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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, Sebastian Barry and William Boyd
Series: Stephen Minter
Brief Description
From acclaimed writer Steven Carroll comes the second in his new series of post-war literary crime novels featuring Detective Sergeant Stephen Minter. Queenscliff, Victoria, winter, 1951 It's a cold, Monday morning. Mid-winter. No swimmers in sight. A deserted beach. And there on the sand, a neat... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

From acclaimed writer Steven Carroll comes the second in his new series of post-war literary crime novels featuring Detective Sergeant Stephen Minter.

Queenscliff, Victoria, winter, 1951

It's a cold, Monday morning. Mid-winter. No swimmers in sight. A deserted beach. And there on the sand, a neat pile of clothes. Almost like a coded message waiting to be deciphered. Detective Sergeant Stephen Minter, an Austrian-born, Cockney Jew, always destined to be an outsider, takes up the case.

The Afterlife of Harry Playford is a gripping and atmospheric tale, immersing readers in a world of post-war intrigue and mystery, as Detective Minter unravels the secrets concealed beneath the surface.

Series: Stephen Minter

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  • Death of a Foreign Gentleman
    From award-winning writer Steven Carroll comes the first book in a series of post-war literary crime novels featuring Detective Sergeant Stephen Minter. Cambridge, UK, 1947. Martin Friedrich, a German philosopher, is cycling through an intersection on his way to give a lecture when a speeding car strikes and kills him. Shortly afterwards, Detective Sergeant Stephen Minter, an Austrian-born cockney Jew...
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    $3799
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  • The Afterlife of Harry Playford
    From acclaimed writer Steven Carroll comes the second in his new series of post-war literary crime novels featuring Detective Sergeant Stephen Minter. Queenscliff, Victoria, winter, 1951 It's a cold, Monday morning. Mid-winter. No swimmers in sight. A deserted beach. And there on the sand, a neat pile of clothes. Almost like a coded message waiting to be deciphered. Detective Sergeant...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781460764596

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 28 January 2026

Country: Australia

Imprint: HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Weight: 250g

Pages: 304

About the Author

Steven Carroll is the multi-award winning author of fifteen novels including A World of Other People (2013), which was the joint winner of the Prime Minister's Literary Award, and The Time We Have Taken (2007), which was the winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize for the SE Asia and Pacific Region and the Miles Franklin Award in 2008. Forever Young (2015) was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award and the Prime Minister's Literary Award in 2016. A New England Affair (2017) was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award in 2018 and The Year of the Beast (2019) was longlisted for the 2020 Voss Literary Prize. Goodnight, Vivienne, Goodnight was longlisted for the 2022 ARA Historical Novel Prize and for the 2023 Voss Literary Prize. His previous novel, Death of a Foreign Gentleman (2024), was the first in a series of postwar literary crime novels featuring Detective Sergeant Stephen Minter. Steven lives in Melbourne with his partner, the author Fiona Capp, and their son.

Also by Steven Carroll

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  • Goodnight, Vivienne, Goodnight
    From one of our finest writersโ€”winner of the Miles Franklin, the Commonwealth Writers Prize, and the Prime Minister's Literary Awardโ€”comes a wistful and emotional story that imagines a happier ending for the mercurial and complicated Vivienne Haigh-Wood, the first wife of the great poet, TS Eliot. London, June 1940. Vivienne Haigh-Wood, the mercurial wife of celebrated poet T.S. Eliot, is...
    Paperback
    $3400
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    Available
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  • Death of a Foreign Gentleman
    From award-winning writer Steven Carroll comes the first book in a series of post-war literary crime novels featuring Detective Sergeant Stephen Minter. Cambridge, UK, 1947. Martin Friedrich, a German philosopher, is cycling through an intersection on his way to give a lecture when a speeding car strikes and kills him. Shortly afterwards, Detective Sergeant Stephen Minter, an Austrian-born cockney Jew...
    Paperback
    $3799
    In Stock
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  • The Time We Have Taken
    One summer morning in 1970, Peter van Rijn, proprietor of the television and wireless shop, pronounces his Melbourne suburb one hundred years old. That same morning, Rita is awakened by a dream of her husband's snores, yet it is years since Vic moved north. Their son, Michael, has left for the city and is entering the awkward terrain of first...
    Paperback
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