Torn Apart, by Peter Corris - Large Print Reviews

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Also available: 20 point Super Large Print edition

Torn Apart
By Peter Corris
Read How You Want, (2010)
EasyRead Large Print, in 16 Point Font
(Originally Published in Standard Print by Allen & Unwin)
ISBN: 9781459613324
Genre: Crime - Detective Fiction

This book is also available in a Standard Print edition.

Reviewed by Boris Segel - May 9, 2011

Torn Apart is the thirty-seventh book (counting short story collections) in the Cliff Hardy detective series by Peter Corris. Hardy is a private detective based in Sydney, Australia, and in this installment we discover that Hardy is now semi-retired, mostly because his licence has been pulled. However, Hardy is not one to let something as paltry as a lack of official recognition stop him from doing his job - especially when he's his own client.

Hardy becomes his own client shortly after unexpectedly meeting his cousin Patrick Malloy, whom he has never met before. Upon meeting, the two men discover that they look and sound remarkably alike, and when Patrick is killed while standing next to Hardy, the question becomes, which of the two was the actual target? Hardy will do whatever it takes to answer this question, including breaking the law, and a few heads, if necessary.

Cliff Hardy is a gritty, no-nonsense private eye who has been in the business long enough to know how to get the job done, and although you know from the very start that he will indeed succeed in his mission, it is a real pleasure to follow along as he solves the puzzle set out for him by Corris, and even more fun to try to figure out just who did what before the answer is revealed. As you would expect, this story contains a plethora of possible suspects, including Hardy's ex-wife. As important, all the suspects have very real motives to kill both men. As well, you'll also find a nice assortment of red herrings to keep you on your toes.

If you like hard-boiled detective stories, you will devour Torn Apart and the other stories in the Cliff Hardy series. American readers will also find the setting, Sydney, to be a nice change of pace to the more common detective stories set in such all too familiar places as Los Angeles and New York City. Best of all, living in Sydney himself, Corris does an excellent job of bringing this Australian metropolis to life, while also tendering a well-crafted detective story. If you are not already a Corris fan before reading this story, you will be afterwards.

Torn Apart is available from Read How You Want, an on-demand publisher that makes books available in a variety of formats including Braille, DAISY, and five different large print formats. This range of formats makes this, and other books, available not only to visually impaired individuals, but also anyone with a reading or physical disability that makes reading standard print books difficult.

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The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett.
Sam Spade is on the hunt for a jeweled encrusted statuette of a bird, as well as the killer of his partner, in his masterpiece of American detective fiction.

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