Deep Water: A Cliff Hardy Novel

At the start of this uninspired entry in Australian author Corris's long-running crime series featuring PI Cliff Hardy (Open File, etc.), Cliff wakes up after a serious heart attack in a San Diego hospital. Margaret McKinley, the good-looking Australian ex-pat nurse who aided in his recovery from a quadruple cardiac bypass, needs Cliff's assistance: her father, Henry, a geologist employed by a large corporation, has disappeared from his Sydney home. Cliff is glad to help, though he's lost his PI license. Back in Australia, Cliff finds that Henry's office and darkroom have been ransacked and, more disturbingly, that the missing man's seismologist friend, Terry Dart, was killed by a hit-and-run driver. The trail is as predictable as the burgeoning romance between Cliff and his client. Solid writing compensates only in part for a not particularly distinctive protagonist. (Nov.)