On special assignment with Military Intelligence, Detective-Inspector Bonaparte leaves his familiar Australian outback environment for Melbourne and a nearby mountain resort. Although out of his element with city people, Bony displays his characteristic skills to interpret some puzzling clues in the search for a wily killer…
Jeffrey Anderson was a big man with a foul temper – a sadist and an ugly drunk. When his horse The Black Emperor came home riderless, no one cared. No one cared when no trace of the man could be found. Five months later, Inspector Bonaparte is called in to follow the cold case. What had happened to Anderson, his hat, his stock-whip, to his horse's neck-rope. The locals, black and white, are keeping their own secrets and Bony second-guessing…
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 threatened, then attacked by the mysterious murderer…
Why was King Henry, an aboriginal from Western Australia, killed in New South Wales? What was the feud that led to murder after nineteen long years had passed? Who was the woman who saw the murder and kept silent?<br /> <br />This first story of Inspector Bonaparte takes him to the Darling River bush country where he encounters those problems he understands so well – mixed blood and divided loyalties.<br /> <br /><i>'Rampageous fisticuffs, rough scenery and rougher, dust-covered sheepmen and wanderers, dignified aboriginals, and so much interest and local colour.'</i> – Books and Bookmen<br />
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 />
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.
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 />
Broome is a little sun-drenched town on the barren north-west coast of Australia, the kind of place where everyone knows everyone else's business, where all the little bungalows might be glass for all the secrets they hide. How then had the murderer of Broome's two most attractive widows got away without leaving a single clue? Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte investigates, with his usual calm precision – but the murderer strikes again, and Bony realizes he is dealing with a madman – that time is running out…
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…
IT’S MURDER AT THE FLEA MARKET! Evildoers and crazed collectors beware. Daisy Summerfield, a crime-fighting sculptor with a severe case of artist’s block, is on the case. Will Daisy untangle the riddle of the missing Fiestaware, the cute bear, the flea market poisoner? And will she get her art back on track? In M. B. Goffstein’s homage to New York City, to art and artists, and to light, cozy, lovable, dimwitted mysteries, you’ll delight in the intrigue of whodunits and in the endless romance of finding treasure in boxes marked “$1.”