Dragons at the Party
The Scobie Malone Novels: Book #4
- By: Jon Cleary
- Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
- Length: 10 hours 10 minutes
Description
It is Bicentenary year and Australia is having the party of its lifetime. Detective Inspector Scobie Malone, hero of three previous Cleary books and the most human of cops, would much rather be out on Sydney Harbor with his family, watching the fun. Instead he is on duty, investigating the murder of an aide to President Timori, who has just arrived unwanted in Australia following a coup in the Spice Islands republic of Palucca.
With Timori is his glamorous wife, Delvina, a lady as famous for her extravagance as for her lust for power. Clearly the bullet was meant for the president, and Malone has the task of tracking down the hit man before he takes a second shot.
Malone identifies the would-be assassin as Miguel Seville, an international terrorist now turned contract man, a hired killer who wants to retire and needs the money from this job to achieve his aim. Malone also suspects that Seville is in contact with a young Aboriginal rights activist. But who is paying Seville, and why?
Prime Minister Philip Norval, an ex-TV star who is lost without his advisors, turns out to be an old flame of Delvina's from the days when she was a dancer in Sydney. Business tycoon Russell Hickbed, though a reluctant host to the Timoris, has his own reasons for wanting President Timori protected. And interfering in the cast at every opportunity is Hans Vaderberg, premier of the state of New South Wales, political enemy of Prime Minister Norval, and master of every political trick ever devised.
In this gripping new novel, Jon Cleary has set an ominous cat-and-mouse game in a sophisticated city intent on celebrating. But carried on the wind at the edge of the city, fire, the summer scourge of Australia, is scorching the bush and destroying people's homes. Not all Australians will celebrate this two hundredth birthday and Malone knows it.
Audiobook gift memberships
Gift audiobooks to anyone in the world (including yourself!) from the comfort of your home. You choose the membership (1, 3, 6, or 12 months/credits), your gift recipient picks their own audiobooks, and your local bookstore is supported by your purchase.
Start gifting
The Scobie Malone Novels Series
Dragons at the Party
By: Jon Cleary
Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
Length: 10 hours 10 minutes
Abridged: No
It is Bicentenary year and Australia is having the party of its lifetime. Detective Inspector Scobie Malone, hero of three previous Cleary books and the most human of cops, would much rather be out on Sydney Harbor with his family, watching the fun. Instead he is on duty, investigating the murder of an aide to President Timori, who has just... Read more »
Learn more
Now and Then, Amen
By: Jon Cleary
Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
Length: 10 hours 50 minutes
Abridged: No
A nun is found murdered on the steps of the Quality Couch, Sydney’s most expensive house of ill repute. She is Sister Mary Magdalene, an idealistic young woman who previously had worked at a mission in Nicaragua. Detective Inspector Scobie Malone, that most human of cops, picks up the trail when he discovers that her real name was Teresa... Read more »
Learn more
Babylon South
By: Jon Cleary
Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
Length: 12 hours 38 minutes
Abridged: No
In 1966 Sir Walter Springfellow, head of Australian intelligence, vanished mysteriously and without a trace. As a young constable, Scobie Malone investigated the disappearance. Years later some bones are found up in the hills which are presumed to be Sir Walter’s, and Detective Inspector Malone finds himself back on the case. His first task is... Read more »
Learn more
Murder Song
By: Jon Cleary
Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
Length: 10 hours 12 minutes
Abridged: No
A young woman named Mardi Jack is killed by a sniper’s bullet in a Sydney apartment apparently owned by a wealthy businessman, Boru O’Brien, who has ties to seedy goings-on and to the prime minister’s wife. O’Brien, the real target of the assassin, had been a cadet with Detective Inspector Scobie Malone two decades earlier, and after Jim Knoble,... Read more »
Learn more
Pride’s Harvest
By: Jon Cleary
Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
Length: 10 hours 32 minutes
Abridged: No
In the town of Collamundra, Australia, the corpse of Japanese farm manager Kenji Sagawa is found in one of his cotton mill's threshing machines. The prosperity that his company had brought to the small town had also engendered racial tension, and Detective Inspector Scobie Malone of the Sydney Police Department is called in to investigate—hardly... Read more »
