TORN BRANCH (Scribner Crime Classic : An Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte Mystery) [Paperback]

Arthur Upfield (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Scribner Paper Fiction; 1st Collier Books ed edition (November 1, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0020259301
• ISBN-13: 978-0020259305
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #517,669 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "My patience is inexhaustible", May 2, 2010

By 

Patto (Vermont) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: TORN BRANCH (Scribner Crime Classic : An Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte Mystery) (Paperback)

Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte ("Call me Bony") is one of the all-time-great fictional detectives. The weird and wild topography of Australia is his hunting ground.

A well-educated blue-eyed half-caste, Bony boasts of having the inexhaustible patience of an aborigine tracker and the cold reasoning powers of a white man. Justly vain, he never fails to crack a case. Witty and elegant, he obliterates prejudice by the sheer power of his personal charm.

The Torn Branch is a sublime love story, darkly entangled with a murder investigation.

When Eric Downer and his father return to their sheep farm in the outback from their "annual bender" in Mindee, they find a murdered man, a total stranger, in the machinery shed. The hired hand looking after things has disappeared.

The local aborigines broadcast news of the murder by smoke signal. The police and their trackers investigate, but to no avail.

Six months later Bony arrives in a silk suit and Panama hat, confident of finding the murderer. And despite the coldness of the trail, Bony is in fact able to spot invisible tracks on the claypan and uncover buried clues in the scrub. But his almost magical skills are destined to have tragic consequences.

Upfield's terse descriptions of Australian landscapes are always fascinating. In this case, a three-year drought has ravaged the land, "the sheep staggering about like reddish ghosts in a red hell of dust."

The Bony mysteries, written between 1929 and 1962, are a feast of exotic settings, aboriginal lore and colorful slang. They are totally addictive, and I recommend them all. After one or two, you may find yourself calling your food "tucker" - and "boiling the billy" instead of making tea!

An alternate title of The Torn Branch is Bony and the Black Virgin.