Arthur W. Upfield
Список книг автора Arthur W. UpfieldWinds of Evil
When Bonaparte sets out to investigate two bizarre murders near the dusty little outback town of Carie, all the odds are against him. The crimes were committed a year before, the scent cold, and any clues that may have survived have been confused by a ham-fisted city policeman. As Bony follows the trail he is first threatened and then attacked by the mysterious murderer. It's a case that will tax his ingenuity to the limit… if he lives to see it through.<br /> <br /><i>Excellent set up for a story, good cast of characters, perplexing confusion of suspects, and perceptive unravelling of tangled threads</i>. – Kirkus Review
Mr Jelly's Business
Murder down under. The car lies wrecked and abandoned near the world's longest fence, the "rabbit-proof fence" in the wheat belt of Western Australia. There is no sign of its owner. Has George Loftus simply decamped, for reasons of his own? Or was it murder? Bonaparte suspects the worst and is determined to find the body – and the murderer.<br /> <br /><i>This novel is filled with Upfield's own philosophy about what creates murderers. We also find out a lot about Aboriginal tracking methods, as well as more information about Bony's family background.</i> – Mysteries in Paradise
Wings Above the Diamantina
The discovery of a stolen red monoplane on the dry, flat bottom of Emu Lake meant many things for different folks. For Elizabeth Nettlefold, the chance to nurse its strangely ill meant renewed purpose in life. For Dr Knowles, brilliant physician and town drunk, it meant the revival of a romantic dream. For some it meant a murder plan gone awry, and for Bonaparte, it meant one of the toughest cases of his career.<br /> <br /><i>Bony – a unique figure among top-flight detectives.</i> – BBC<br />
The Sands of Windee
Why had Luke Marks driven specially out to Windee? Had he been murdered or had he, as the local police believed, wandered away from his car and been overwhelmed in a dust-storm? When Bony noticed something odd in the background of a police photograph, he begins to piece together the secrets of the sands of Windee. Here is the original background to the infamous Snowy Rowles murder trial.<br /> <br /><i>Napoleon Bonaparte my best detective.</i> – Daily Mail<br />
Cake in the Hat Box
Sinister stones… On a lonely dirt road in Western Australia a police jeep is found. In it is Constable Stenhouse – shot dead. His Aboriginal tracker has disappeared. Enter Inspector Bonaparte, who soon realizes that he is not alone in his search for the criminal. The local Aboriginal tribe is seeking vengeance too…<br /> <br /><i>Fascinating in its treatment of outback life, and reveals clearly the weakness Bony has for young women and for people in the cattle stations who have been abused by life and events. All in all, it is a creditable production.</i> – From <i>The Spirit of Australia</i> by Ray Browne.
The Mountains Have a Secret
In the Grampian Mountains, two girl hitch-hikers have disappeared without trace, and the policeman sent to investigate has been murdered. Bonaparte visits the lonely hotel where the girls were last seen, and meets up with the suave proprietor, his strangely terrified father, an ex-US paratrooper with a penchant for knife-throwing, and a talking parrot…<br /> <br /><i>All in all, this is a high suspense drama, and a fine Upfield story.</i> – From <i>The Spirit of Australia</i> by Ray Browne.<br /> <br /><i>Bony – a unique figure among top-flight detectives</i> – BBC
The Lake Frome Monster
When Eric Maidstone was found dead near Bore Ten, just west of the Dingo-proof Fence, the first thought of those who discovered his body was that he might have been attacked by the rogue camel known as The Lake Frome Monster. But camels don't carry guns… and Maidstone had a bullet-hole in his chest which put the Monster in the clear. So who killed young Maidstone? Bony, disguised as a worker on the Fence, intends to find out…<br /> <br /><i>There are sand storms galore, there are mad camels, there is personal and professional deprivation, there are rabbits by the millions. In this typical Upfield country there is the boredom of loneliness, there is the sheer weight of the Australian outback; it is vintage Upfield…</i> – from <i>The Spirit of Australia</i> by Ray Browne.
The Will of the Tribe
It is in a harsh and eerie landscape – the crater formed by the meteor they called "The Stranger" – that another stranger is found… dead. In an area where the presence of every outsider is announced by the bush telegraph, how had this man passed unreported? Who was he? How had he died? No tracks around the crater and no stranger in town. It soon becomes obvious to Bony that both the locals and the Aboriginals are guarding a secret – untill the will of the Tribe breaks their silence…<br /> <br /><i>This is undoubtedly Upfield's strongest book, for a number of reasons: 1) Bony is at his best in his detective work; 2) Upfield is at his best in studying the social and cultural situations of the white and the Aboriginals; 3) though the physical setting is less intense than in some other works, it is strong here; 4) Upfield's symbolism – especially in the use of the metaphor of clothes vs nakedness – is extraordinarily complex. There is no doubt that this particular book is a masterpiece in every way</i>. – from <i>The Spirit of Australia </i>by Ray Browne.
Man of Two Tribes
Myra Thomas, apparently dressed only in nightgown and slippers, has walked off the train somewhere along the 650 kilometres of track that crosses the Nullarbor Plain. With two camels and a dog, Bony begins to search the desert in search of her. He finds more than he bargins for – only to find a group of people imprisoned in the extensive limestone caves beneath the desert plain…<br /> <br /><i>This is surely one of the two or three strangest of Upfield's novels. It is an eerie mixture of Aboriginal folk customs and white man's greed and lust for revenge. Something of a study of abnormal psychology, it nevertheless turns on people's very natural and nasty feelings… This book is a splendid combination of plot, setting and development.</i> – from <i>The Spirit of Australia </i>by Ray Browne.
The Battling Prophet
Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte is on leave, staying with an old friend near Adelaide. Ben Wickham, a meteorologist whose uncannily accurate weather forecasts had helped farmers all over Australia, lived nearby. Ben died after a three-week drinking binge and a doctor certified death as due to delirium tremens – but Bony's host insists that whatever Ben died of it wasn't alcohol…<br /> <br /><i>This is an unusual crime story for Upfield, but, revealing the vast range of his interests, it is one of the better ones … Constable Alice McGorr returns and is at her strongest and most profane best … she is extraordinary, and should be appreciated as one of his major creations.</i> – from <i>The Spirit of Australia </i>by Ray Browne.<br /> <br /><i>Bony – a unique figure among top-flight detectives</i> – BBC