Learn more
Dark Summer
By: Jon Cleary
Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
Length: 10 hours 3 minutes
Abridged: No
In the heat of an Australian summer, Inspector Scobie Malone of the New South Wales police finds the body of a promising informer, Scungy Grime, floating face down in his family's backyard swimming pool. Scobie is investigating Sydney's major drug-dealing operation, and Grime's murder is a clear warning. Malone's family is put under police... Read more »
Learn more
Bleak Spring
By: Jon Cleary
Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
Length: 10 hours 39 minutes
Abridged: No
When local solicitor Will Rockne is found in his car by his wife-shot through the head-it seems a baffling and motiveless murder. However, Scobie Malone, newly assigned to the case, has his suspicions. Despite his daughter Claire's shy romance with young Jason Rockne, Scobie and his wife Lisa's encounters with Will and Olive Rockne at school... Read more »
Learn more
Autumn Maze
By: Jon Cleary
Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
Length: 10 hours 22 minutes
Abridged: No
When the Sydney police minister’s son falls twenty floors to his death, the politics of murder ripple the city like a boulder into a pool. Caught in the wash is Detective Inspector Scobie Malone, as he uncovers an elaborate financial scheme, a series of cold-blooded precision killings, and layers of political intrigue. Scobie thinks he is immune... Read more »
Learn more
Winter Chill
By: Jon Cleary
Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
Length: 9 hours 58 minutes
Abridged: No
It begins one rainy dawn: Orville Brame, prominent lawyer and president of the American Bar Association, is found shot through the heart, slumped in a monorail, silently circling downtown Sydney. The next day, the body of a security guard is fished out of the harbor. During the ensuing investigation, a talented rookie cop is ruthlessly gunned... Read more »
Learn more
Five-Ring Circus
By: Jon Cleary
Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
Length: 9 hours 40 minutes
Abridged: No
It’s a special occasion Down Under and the notoriously frugal Inspector Malone is taking his family to dinner at one of Sydney’s finest Chinese restaurants. But their gala turns grisly when a masked assassin enters and guns down three men at a nearby table.
The ante goes up when Scobie discovers that one victim was an investor in Olympic Tower,... Read more »
Learn more
Dilemma
By: Jon Cleary
Narrated by: Christian Rodska
Length: 9 hours 27 minutes
Abridged: No
Australian detective Scobie Malone is asked to investigate what seems like an easy case: Norma Glaze has been strangled in her bedroom and her husband Ron has disappeared. What appears cut-and-dry on the surface is complicated by the fact that the night before involved a one-night stand and a killer with a twisted right hand.
Four years later,... Read more »
Learn more
The Bear Pit
By: Jon Cleary
Narrated by: Christian Rodska
Length: 9 hours 12 minutes
Abridged: No
Scobie Malone’s job as a homicide cop is to try to keep murder at bay. His job as a father is to keep his family safe. Now, as the eyes of the world are turning toward his city, both of Malone’s careers are in serious jeopardy. An important politician is murdered in high-profile public as his nation rushes toward center stage in the... Read more »
Learn more
Yesterday’s Shadow
By: Jon Cleary
Narrated by: Christian Rodska
Length: 9 hours 45 minutes
Abridged: No
Love never dies … unless a killer intervenes.
The Hotel Southern Savoy has become the reluctant host to two corpses on a single night—and homicide inspector Scobie Malone knows this investigation will be a nightmare from the moment he arrives. The first victim was the wife of the American ambassador, a slaying that will certainly have... Read more »
Learn more
The Easy Sin
By: Jon Cleary
Narrated by: Christian Rodska
Length: 8 hours 54 minutes
Abridged: No
From an Australian "literary institution" (Sydney Morning Herald), the latest mystery featuring homicide detective and family man Scobie Malone
The time has come for Scobie Malone to leave the homicide and serial offenders unit of the Sydney police, and his last investigation could be the most bizarre case ever to cross his desk. Called in when a... Read more »
Learn moreNotice to our customers about Dragons at the Party
Due to publisher restrictions we are unable to offer this audiobook via membership credits. To help combat restrictive licensing for our customers, we've lowered the price of this audiobook as much as we can.