{{Short description|Book by Jon Cleary}} {{infobox book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject Books --> | name = Bleak Spring | title_orig = | translator = | image = File:BleakSpring.jpg | caption = First UK edition | author = Jon Cleary | illustrator = | cover_artist = | country = Australia | language = English | series = Scobie Malone | genre = Detective | publisher = HarperCollins (UK)<br>William Morrow (US) | release_date = 1993 | english_release_date = | media_type = | pages = | isbn = | preceded_by = Dark Summer | followed_by = Autumn Maze }} '''''Bleak Spring''''' is a 1993 novel from Australian author Jon Cleary.<ref>[http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/9970438 National Library of Australia - ''Bleak Spring'' by Jon Cleary]</ref> It was the tenth book featuring Sydney detective Scobie Malone.
==Story outline == The story centers on the murder of a solicitor who Scobie knew, and whose son happens to be dating Scobie's daughter, Claire. It turns out the lawyer had links to a bookmaker, an offshore bank and a dangerous Russian.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.austcrimefiction.org/content/bleak-spring |title=''Bleak Spring'' at Austcrime |access-date=2012-03-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130821084046/http://austcrimefiction.org/content/bleak-spring |archive-date=2013-08-21 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Like many Cleary novels it featured sport, in this case rugby league.
One reviewer stated that "Cleary writes a solidly entertaining novel, concentrating on the details of routine police investigation and the matey, macho, laconic world of the police team. While the finale may inspire accusations of prejudice, it is a suitably suspenseful climax to a workmanlike slab of adventure fiction."<ref>'Top Shelf', ''Sunday Age'', 31 October 1993, p9</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Jon Cleary}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:1993 Australian novels Category:Novels set in Sydney Category:HarperCollins books Category:William Morrow and Company books Category:Novels by Jon Cleary