Cake in the Hat Box

Upfield's #19 Inspector Bonaparte mystery.

This time in the Western Australian outback, where Bony happens to be passing through as he learns the body of a police constable has been found in his vehicle on a remote road. His Aboriginal tracker is also missing, with his swag and the constable's rifle - and it appears he is the culprit. But of course, that would be far too straight forward, and so Bony takes on the case, outranking the local police and in equal parts confounds and amuses them with his approach to solving the case.

As anyone familiar with these books would know, the story rolls out gently. At first there are things that can't be explained, little progress seems to be made. Some of the outback characters are strange...

But the police are not the only ones looking for a killer. It become apparent that the Aboriginal tracker was not the killer, but also a victim, and his tribe are seeking vengeance. Do the police or the Aboriginals get to the killer first?

Anyone who has spent time in the Australian outback would more than likely have come across those considered strange. Usually they are not, they are just not used to socialising or interacting with people - strangers at least. Social skills require practice, and they don't get a lot of people to practice with! But I digress.

Bony soon narrows down a few possible suspects but has to untangle the web before he can solve the riddle, but can he do so before the Aboriginals?

I like these books, perhaps a little more than they deserve.

An entertaining 4 stars.