Pufferfish Mysteries series - author   novel   crime  
Issue Details: First known date: 1994... 1994 Pufferfish Mysteries
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Crime series set in Tasmania featuring the character of Detective Inspector Franz Heineken.

Includes

1
y separately published work icon Pig's Head David Owen , Port Melbourne : Mandarin , 1994 Z93483 1994 single work novel crime

'There are good cops, there are bad cops...and there is Pufferfish, aka Detective Inspector Franz Heineken.

Pufferfish (Contusus brevicaudus): Body moderately short, pectorals rounded. Slow swimmer. Scavenger in the mud, at home in the murky shallows, where it roots out and feeds on detritusbody able to bloat and even explode under extreme provocation.

A severed head rolls out of the runnish in a crowded Tasmanian caravan park, and the hunt is on for the killers ... and for their victim, a man no-one seems to miss, a man no-one wants to know.' (Publication summary)

2
y separately published work icon A Second Hand David Owen , Port Melbourne : Mandarin , 1995 Z42951 1995 single work novel crime

'Detective Inspector Franz Heineken, aka Pufferfish, is a cop who loves to be loathed.

'Roaming the backwaters of his bedevilled island home, Pufferfish is led to investigate a mysterious and clueless attack on a second-hand dealer. But while Ira Cone's injuries are not serious, her volunteer work for a soup kitchen attracts the attention of the good detective's ever-probing eye.' (Publication summary)

3
y separately published work icon X and Y David Owen , Port Melbourne : Mandarin , 1995 Z463854 1995 single work novel crime
4
y separately published work icon The Devil Taker David Owen , Kew : Mandarin , 1997 Z345490 1997 single work novel crime

'Toward the finish of the Sydney-Hobart yacht race, a leading boat sights a dingy crewed by a bloated corpse - wearing only Bermuda shorts and a six-inch galley knife in its back.' (Publication summary)

5
y separately published work icon No Weather for a Burial David Owen , Hobart : Forty Degrees South , 2010 Z1695165 2010 single work novel crime 'Pufferfish, aka Detective Inspector Franz Heineken, scourge of Tasmania’s villains is back. And back with a refreshed vengence. Pufferfish, prickly, curmudgeonly and irony-charged as everm has to neutralise a new stench in his island paradise.' (From the publisher's website.)
6
y separately published work icon How the Dead See David Owen , Hobart : Forty South Publishing , 2011 Z1777662 2011 single work novel crime 'The theft of a valuable diamond necklace, and the death by apparent suicide of a notorious film star, have nothing in common. Nothing except Detective Franz Heineken, aka Pufferfish, scourge of an island's villains and a deadly match for it unpredictable, unsettling crimes.

'At the tail end of an oppressively hot Tasmanian summer, Pufferfish is called upon to investigate a death that looks like a suicide and [smells] like suicide. But Rory Stillrock, once a big screen Hollywood bad boy - popular celluloid CIA agent real life party animal and sex addict - had good reason to live. His hidden southern Tasmanian mansion, and those who were closest to him and his wealth, slowly, reluctantly, begin to offer up clues. Not that Pufferfish is in a hurry...

'Meanwhile he knows very well who nicked the diamond necklace valued at over two hundred thousand dollars, from a stately Hobart home. Just a small matter of proving same. Not easy when you're up against Fink Mountgarrett, master thief with a very soft footprint. But the patient task becomes incendiary when Fink falls foul of the island's controversial new mandatory sentencing laws. Was he set up? Surely Pufferfish wouldn't stoop so low...

'There's only one way to find out.' (From the publisher's website.)
7
y separately published work icon 13-Point Plan For a Perfect Murder David Owen , Tasmania : Fuller's Bookshop , 2016 9823898 2016 single work novel crime

'Tasmania's rise and rise as a tourist destination makes the island an ideal location for the cashed-up international polo set, jetting in from Europe, Buenos Aires, Shanghai and LA for their late summer carnival and relaxathon in the world's latest clean-green hotspot. They play fiercely and party hard at the swish Polo Palace, built near beautiful beaches through the largesse of an island-loving, polo-mad billionaire Bahraini businessman.

