Scobie Malone Books In Order

Publication Order of Scobie Malone Books

The Scobie Malone book series is an exciting series of mystery, thriller, crime fiction, and suspense stories. This series is comprised of 20 books in total published between 1966 and 2004. It was written by a renowned Australian novelist named Jon Cleary. Each book in this series consists of the chief protagonist in the role of Scobie Malone. Jon Cleary has described Scobie Malone as a homicide detective living in Sydney, Australia. He performs his duties as a police inspector with all dedication and determination. Scobie Malone is shown to be a family man. Over the course of the entire series, Jon Cleary has mentioned Scobie Malone as indulging in a number of mysterious cases and going on to solve them. He fights against crime and criminals, thereby, helping to bring down the crime rate in the city. In addition to Scobie Malone, the other important character featuring in the books include Mary Magdalene, Fingal Hourigan, Walter Springfellow, Frank Blizzard, Brian Boru O’Brien, Sebastian Waldorf, Will Rockne, Claire Malone, Jason Rockne, Lisa, Olive Rockne, Bernie Bezrow, Orville Brame, etc. Every book of this series is quite intriguing and interesting. They have been appreciated by almost all the fans of mystery stories all around the world. The series’ success helped to set the stage for a long and successful writing career for Jon Cleary.

Scobie Malone’s character is named after a popular jockey, Scobie Breaskley. Jon Cleary introduced this character for the first time in his 1966 book called The High Commissioner. He said that he got the idea of creating Scobie’s character after he met a policeman from Australia in London’s Australia House. The policeman had visited London on leave and Jon Cleary thought it would have been a great story if he had come all the way from Australia to arrest the High Commissioner of his country for murder. This idea bore fruit in the author’s mind and he went on to create an excellent character set around a mind blowing story of mystery. The novel did very well and became a bestseller. It was also adapted into a movie later, but author Cleary had no intention of developing a series around Scobie Malone. It was fours years later that Cleary decided to write another story with the character at its center. This novel, Helga’s Web, was intended for exploring the Sydney Opera House’s construction. Usually, Jon Cleary wrote the initial Scobie Malone novels with a gap of several years. But starting from 1987, he wrote the stories on a regular basis until his career came to an end.

In order to carry out the research works for the stories and the lead character, Jon Cleary used to travel with his wife for 2 months every year. They used to explore different cities and meet new people to take inspirations for the settings of the series’s future novels. After the tragic death of Jon Cleary’s daughter in 1987, his wife took to bed in shock and never recovered. Jon Cleary had to be around her all the time to look after her, and so, he stopped traveling. All the researches that he carried out thereafter were done from the comfort of his home in Australia. Jon Cleary never wanted his books to be regarded as potboilers. So, along with setting his stories around crime and detective investigation, he liked to give the description of the lives of people in Sydney during the late 1980s and early 1990s. This result in a huge sale of his books in the international market. When Cleary saw that his last few books fared less than expected, he decided to bring the series to an end before the publishers did so.

Jon Cleary had once said that he had a little bit of Scobie Malone’s personality in himself. Both of them hailed from Erskineville, both came from the Irish stock, and both had slogged their way up. In the very first book, Scobie Malone has been described as a tall, easy-going, dedicated, and handsome enough to make women fall for him. From his first day at the job, Scobie looked very competent and all set for promotion. The characters that feature very often in the stories alongside Scobie Malone include his Dutch wife named Lisa, his partner Sgt. Russ Clements, his supervisor Commissioner John Leeds, his parents Brigid and Con Malone, and his children named Claire, Maureen, and Tom. Malone novels have been developed into a couple of feature films, but Jon was not satisfied with any of them. He had written a script based on Helga’s Web that was supposed to be used in the 1975 movie called Scobie Malone, but the makers decided to make the film with a different script. Again, Jon was highly dissatisfied with the depiction of Scobie Malone and the story. In 1997, Peter Yeldham had selected Dark Summer to adapt it into a telemovie, but the idea did not bear fruit and the plan was cancelled.

A highly entertaining book of the Scobie Malone series written by author Jon Cleary is entitled ‘Babylon South’. The G. K. Hall publication released it in 1990. It features Walter Springfellow and Scobie Malone in the primary roles. Jon has done the setting in 1966 in Sydney. In the initial sequence of the plot, Sir Walter Springfellow is introduced as the Security Intelligence Organization’s head. He enters Sydney airport’s terminal building and disappears. Even after looking for him everywhere, Walter Springfellow is not found anywhere. Twenty-one years pass after this incident and some bones are mysteriously found in the nearby hills. When the authorities learn that the discovered bones are of Walter Springfellow, they assign Detective Inspector Malone to look into the matter. Malone was involved in the investigation of Springfellow’s disappearance from Sydney airport and he was just a rookie cop at that time. And as he receives another chance at solving this case, he puts in all his investigative skills and training. While investigating, Malone learns about a death in Springfellow’s family and one of the family members faces the murder charge. Scobie Malone had bargained for just a murder mystery to solve, but he gets involved in two. Nevertheless, he moves forward with the investigation and hopes to bring the culprits to justice very soon.

Another exciting novel written as a part of this series is called ‘Bleak Spring’. Thorndike Press published it in 1994. The main characters mentioned in the book include Will Rockne, Jason Rockne, Scobie Malone, Claire Malone, Bernoe Bezrow, etc. When Will Rockne, a local solicitor, is found dead in his car with a bullet wound in his head, the authorities believe it is a murder without any motive. Scobie Malone, asked to take charge of this case’s investigation, seems to believe otherwise. Scobie’s daughter Claire has a romantic affair going on with Will’s son Jason. Despite this, the two families had always had disconcerting encounters in the past. Will Rockne was always determined to make others believe that he was just a simple suburban lawyer doing his job. But, when Malone comes across a huge cash in his office, it becomes clear that he was involved in something that probably resulted in his murder. Later, Scobie Malone succeeds in establishing a link between Will’s murder, a notorious bookmaker named Bernie Bezrow, a mysterious offshore bank called Shahriver, and a dangerous Russian. He uses all his experience and skills to hunt down the culprit responsible for murdering Will Rockne.