Series: Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte
by Author Arthur W. Upfield
The New Shoe (1983)
My copy has a set of blood spattered keys on the front, appropriate since a set of keys figures prominently in the story. Lighthouses are unsettling places at the best of times and when you add a naked male body shoved into a small storage place in the lighthouse wall you have a very nervous-maki...
The Widows of Broome (1985)
The Widows of Broome is the 13th book in the Napoleon Bonaparte series by Australian author, Arthur Upfield. Post-war Broome is a drowsy little town of comfortable bungalows and windowless shops, cut off from civilisation by hundreds of miles of virgin land. It is some weeks after two young, attr...
The Devil's Steps (1982)
If I hadn't been put off by the title, this true treat wouldn't have sat unread on my shelf for something like 30 years. It's hard to decide which is better, the environment of Upfield's beloved Australia or his half-aborigine Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte. Bony has the unfettered mind o...
Death of a Lake (1998)
Enjoyable Australian crime fiction novel, written and set in outback Australia during the 1950s. This is the 18th Inspector Napoleon Boneparte novel written by English-born Australian author, Arthur Upfield (1890-1964).Inspector Napoleon 'Bony' Boneparte is sent to a vast outback sheep station di...
Winds of Evil (1987)
The Battling Prophet (2007)
The Battling Prophet is the 20th novel in the Bony series by Arthur Upfield. Having solved a smuggling case for the South Australian Police, Bony decides to mix business with pleasure by taking ten days leave to go fishing at the small coastal town of Cowdry, as the guest of one John Luton. Luton...
The Mystery of Swordfish Reef (1998)
The Mystery of Swordfish Reef is the 7th in the Bony series by Arthur Upfield. It is set on the South Coast of New South Wales at Bermagui (which was delightful in itself as this is only a short distance from my home) and the story concerns the disappearance of the fishing launch Do-Me with all h...
The Barrakee Mystery (1972)
My copy has a boomerang and a bootprint on the front and since it has the marks referred to in the story it explains visually what they're talking about, although it is difficult to match that shape with the description of the scar on the tree. However, that's petty.The story was written at the e...
Murder Must Wait (1987)
Another easy reading Boney mystery.Upfield is a complex person when he discusses Aboriginal culture: on one hand he supports the Mission system that was in place in the 1950s (when this was written), and yet, he talks about the golden days before white arrival.Even Boney is not 100% sure of the m...
The Bone is Pointed (1984)
The Bone Is Pointed is the sixth novel in Arthur W. Upfield's detective series featuring Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte. It is the second of the these novels which I have read. In this outing Bony is called to the bush country where a man went missing five months ago. Few people really care what...
Venom House (1988)
This Bony story is more of a pyschological thriller than the usual fantastic bushcraft. Venom House is the moated stone house of the Answerths, set in the 50's before electricity came to this small town in Queensland. Mary Answerth, the rawboned tough as bootleather oldest sibling, in charge of t...
Death of a Swagman (1982)
Death of a Swagman is the 9th of Arthur Upfield’s Inspector Bonaparte Mysteries. A swagman is found dead in a pool of blood in a hut near the Riverina town of Merino. Bony only sees a photo of the hut but is convinced the man did not die there, and is intrigued enough to take the case. He arrives...
Bony and the Kelly Gang (1988)
I read these books many years ago and have since become good friends with some folks from australia, so I'm reading them again. Knowing more of the history and geography, I'm finding them intriguing. This one involves the hunt for the killer of a man investigating the illegal stills the Kelly fam...
The Bachelors of Broken Hill (1998)
One after another, elderly bachelors are being poisoned, and Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte is sent to Broken Hill to get to find out who is committing the murders, and why. His child-of-both-worlds personality and outlook and his unconventional methods of detection arouse the curiosity of everyone...