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Bad Debts

Book
Bad Debts by Peter Temple, and Peter O'Brien

As seen:

By Peter Temple, and and, Peter O'Brien

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1 review

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. It’s not an acquaintance he’s looking to renew. Some-time lawyer, part-time private eye, he has some old memories – and old friends – he’d do better to forget.

But then the caller turns up dead. And Jack has no choice but to take a trip down memory lane – into dangerous territories. There are some old debts that need chasing…(P)2007 Quercus Editions Ltd

Reviews

10 Oct 2024

Oundle Crime

First thing to say is that I listened to this as an e-audiobook, having never read anything by this author before. Because I enjoyed the book so much I've since discovered that Temple was, in fact, one of Australia’s most acclaimed crime writers and a five-time winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Crime Fiction. Bad Debts was published in 1996 and the first of five books about Jack Irish, an ex-solicitor who works as a private eye and debt collector. Set in Melbourne this has two story strands: one about high-level corruption and property development, the other about fixing horse races. But that’s actually rather under-selling the novel because it’s anything but dull. It's a twisty, clever story that keeps you on your toes and Jack Irish is a wonderfully wisecracking and entertaining protagonist. In places it’s laugh-out-loud funny. I'm delighted to have found Peter Temple and as there are only four novels in the Jack Irish series I'm now hunting down the others.
Review by: Cornish Eskimo, Oundle Crime

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