Peter Corris was born in Victoria in 1942, and did his undergraduate degree at the University of Melbourne. He took a doctorate in history from the ANU, but in the mid 1970s he left academia for journalism. From 1980 to 1981 he was literary editor of the National Times.

Corris’s first Cliff Hardy novel The Dying Trade was published in 1980. It not only introduced a sleuth who was to become an enduring legend, but it was also a long love letter to the seamy side of Sydney itself. Over more than three decades Corris has now written thirty-eight Cliff Hardy books, and the city of Sydney is as significant a presence in the books as the figure of Hardy. The third in the series, The Empty Beach, was in 1985 made into a film starring Bryan Brown. In 1999 Corris was presented with a Ned Kelly Lifetime Achievement Award.

Peter Corris is the author of more than sixty titles in all. He has written both historical fiction and other crime series. He has also worked extensively in non-fiction, including an as-told-to autobiography of the Australian eye surgeon Fred Hollows, and books on sport and history. He lived in Sydney, New South Wales with his family until his death in August 2018.