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-making situation indeed. The police, even after much searching have been unable to determine even so simple a thing as the identity of the dead man. The solution is quite satisfyingly complex and makes good sense. The characters are complex and good people to meet. The hotel where Boney (the detective - Napoleon Bonaparte)stays is what you would expect in a very small place: a staff of two, husband & wife who run the bar and the kitchen respectively. Listening to the hoteliers and the people who drink in the bar provide much of the information Boney needs, although he manages to do a fair bit of travelling to look out the information's background.Enjoyed the Australian background and the Sweet Fairy Ann road reminds me slightly of a few places in this country, although nothing I've met would match the Slide, I think. There is no suggestion that Sweet Fairy Ann is anything other than the actual name of that road.
I read in Wikipedia that Tony Hillerman felt he owed a debt to Arthur W. Upfield for the success of his mysteries featuring the Navajo tribal police. Since I am a long-time fan of Hillerman I thought it would be interesting to read an Upfield mystery. This is the only one I was able to find at the local library.I think it's a very good, old fashioned mystery and I enjoyed it. However I don't think it is the best example of the qualities Hillerman found in this series' detective. The Upfield books feature a half-European, half-aboriginal Australian hero, Detective-inspector Napoleon (Bony) Bonaparte, who uses his understanding of local tribal traditions to help him solve mysteries. Not so much in this one since it doesn't involve any tribal traditions that I could find. Although Bony's ability to read and remember individual footprints does help in solving this case.I hope I can find more in this series. I will read them.
