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
by Arthur W. Upfield (Doubleday, 1951); audiobook read by Peter Hosking (Bolinda, 2010)
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
by Arthur W. Upfield (Angus & Robertson, 1938); audiobook read by Peter Hosking (Bolinda, 2010)
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.