The Dunbar Case is 2013 Australian novel by Peter Corris featuring private detective Cliff Hardy. Premise. Cliff Hardy is hired by an academic to find the ancesator of a man connected with the Dunbar wreck. Reception. The "Sydney Morning Herald" wrote "Family feuds, career criminals, missing diamonds, buried treasure, attractive (older) women: there's never, ever a dull moment and Corris keeps it moving in his lively, economical prose. Like the crime meister that he is, Corris makes it all appear so easy."