Introducing Australia's most acclaimed crime-thriller writer to North American audiences with his first two books in his award-winning Jack Irish series. A phone message from ex-client Danny McKillop doesn't ring any bells for Jack Irish. Life is hard enough without having to dredge up old problems: His beloved football team continues to lose, the odds on his latest plunge at the track seem far too long, and he's still cooking for one. When Danny turns up dead, Jack is forced to take a walk back into the dark and dangerous past. With suspenseful prose and black humor, Peter Temple builds an unforgettable character in Jack Irish and brings the reader on a journey that is as intelligent as it is exciting

Jack Irish – gambler, lawyer, finder of missing people – is recovering from a foray into the criminal underworld when he agrees to look for the missing son of Des Connors, the last living link to Jack's father. It's an offer he soon regrets. As Jack begins his search, he discovers that prodigal sons sometimes go missing for a reason. Gary Connors was a man with something to hide, and his trail leads Jack to millionaire and political kingmaker Steven Levesque, a man harboring a deep and deadly secret. Black Tide, the second book in Peter Temple's celebrated Jack Irish series, takes us back into a brilliantly evoked world of pubs, racetracks, and sports – not to mention intrigue, corruption, and violence