The Battling Prophet

By Arthur W. Upfield

Book Overview

Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte is on leave, staying with an old friend near Adelaide. Ben Wickham, a meteorologist whose uncannily accurate weather forecasts had helped farmers all over Australia, lived nearby. Ben died after a three-week drinking binge and a doctor certified death as due to delirium tremens - but Bony's host insists that whatever Ben died of it wasn't alcohol...

This is an unusual crime story for Upfield, but, revealing the vast range of his interests, it is one of the better ones ... Constable Alice McGorr returns and is at her strongest and most profane best ... she is extraordinary, and should be appreciated as one of his major creations. - from The Spirit of Australia by Ray Brown.

Bony - a unique figure among top-flight detectives - BBC

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1922384216
• ISBN13: 9781922384218
• Release Date: April 2020
• Publisher: ETT Imprint
• Length: 172 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Bony and Pals explore benders, weather forecasting and evil

In the past 12 years, I've reread this gem 4 times - and look forward to the next time. The leading characters are superbly portrayed, as the good guys try to protect a deceased scientist's uncanny system that predicts Aussie weather, 12 months in advance.. The manuscripts are protected by two binge drinkers, both in their eighties, both with colorful cattle drover backgrounds. A key aspect of the plot: Upfield offers colorful insights into the differing psychological nightmare/illusions associated with various types of liquor - and gets these distinctions into the unraveling of the plot.. The central old-timer comes across much like the old geezer prospector in Treasure of Sierra Madre. Plus: Bony's wily ability to outsmart his police-bosses is top-rate here. Don't miss this one!