Daren
Number #9 book from the Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte series from Arthur Upfield, published in 19457.
I have decided to plant the following on author and character in each of my 'Bony' reviews as background: - Upfield is an interesting writer, British by birth, emigrated to Australia at the age of twenty. He fought in the Australian Army in WWI. Following the war he travelled extensively in Australia working with stock and farming and developed an understanding of the Aboriginal culture which was to inform much of his writing. His 'Bony' character is a Detective Inspector in the Queensland Police Force, and is of mixed parentage - his mother an Aboriginal and his father white. It is rare to have a mixed race Aboriginal character held in high regard, and protagonist of a series of books.
This story takes part in the small town of Merino, where a swagman was murdered in a small hut. Bony turns up and acts a part that has him arrested for vagrancy and jailed for 10 days during which he is to paint the fences of the police station. This, of course, if the perfect way to gain knowledge of the comings and goings of the people of the town. Almost immediately he comes clean with the police officer and they establish a way in which Bony leads the investigation seeming from custody, so that few know his real identity.
As with all of the books in Upfield's series the story rolls out very slowly and Bony picks his way through the clues (some of which are not disclosed to the reader until he announces them to others - something that might be considered a bit of a cheat in modern writing), before events escalate and it all comes together in a climax of rush and rescue.
More than usual interesting characters in this story, but with more of the same good description of the outback Australian setting.
Number #9 book from the Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte series from Arthur Upfield, published in 19457.
I have decided to plant the following on author and character in each of my 'Bony' reviews as background: - Upfield is an interesting writer, British by birth, emigrated to Australia at the age of twenty. He fought in the Australian Army in WWI. Following the war he travelled extensively in Australia working with stock and farming and developed an understanding of the Aboriginal culture which was to inform much of his writing. His 'Bony' character is a Detective Inspector in the Queensland Police Force, and is of mixed parentage - his mother an Aboriginal and his father white. It is rare to have a mixed race Aboriginal character held in high regard, and protagonist of a series of books.
This story takes part in the small town of Merino, where a swagman was murdered in a small hut. Bony turns up and acts a part that has him arrested for vagrancy and jailed for 10 days during which he is to paint the fences of the police station. This, of course, if the perfect way to gain knowledge of the comings and goings of the people of the town. Almost immediately he comes clean with the police officer and they establish a way in which Bony leads the investigation seeming from custody, so that few know his real identity.
As with all of the books in Upfield's series the story rolls out very slowly and Bony picks his way through the clues (some of which are not disclosed to the reader until he announces them to others - something that might be considered a bit of a cheat in modern writing), before events escalate and it all comes together in a climax of rush and rescue.
More than usual interesting characters in this story, but with more of the same good description of the outback Australian setting.