'So when this idyll is gruesomely interrupted by the murder of Sebastian Wicken, a dashing and wealthy Englishman famous for wielding his stick and ball, Pufferfish, aka seasoned Detective Inspector Franz Heineken of the Tasmanian Police Force, is called to investigate. And investigate he does.

'For starters, what possible relationship could there be between this visiting bludgeoned aristocrat and Tassie's worst-of-the-worst career villain, psychopathic Morgan Murger? What ghastly behaviour unites them in blood?

'Pufferfish and his offsiders Rafe and Faye work double time to try and fathom who did what to whom, and why - while keeping an antsy tourist industry at bay - but then the strange intrusion of a quavery voice from rural England, being Sebastian's aunt Eugenie, deepens the mystery.

'Meanwhile Faye, against advice, has got herself personally involved in the theft of a stamp album from a workingclass primary school. Silly kids and all that. Except it's no ordinary stamp album, sucking in and mightily distracting Pufferfish from the politically-charged polo mess.

'As if all of this is not enough, an old Pufferfish flame, diminutive beauty Milly de Havilland cruises back into town from his distant past, when she'd given great comfort to the then young Dutch throwaway cop Franz Heineken, an emotional wreck washed up on remote Tasmania's shore. And, as it happens, Pufferfish's close de facto Hedda is currently overseas ...' (Publication summary)

8
y separately published work icon Romeo's Gun David Owen , Hobart : Fuller's Bookshop , 2016 10675688 2016 single work novel crime

'Across the wilds of Tasmania, from the majestic Central Plateau to remote Arthur River and using his intimate knowledge of the the island's people, Pufferfish aims himself at the increasingly dangerous mystery of Romeo's Gun. And at the evil predators stalking his patch.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

9
y separately published work icon Big Red Rock David Owen , Hobart : Fuller's Bookshop , 2017 12813240 2017 single work novel mystery

'Say it's not so, but detective squads still put their faith in the whiteboard and texta, brainstorming difficult cases. Like this:

1. Hildvi dies. Accident, suicide, murder?
2. Wayne, distraught.
3. Josh, Ange, impeccable alibis.
4. Mrs Ellicott swears she heard a scream.
5. Kurt Cowboy - mysterious, dangerous, no known ID.
6. Operation Centipede - Brisbane, "colourful identity" Marko Kaljurand.
7. Fishscale, Charlie, Blow, Wogan = best quality cocaine.
8. Uluru... Sorry, wrong whiteboard? No. Correct whiteboard. Add Alice Springs.

'Seeking answers to myriad tricky questions, Detective Inspector Franz Heineken, aka Pufferfish, aka long-time Aussie blow-in, knows where he must go - to the two Australian places he never wanted to investigate, let alone re-visit: the fabled Red Centre, and his ethically questionable past.' (Publication Summary)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

No More, the Temple of Doom Jason Steger , 2010 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 29 May 2010; (p. 27)
A column canvassing current literary news including a report that Peter Temple has withdrawn Truth from the 2010 Ned Kelly Awards to, in Temple's own words, 'clear some small space for the many talented crime writers who haven't won a Ned or been shortlisted'. Jason Steger also reports on a new novel by David Owen in the Pufferfish series and on Australian Book Review's bid to attract more philanthropic donors.
How Real Is It? David Owen , 2000 single work autobiography
— Appears in: A Writer's Tasmania : Volume 1 2000; (p. 93-102)
No More, the Temple of Doom Jason Steger , 2010 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 29 May 2010; (p. 27)
A column canvassing current literary news including a report that Peter Temple has withdrawn Truth from the 2010 Ned Kelly Awards to, in Temple's own words, 'clear some small space for the many talented crime writers who haven't won a Ned or been shortlisted'. Jason Steger also reports on a new novel by David Owen in the Pufferfish series and on Australian Book Review's bid to attract more philanthropic donors.
How Real Is It? David Owen , 2000 single work autobiography
— Appears in: A Writer's Tasmania : Volume 1 2000; (p. 93-102)
Last amended 12 Sep 2006 14:11:31
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X