'The two volumes in the Mister Rainbow collection bring together the seven sensational novellas in the acclaimed gumshoe series – modern crime stories with a wink and a nod to the golden age of pulp fiction.
'With their memorable characters, witty dialogue and fast-paced plots, the books announce the arrival of an arresting new Australian talent.' (Publication summary)
'While checking out a man with no past, Mister Rainbow stumbles on a series of killings and sets out to discover the connection. An offspring of 1960's flower-children, Rainbow - his hippie mother gave him the wretched name - talks and acts like he's in 1920s Chicago. Owing to the need to keep a low profile, plus a serious shortage of dough, Rainbow operates out of an old boat parked in Sydney Harbour. He's also carrying a lot of baggage - including a Nemesis he calls Pandora.' (Publisher's blurb)
'When Mister Rainbow finds a headless honcho in a Kings Cross alleyway, the tattoo around the corpse's neck leaves no doubt as to its identity. Thomas L. Tycho was everybody's enemy - a trickster, a dirty dealer, a wide boy who made the mistake of wide boys the world over - not making himself narrower when the gun went off. The killer's identity, however, proves more elusive - as everybody hated Tommy, anybody could have popped him. His wife, his girlfriend, and half of Sydney's underworld all had motive, but Mister Rainbow smells something fishy, and it's got nothing to do with what's floating in the harbour ... ' (Publication summary)
'When a few too many dead bodies turn up on Sydney's mean streets, Rainbow's too busy to investigate - until an old flame goes up in smoke. Then it's no holds barred as the famous PI with the dancing feet finds himself pitted against the city's crooked gamblers - and the dame determined to whip them into line. The Case of the Horses for Corpses, the third novel in the sensational Mister Rainbow series, is a modern story with a wink and a nod to the golden age of pulp fiction. With its memorable characters, witty dialogue and fast-paced plot, it signals the arrival of an arresting new Australian talent. ' (Publication summary)
