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From acclaimed writer Steven Carroll, comes the second in his new series of post-war literary crime novels featuring Detective Sergeant Stephen Minter.
'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.'
Queenscliff, 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.
From one of Australia's finest, most critically acclaimed writers, The Afterlife of Harry Playford is an absorbing, poignant and moving novel of hard choices and past mistakes.
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Format
Paperback
Publisher
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd
Country
Australia
Date
28 January 2026
Pages
304
ISBN
9781460764596
From acclaimed writer Steven Carroll, comes the second in his new series of post-war literary crime novels featuring Detective Sergeant Stephen Minter.
'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.'
Queenscliff, 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.
From one of Australia's finest, most critically acclaimed writers, The Afterlife of Harry Playford is an absorbing, poignant and moving novel of hard choices and past mistakes.
We first encountered Detective Sergeant Stephen Minter as a minor character in Steven Carroll’s Goodnight,Vivienne,Goodnight. In that novel, Minter was introduced as the antithesis of a DS in the 1940s – intelligent, well read, and empathetic, he was the son of Austrian Jews who had escaped to England before the war; his parents were detained during the war as enemy aliens and tragically died while interned. Nobody seemed to care about their fate. Minter was a great character and Carroll liked him, too, and so gave him his own book in DeathofaForeignGentleman. Now, he reappears in TheAfterlifeofHarryPlayford.
When Minter sees a poster advertising an idyllic Australia and assisted passage, he and his partner Brigid take the plunge and emigrate. Arriving in Australia, they both land jobs in the sleepy seaside town of Queenscliff, he as a detective sergeant and Bridget as an advisor to Australia’s somewhat compromised intelligence services. Australia, or rather, Queenscliff, isn’t quite the solution they’d thought it would be. It’s a small, parochial town, closed and insular – and maybe the whole country is, too. Gazing out across the Rip, Brigid asks, ‘What are we doing here?’, but they are stuck for the time being. Brigid with her work and Minter due to the discovery on the beach of men’s clothes – neatly folded, expensive, and with no identifying contents or marks. The next morning, the identity of the owner is revealed as Harry Playford, a senior minister in the federal government. Urbane, successful and popular, he’s been touted as the man most likely to succeed Bob Menzies.
Minter is told not to worry; Playford is known for disappearing occasionally and will turn up. Yet as he digs deeper, another Playford comes to light, one different from his public persona, and Minter senses that something’s not quite right about the obvious answer – Playford went for a swim, got into trouble, and drowned.
When Brigid, through her spy contacts, learns about some of Playford’s sympathies and activities before the war, she (and, indirectly, Minter) is warned off and told to keep quiet. Slowly, Playford’s secrets are revealed. Will they help Minter solve the mystery? We’ll see. I’ve become a great fan of Stephen Minter, and I think you will too.
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