The Bone Is Pointed

by Arthur W. Upfield

Book Overview

Jack Anderson was a big man with a foul temper, a sadist and a drunk. Five months after his horse appeared riderless, no trace of the man has surfaced and no one seems to care. But Bony is determined... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684850575
• ISBN13: 9780684850573
• Release Date: September 1998
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.7" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Much more realistic than the movie "Australia" :-)

...actually, I liked the movie. But this book is much more hard boiled, full of a lot of detail about the bush ranches. There is a lot of description about the life and the details of the land. The detective sloooowly figures out what happened, with a lot of suspense along the way. --> "Transformers" or "Terminator 3" it ain't! If you like fast paced stuff and don't care for descriptive detail, this is not for you. <br />Otherwise, it is a really good detective novel in a time-capsule kind of wrapper (by now)

It certainly is

This is brilliant. Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte is one of the most original and endearing characters in mystery fiction. His mother's Aboriginal, and he solves cases in the Australian outback. This book was published in 1947. Learn about life in old Australia AND sink your teeth into a juicy mystery.

An Awesome Book!

"The Bone is Pointed"introduces readers to one of the most fascinating detective characters in fiction today. Set in 1940's Australia, Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte presents an interesting and challenging character. The son of a white man and an aboriginal woman,"Bony"brings characteristics of both cultures to his detecting. The story begins when Jeffrey Anderson mysteriously disappears into the bush while out inspecting his employer's cattle station one April morning. Anderson was known around the area as a cruel man with a bad temper, thus his absence is not really mourned. However, a search is begun but yields no results. Five months later Bony is called in to solve this seemingly unsolvable mystery. Using both modern detecting skills and aboriginal intuition and dealing with both English feelings of colonialism and Aboriginal rights, Bony solves the puzzle while narrowly avoiding death himself.On a deeper level, Upfield presents a political and social critique of the English treatment of Aboriginals in the first half of the 20th century. For the 1940's, Upfield even broaching this topic was radical. Detective fiction provided a way to support civil and social rights for aboriginals in a time when such acts were not accepted. Bony presents a character who combines seemingly "the best of both worlds": a civilized, intelligent, and humorous man who understands the reasons behind both the English treatment of the Aboriginals and the Aboriginals resulting feelings. This book is not only an excellent mystery but also a wonderful look at an often ignored group of people.

A compelling novel of detection.

The Bone is Pointed operates - and operates well - on at least two levels simultaneously. First it functions as a highly successful detective novel. Upfield must have sorted through the various legacies of the detective genre when creating his characters - Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte certainly has reasoning powers that rival those of Sherlock Holmes himself. Moreover, "Bony," as the detective requests to be called, knows Australia like Holmes knows London; he knows its intricacies, its characters. And in the absence of a Watson, the reader is allowed to participate in Bony's thought process, not completely, but enough that by the end of the novel a firm sympathy with its protagonist has been created, reinforced by Upfield's careful narrative style. Secondly, Upfield's novel operates as an insightful look at mid-twentieth century Australia. Some of the tensions in that society are personified by Bony himself, a half-caste Australian who acknowledges that to succeed, he must rely on both of his inherited halves. Ultimately, it is Bony's sensitivity to both his European and Australian that draw him - and the reader - into the landscape and the people of Australia. I will be back to read more of Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte.

Bony

Arthur W. Upfield's beautifully crafted protagonist, Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte unravels another mystery, this time exploring the Australian outback. Bony, (as his friends call him, and he hopes you are his friend) is half-aboriginal and half-white. The powers of reason he has cultivated in white schools and the sixth sense of the outback ingrained from his aboriginal side have made him into a sort of Australian Sherlock Holmes. Enchantingly arrogant, and outrageously tenacious, Bony is ready to solve the disappearance of an abusive drunk that has been missing for five months and no one seems eager to find. Upfield masterfully keeps the reader's attention, casting suspicions as fast as Bony's mind can create them. As new clues are discovered, new suspects are created and the old discarded, only to be brought in again. What Bony finds leads him and the reader into a struggle to create an Australian identity in the vast and desolate landscape; a struggle between an aboriginal identity and white. As Bony skates the race line, the tension between the white world and the black becomes greater, and the aborigines "point the bone" at him, a sort of death curse. Racing against his weakening body, Bony struggles to find a culprit, or to discover that whether there is a culprit at all. In a superb finale to a gripping read, Upfield both reaffirms the affable side to Bony"s otherwise obstinate character and comments on the racial divide in Australia.