugural Ned Kelly Award for his lifetime contribution to crime fiction in Australia. His last novel,Four Cornered Circle, was published in 2007.

'When the ruminants and the lucre chasers are growing lichen on the library shelves, Jon Cleary will continue to be read.'
LA Times