Customer Reviews

The Widows of Broome

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I have the 1950 Doubleday hardcover edition of this work, (midnight blue binding.)

Laid out in 25 brief chapters over 204 pages, Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte ("Bony" to all his pals) delves into a dark murder mystery where a strangler is terrorizing the Australian community of Broome. Typical to Upfield's Bony tales, the local police are stumped so Bony is sent in undercover.

Two fairly young women have been brutally murdered but, aside from their status as widows, they seem to otherwise have had little in common. It soon becomes clear to Bony that these killings will have no end until this fiend is caught so the bi-racial (half-Caucasian, half-Aborigine) detective is forced into setting a trap... but not before the strangler also becomes a poisoner!

The resolution in solving this cozy murder (like all of Upfield's Bony cases) requires a combination of psychology (like Hercule Poirot) tenoned with a shrewd follow-up on the physical evidence (like Sherlock Holmes.) The late Arthur W. Upfield was also very shrewd about keeping the reader jumping on possible suspects, which is a hallmark of his writing. All this linked together with Upfield's terrific painting of period Australian culture as a backdrop (along with a couple of minor subplots) and we get to read a remarkable work of mystery.

This one doesn't drag for a moment and is right up there with another of Upfield's marvelous reads, MR JELLY'S BUSINESS which is also sold under the revised title of MURDER DOWN UNDER.

This one is timeless and I highly recommend it for fans of the genre.

Superb. You feel surrounded by the weird landscapes, aborigines, and odd characters of the outback. Builds up suspense. BRAVO!