Bony Buys a Woman [Unknown Binding]

Product Details

• Unknown Binding
• Publisher: Pan Books; First edition. edition (January 1, 1957)
• ASIN: B001T8P3K4
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Customer Reviews

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5.0 out of 5 stars Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte trails a murder suspect (details), August 24, 2009

By 

Patrick W. Crabtree "The Old Grottomaster" (Lucasville, OH USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bony Buys a Woman

This 1957 book was released in under its American title in 1967 and is also available as: The Bushman Who Came Back (Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte Mystery).

Here, Australian Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte (who happens to be half-Aborigine and half-Caucasian) is sent to investigate a murder-kidnapping in the wilds of South Australia near Lake Eyre. A fiendish intruder has ruthlessly shot the lady cook at a large ranch just after the owner and ranch hands have gone out on their various jobs. A crazy old alcoholic hermit shows up at the scene and nabs the cook's young daughter from her playhouse and thus becomes the prime suspect.

A monumental search is begun for the child, making use of the local Aborigine trackers, all to no avail. When all hope has been lost, Bony (a nickname which the Inspector insists that all his friends use) is called in to resolve the matter. He soon rakes up a few clues, even though weeks have passed since the incident, and they lead him to suspect that the local Aborigine Chief and his Medicine Man know more than they are telling.

A sub-plot of an Aboriginal love affair adds much to the charm of this terrific tale.

Bony has become my favorite fictional detective, astonishingly displacing Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, and Miss Marple. I think that it's Upfield's focus on story development and his unique literary painting of the Australian landscape that has done it for me.

The Scribner's American paperback version is 188 pages in length and is one of Upfield's later-period works. There are about 30 Bony mysteries, all of them first-class. This is a fine place to begin reading Upfield but I would more highly recommend starting at: Murder Down Under, also marketed under its original Australian title of Mr. Jelly's Business.

I can highly recommend this one to fans of Tey, Christie, Marsh, Doyle, Allingham and all the other classic British mystery writers. Too right!!!