The Afterlife Of Harry Playford: The Second Literary Mystery In The Stephen Minter Series, From The Award-winning Author, Perfect For Readers Of Ian Mcewan, Se

The Afterlife of Harry Playford by Steven Carroll is a post-war literary mystery that blends a smart detective story with the moral unease of early Cold War Australia. Set in Queenscliff, Victoria in 1951, it opens with an unsettling scene: a neat pile of clothes on a winter beach and a man gone without a trace.

Detective Sergeant Stephen Minter, newly arrived from England, is asked to accept the simplest answer — drowning. But the missing man is Harry Playford, a rising political figure with a carefully managed public life, a wife, and a mistress. As Minter digs in, the case begins to pull at bigger questions of loyalty, secrecy and ambition, where personal lives and public power don’t sit neatly apart.

Perfect for readers who like Australian crime fiction with literary depth, historical settings, and character-driven investigation.

Step onto the sand with Minter and see what the name “Harry Playford” really hides.