''Helga's Web'' was a 1970 novel by Australian author

Jon Cleary Jon Stephen Cleary (22 November 191719 July 2010) was an Australian writer and novelist. He wrote numerous books, including '' The Sundowners'' (1951), a portrait of a rural family in the 1920s as they move from one job to the next, and '' The ...

, the second to feature his detective hero

Scobie Malone Scobie Malone is a fictional Sydney homicide detective created by Australian novelist Jon Cleary. History Named after the jockey Scobie Breasley, Malone made his first appearance in Cleary's 1966 novel '' The High Commissioner''. Cleary says he ...

. Cleary did not originally intend to use the character again but wanted to write about the construction of the new

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue Performing arts center, performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive b ...

and thought the detective could be a good way to access that.Jon Cleary Interviewed by Stephen Vagg: Oral History
at

National Film and Sound Archive The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting, and providing access to a national c ...

Reception

The London ''Daily Telegraph'' called it "absorbing to the end." The ''Sydney Morning Herald'' called it a "first class, exciting, immensely readable thriller."

Adaptation

The novel was adapted into a film as ''

'' (1975).

References

External links

''Helga's Web''
at

AustLit AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource (also known as AustLit: Australian Literature Gateway; and AustLit: The Resource for Australian Literature) is a national bio-bibliographical database of Australian literature. It is an internet-based, ...

(subscription required) {{Jon Cleary 1970 Australian novels Novels set in Sydney William Collins, Sons books William Morrow and Company books Novels by Jon Cleary