The Sands of Windee by Arthur W. Upfield was both a different and an interesting mystery. Originally published in 1931, it is a part of the author’s DI Napoleon Bonaparte series. Set in Australia, this particular book has the detective investigating a murder that occurred on a remote sheep station. Napoleon Bonaparte or Bony as he preferred to be called considers himself to be the best detective in Australia and indeed his record of solving cases is pretty well perfect. Bony is half white, half Aborigine and specializes in going under-cover while working on a case.

When he hears the details about a white man who has gone missing from a sheep station he is convinced that the man was murdered. He presents himself to the owner and is hired as a horse breaker. Luckily, he is an excellent horse breaker so soon becomes a valuable member of the station. He painstakingly investigates the area where the missing man’s car was found and slowly starts building a case. Without a body, it’s very difficult to prove murder, and someone has gone to a lot of trouble to ensure that a corpse will not be found, but Bony, who is also a master tracker and bushman, is well able to put the clues together and come up with an accurate picture of what happened so is soon ready to make an arrest.

Although I found Bony a little difficult to totally believe in and the murder mystery a little lacking, I did find the setting of this book fascinating. The sheep station, Windee, covered over thirteen hundred thousand acres of land with seventy thousand sheep and a goodly number of workers. I was engaged by the day-to-day working of such a massive piece of property as well as the information on the culture of the Australian Aborigine that was part of the story as well. The book did show it’s age due to some of the language used including the many derogatory terms used to describe the natives. ( )

The Australian half-caste detective inspector Napoleon "Bony" Bonaparte is back for his second case. He has once again strayed from his home turf in Queensland, again traveling to a remote bit of New South Wales in order to investigate a missing persons case — or at least, a case in which everyone except Bony is convinced is a simple matter of a man unfamiliar with the territory wandering away from his car and get "bushed" — or lost in the wilderness. Bony is convinced the man was murdered, although no body or any physical evidence at all has been found, and he sets out to prove it by once again going undercover at a nearby sheep station, this time the titular Windee.

The mystery here is much more complex and layered than that of the first book in this series, and the entirety is told (in third person) from Bony's point of view, so the reader gets real insight into how this most unusual policeman thinks and processes the evidence and information he gathers. In the end, even though he solves the murder entirely to his satisfaction, he finds himself in a moral quandary about it. The discussion of said quandary ends the book, which does somewhat detract from an absolutely blockbuster climactic section involving Bony on horseback, trying to outrun a bush fire that threatens to overtake him at any moment. Overall, it's an unusual mystery plot and a most unusual detective, but I very much enjoyed both. ( )

Creepy story..Detective Bonaparte "Bony" is quite unique. Nature is an essential character in the story, and Upfield's descriptions are wonderful. More fun to read than the book since each newspaper installment includes illustrations. I've compared it to the hardcover, and in this case they are identical. ( )

This book is a marvel. Bony is a unique and appealing protagonist, the pictures of the Australian Outback vivid and the plot a pleasant romp. It holds up very well against those dames of the golden era back in the mother country written in the same time period. It was Tony Hillerman's praise that led me to this gem. I'll be back for more. I highly recommend it. ( )

Only the second of the Bony series, this opens with an elaborate introduction of the half-caste detective as he is walking into Windee Station in the cattle country of New South Wals disguised as a common swagman,brought by seeing a photo of a car that suggested to him there was something unusual in the disappearance of a man who supposedly had been lost in a sandstorm at Windee. ( )