Cirrus@Austlit

'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)

You think your phones are bugged and people are out to get you. Everyone’s a suspect and violence is the answer to everything. Put bluntly, you’re a psychopath who might one day kill a loved one in mistake for the Devil. You describe your nemesis as ‘horribly scarred’ one minute and ‘beautiful’ the next. The reason for that discrepancy is simple – Pandora doesn’t exist.

So says the shrink. In what could be his last case, Rainbow has to prove Pandora or accept that he’s mad – a psychopath capable of killing innocent people. In The Case of the Nightmare in Nimbin he returns to his roots – the hippy enclave on the NSW North Coast. He revisits the usual suspects – the women in his life – any one of whom could be his nemesis. But at all times he’s acutely aware that the chief suspect is – himself.

Source: Publisher's Blurb

'The kid’s in a state – and if he doesn’t play his cards right that could read Islamic State. Terrorists want to recruit him but he’s too terrified to oblige. Instead he calls in Rainbow who finds himself in the thick of an affair that threatens to end in a bloodbath. Can Rainbow prevent it? How can his gorgeous former girlfriend help? Is Babychino – the beautiful dame who suddenly bee-bops into his life, complete with equaliser – all she’s cracked up to be? And what’s happened to his daughter Imogene? As Rainbow wades deeper into the mire, the case assumes what his Aunt Rube calls the colour of memory – indigo. Or should that be indiquo, indicio or – as the one-legged assassin Rory has it – in-he-go? One thing’s for sure, the morgue has never been busier … ' (Publication summary)

'Rainbow s got the blues. His girlfriend s dumped him; his assassin mate Rory s found God; his Aunt Rube s as sick as a bad joke; and his ex-wife s thrown up a barricade all right, a cordon bleu around his daughter Imogene. So when a snake s let loose in a laboratory, his ballet teacher s under siege and a nasty little joker by the name of Cock Robin cops it, Rainbow climbs into the ring because it s his job but also because he needs the distraction. In the red corner he finds an unpredictable dame called Tsunami; a crooked cop; a tough-as-granite developer; a politician; a couple of thugs; a paparazzo; and too many bodies. While in the blue corner yeah, that s Rainbow s there s just two dames in distress and a bald journo. The clue is blue. But is that blue as in the moody blues, blue blood, a bad blue, a stoush or just plain old-fashioned blue murder? The Case of the Cock Robin Killer, the fifth 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)

'A trip to Paris in the company of a beautiful dame would be many men's idea of heaven. But a flight to France with the gorgeous Helen Damnation rapidly spirals into a journey to hell. Rainbow's daughter's missing and he doesn't know who's taken her - or why. Nor does he know where she might have gone, until he enlists the help of a childhood mate - now a spy - Ace Mollema. But can he trust the spook? Or the beautiful dame, for that matter? Above all, can he save the kid? Sparks fly when Rainbow assumes a temporary identity to get a passport - and those sparks quickly turn to fire. Can Rainbow rescue his daughter? And if he does, can he work out the significance of the Bullets at the Ballet ... The Case of the Bullets at the Ballet, the fourth 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)

'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)

'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)

'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)