What do you think?
Rate this book
Scobie Malone #7
Соло за убиец
Един дрезгав глас пее по телефона забравена песничка от детството, и си акомпанира на снайпер ...
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
6 people are currently reading
28 people want to read
About the author
Jon Cleary
127 books24 followersAustralian popular novelist, a natural storyteller, whose career as a writer extended over 60 years. Jon Cleary's books have sold some 8 million copies. Often the stories are set in exotic locations all over the world or in some interesting historical scene of the 20th century, such as the Nazi Berlin of 1936. Cleary also wrote perhaps the longest running homicide detective series of Australia. Its sympathetic protagonist, Inspector Scobie Malone, was introduced in The High Commissioner (1966). Degrees of Connection, published in 2003, was Scobie's 20th appearance. Although Cleary's books can be read as efficiently plotted entertainment, he occasionally touched psychological, social, and moral dilemmas inside the frame of high adventure.
Jon Stephen Cleary was born in Sydney, New South Wales, into a working class family as the eldest of seven children. When Clearly was only 10, his father Matthew was condemned to six months' imprisonment for stealing £5 from his baker's delivery bag, in an attempt have money to feed his family. Cleary's mother, Ida, was a fourth-generation Australian. From his parents Cleary inherited a strong sense of just and unjust and his belief in family values.
Cleary was educated at the Marist Brothers school in Randwick, New South Wales. After leaving school in 1932, at the age of fourteen, he spent the following 8 years out of work or in odd jobs, such as a commercial traveler and bush worker – "I had more jobs than I can now remember," he later said of the Depression years. Cleary's love of reading was sparked when he began to help his friend, who had a travelling library. His favorite writers included P.G. Wodehouse. Before the war Clearly became interested in the career of commercial artists, but he also wrote for amateur revues. In 1940 he joined the Australian Army and served in the Middle East and New Guinea. During these years Cleary started to write seriously, and by the war's end he had published several short stories in magazines. His radio play, Safe Horizon (1944), received a broadcasting award.
Cleary's These Small Glories (1945), a collection of short stories, was based on his experiences as a soldier in the Middle East. In 1946 Cleary married Joy Lucas, a Melbourne nurse, whom he had met on a sea voyage to England; they had two daughters. His first novel, You Can’t See Round Corners (1947), won the second prize in The Sydney Morning Herald’s novel contest. It was later made into a television serial and then into a feature film. The Graham Greene-ish story of a deserter who returns to Sydney showed Cleary's skill at describing his home city, its bars, and people living on the margin of society. Noteworthy, the book was edited by Greene himself, who worked for the publishing firm Eyre & Spottiswoode and who gave Cleary two advices: "One, never forget there are two people in a book; the writer and the reader. And the second one was he said, 'Write a thriller because it will teach you the art of narrative and it will teach you the uses of brevity.'" (In an interview by Ramona Koval, ABC Radio program, February 2006)
Jon Stephen Cleary was born in Sydney, New South Wales, into a working class family as the eldest of seven children. When Clearly was only 10, his father Matthew was condemned to six months' imprisonment for stealing £5 from his baker's delivery bag, in an attempt have money to feed his family. Cleary's mother, Ida, was a fourth-generation Australian. From his parents Cleary inherited a strong sense of just and unjust and his belief in family values.
Cleary was educated at the Marist Brothers school in Randwick, New South Wales. After leaving school in 1932, at the age of fourteen, he spent the following 8 years out of work or in odd jobs, such as a commercial traveler and bush worker – "I had more jobs than I can now remember," he later said of the Depression years. Cleary's love of reading was sparked when he began to help his friend, who had a travelling library. His favorite writers included P.G. Wodehouse. Before the war Clearly became interested in the career of commercial artists, but he also wrote for amateur revues. In 1940 he joined the Australian Army and served in the Middle East and New Guinea. During these years Cleary started to write seriously, and by the war's end he had published several short stories in magazines. His radio play, Safe Horizon (1944), received a broadcasting award.
Cleary's These Small Glories (1945), a collection of short stories, was based on his experiences as a soldier in the Middle East. In 1946 Cleary married Joy Lucas, a Melbourne nurse, whom he had met on a sea voyage to England; they had two daughters. His first novel, You Can’t See Round Corners (1947), won the second prize in The Sydney Morning Herald’s novel contest. It was later made into a television serial and then into a feature film. The Graham Greene-ish story of a deserter who returns to Sydney showed Cleary's skill at describing his home city, its bars, and people living on the margin of society. Noteworthy, the book was edited by Greene himself, who worked for the publishing firm Eyre & Spottiswoode and who gave Cleary two advices: "One, never forget there are two people in a book; the writer and the reader. And the second one was he said, 'Write a thriller because it will teach you the art of narrative and it will teach you the uses of brevity.'" (In an interview by Ramona Koval, ABC Radio program, February 2006)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 18, 2018
This is an Australian mystery and I've already read a couple of books in this series.. I liked the MC. He is a nice, well grounded character and a strong family man...so what's not to like about that? I also enjoy the Australian accent of the narrator.
As far as the story goes, I think if the characters understood the use of "surveillance" this book could have been half the length. It had some slow spots and not as much action as other books in this same series. So 3 stars.
As far as the story goes, I think if the characters understood the use of "surveillance" this book could have been half the length. It had some slow spots and not as much action as other books in this same series. So 3 stars.
July 8, 2009
Joint review with Bleak Spring.
