Tag: Peter Hosking

Blackwattle Creek

Blackwattle Creek

by Geoffrey McGeachin (Viking, 2012)

audiobook read by Peter Hosking (Bolinda, 2012)

Book cover: “Blackwattle Creek” by Geoffrey McGeachin (Viking, 2012); audiobook read by Peter Hosking (Bolinda, 2012)

Plot-wise the second Charlie Berlin novel seems less involved than the first. It remains, however, a consummate portrait of person and place. A very Australian detective story that could just about be classified as feelgood nostalgia (were its underbelly not so dark).

The New Shoe

The New Shoe

by Arthur W. Upfield (Doubleday, 1951); audiobook read by Peter Hosking (Bolinda, 2010)

Upfield_New Shoe

A beautiful piece of Australiana and a preserved character study—both of the small coastal town and its inhabitants, and of half-caste Aboriginal detective Napoleon Bonaparte. Upfield’s prose is methodical yet poetically descriptive. Bony is a protagonist with unique methods and appeal.

 

 

The Bone is Pointed

The Bone is Pointed

by Arthur W. Upfield (Angus & Robertson, 1938); audiobook read by Peter Hosking (Bolinda, 2010)

Upfield_Bone is Pointed

This mystery doesn’t take much solving, but neither did many of Arthur Conan Doyle’s. As with Sherlock Holmes, it is the character of half-caste Aboriginal detective Napoleon Bonaparte that bewitches the reader, plus in this case Upfield’s vivid descriptions of outback Australia.