The Widows of Broome

An Inspector Bonaparte Mystery # 13 featuring Bony, the first Aboriginal detective. 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…

Arthur Upfield was born in Gosport in 1890 and arrived in Australia in 1911, working near Broken Hill as a rouseabout and cook. He enlisted in 1914 and was allotted to Light Horse Brigade train and served from Gallipoli to Beersheba, at the same time as Ion Idriess. He began writing while in the outback, and created the first Aboriginal detective, Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte – or Bony – based on the Aboriginal tracker Leon Wood. The first Bony appeared in The Barrakee Mystery in 1929, and he became an international celebrity in 1932 when his book The Sands of Windee was the model for the murderer Snowy Rowles (see Upfield's Murchison Murders) 29 Bonys were published, also in France and Germany. 26 episodes were made for TV in the early 1970s, and will soon appear again on your screen. “In the mystique of the bush, Upfield saw elements of epic power in Australian life. In contrast, his rather dry style and meticulous plotting seem distinctly smaller in scale. But that is part of Upfield's impact, creating a worm's eye view of awesome natural grandeur, a sense of human inadequacy in a dominating continent.”

An Inspector Bonaparte Mystery # 13 featuring Bony, the first Aboriginal detective. 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 Broomes 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

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