<i>'The godfather of Australian crime fiction.'</i><br/><br/>The life of a private investigator is seldom plain sailing, and it certainly doesn't help when someone unknown is trying to cancel your licence. Cliff Hardy needs to find out why, and he also needs to get to the bottom of the case of missing schoolteacher Brian Madden.<br/><br/>Finding answers to both questions takes all Hardy's resourcefulness and contacts - police, underworld and press. Dangers - and bodies - appear all over Sydney and Hardy is lucky to keep both his life and his licence.