I have added Jon Cleary to my list of must reads. He writes the Scobie Malone series and despite the apprehensions created by D.I. Malone's first name, this is an engaging series set in New South Wales, Australia. Malone is a homicide supervising inspector. What makes a murder mystery or police procedural for me is the interpersonal relationships between the protagonists. Here you have all sorts of interplay between Malone's Detective Sergeant Clements, his wife Lisa, and his children, who really wish he had become a lawyer instead of a homicide dick. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the portrayal of Australia's police (help me out Choupette and Trevor) but the environment seems authentic.
Bleak Spring was published in 1994 and the title accurately reflects Malone's (Cleary's) rather desolate view of Australian society, beset by racial problems, fear of immigration, political and business corruption. The glue that holds all this together is the personal relationships, the friendships, the loves, even among the "bad" guys. In Bleak Spring, Malone investigates the shooting of the husband of one of Lisa's friends. Things get really complicated when it's discovered the dead man had an inoperable brain tumor and had $5.5 million in his personal account that might have been removed from the accounts of some rather unsavory characters. It's a good story.
Murder Song, published in 1990, begins with a series of ostensibly random shootings. Malone and Clements are puzzled until they discover that all the victims had been in a small group in Malone's class at the police academy. The group had been involved in the hazing of another cadet who had been then thrown out of the academy for cheating.
While dealing with rather dark subjects and characters, Cleary maintains a nicely sarcastic view of the Australian society with dour commentary and occasionally witty lines. I like this kind of rhetoric: "Lisa, swore only in bed, under and on top of Malone, and never within hearing of the children, which meant she sometimes got up in the morning with a hoarse throat." Or this: "To live on (never in) the North Shore was a sign that one had arrived at a certain altitude on the social climb: half the climbers might be bent double under the back-pack of mortgages, but social status supplies an oxygen all its own." Or: "He was Labour to the core of his heart though certain research hospitals were said to have already volunteered their autopsy services when he died in the hope that is could be established that he actually had a heart."
No point in recounting the plots, those are available elsewhere. I really enjoyed reading these books and look forward to Cleary's others in the series.
I have added Jon Cleary to my list of must reads. He writes the Scobie Malone series and despite the apprehensions created by D.I. Malone's first name, this is an engaging series set in New South Wales, Australia. Malone is a homicide supervising inspector. What makes a murder mystery or police procedural for me is the interpersonal relationships between the protagonists. Here you have all sorts of interplay between Malone's Detective Sergeant Clements, his wife Lisa, and his children, who really wish he had become a lawyer instead of a homicide dick. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the portrayal of Australia's police (help me out Choupette and Trevor) but the environment seems authentic.
Bleak Spring was published in 1994 and the title accurately reflects Malone's (Cleary's) rather desolate view of Australian society, beset by racial problems, fear of immigration, political and business corruption. The glue that holds all this together is the personal relationships, the friendships, the loves, even among the "bad" guys. In Bleak Spring, Malone investigates the shooting of the husband of one of Lisa's friends. Things get really complicated when it's discovered the dead man had an inoperable brain tumor and had $5.5 million in his personal account that might have been removed from the accounts of some rather unsavory characters. It's a good story.
Murder Song, published in 1990, begins with a series of ostensibly random shootings. Malone and Clements are puzzled until they discover that all the victims had been in a small group in Malone's class at the police academy. The group had been involved in the hazing of another cadet who had been then thrown out of the academy for cheating.
While dealing with rather dark subjects and characters, Cleary maintains a nicely sarcastic view of the Australian society with dour commentary and occasionally witty lines. I like this kind of rhetoric: "Lisa, swore only in bed, under and on top of Malone, and never within hearing of the children, which meant she sometimes got up in the morning with a hoarse throat." Or this: "To live on (never in) the North Shore was a sign that one had arrived at a certain altitude on the social climb: half the climbers might be bent double under the back-pack of mortgages, but social status supplies an oxygen all its own." Or: "He was Labour to the core of his heart though certain research hospitals were said to have already volunteered their autopsy services when he died in the hope that is could be established that he actually had a heart."
No point in recounting the plots, those are available elsewhere. I really enjoyed reading these books and look forward to Cleary's others in the series.
December 28, 2025
An early Scobie Malone, 3.5 stars rounded down. Enjoyed the story as usual. All the familiar characters pop up. But maybe just a bit too much time spent describing suburbs and towns and different people groups and classes. Was this the period Cleary was trying to sell Scobie Malone to the world. Come to think of it, It’s probably helpful now for any younger generation reading to get a sense of the era.
August 16, 2013
My one complaint about Murder Song is that there's never any real question who the killer, just how to find him. Once they figure out what the first couple of victims have in common, it's a quick trip to deciding the murder must be Mr. X let's say, and no one else is ever suspected. Granted, it turns out he is indeed the killer, but I don't know, it seemed a little too easy.
Most of the book focused on Malone and the other two men as they try to stay safe, not so much in figuring out who Mr. X is now, since he's obviously posing as someone else. This is one of the rare times when I figured it out without being told.
See my whole review at my blog, Carol's Notebook.
Most of the book focused on Malone and the other two men as they try to stay safe, not so much in figuring out who Mr. X is now, since he's obviously posing as someone else. This is one of the rare times when I figured it out without being told.
See my whole review at my blog, Carol's Notebook.
August 28, 2009
The seventh book in the Scobie Malone series.
July 13, 2018
Like Scoobie, but one I felt did not have the meat in the story. Re-read this book and thought it was pretty good and had a good story line.
December 24, 2010
Well Written.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews