{"product_id":"9781460764596","title":"The Afterlife of Harry  Playford","description":"Author: Steven Carroll\u003cbr\u003eISBN: 9781460764596\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: HarperCollins Publishers\u003cbr\u003eYear first published: 28 Jan 2026\u003cbr\u003ePages: 304\u003cbr\u003eFormat: Paperback \/ softback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom acclaimed writer Steven Carroll, comes the second in his new series of post-war literary crime novels featuring Detective Sergeant Stephen Minter.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'What does a pile of clothes left on a deserted beach tell you? It's a cold midwinter Monday. Seaweed and shells litter the flat expanse of sand. There is a light wind, the sea more disgruntled than choppy, the tide out. And there amongst it, the neat pile of clothes. Almost like a coded message waiting to be deciphered.'\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eQueenscliff, Victoria, 1951: A man has disappeared, leaving only a pile of neatly folded clothes on a beach. Missing, presumed drowned. But for Detective Sergeant Stephen Minter, newly emigrated from England, it's far from an open-and-shut case. Because this is no ordinary man. Harry Playford is a successful politician, a charming man who is a rising ministerial star, a possible contender for the top job, who leaves behind a beautiful wife - and a mistress. There could be a simple explanation. But, these murky days of the Cold War, in a time of rising mistrust and suspicion, spies and espionage, Stephen can't throw off his feeling that something's definitely not right. About the whole business.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom one of Australia's finest, most critically acclaimed writers, \u003cem\u003eThe Afterlife of Harry Playford\u003c\/em\u003e is an absorbing, poignant and moving novel of hard choices and past mistakes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePraise for the first Detective Sergeant Stephen Minter novel, \u003cem\u003eDeath of a Foreign Gentleman\u003c\/em\u003e:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'A riff on the novels of the golden age of detective fiction ... A novel of remarkable poise, which marries its weighty concerns and deeply felt sensibility to a playful delight in the very real pleasures of the genre it so deftly inhabits' \u003cem\u003eThe Age\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'An impressive start to a new series' \u003cem\u003eThe Australian\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ships in 10 to 15 days","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46665361457310,"sku":"HPC-9781460764596","price":34.78,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0400\/9043\/5742\/files\/9781460764596.jpg?v=1775102318","url":"https:\/\/classicbargains.com.au\/products\/9781460764596","provider":"Classic Bargains Australia","version":"1.0","type":"link"}