Arthur W. Upfield

Having read all of the Tony Hillerman stuff in the last couple of years, I read that he drew on Arthur W. Upfield for inspiration, having read all of is 'Bony' mysteries set in the Australian Outback.

I've been thinking about picking these up for a while, I'd be interested to hear what people think of them.

Rich

I'm a fan, though I've only read a few.
In the earlier book of the series that I've read, his detective, Napoleon Bonaparte, is rather arrogant, almost in the Poirot mold. Later books find him to be humble and able to endure hardships. I haven't read the book that brought about the change but I will be reading one or two more of this series this summer as part of my Burning Hot Reads challenge.

Anyway, I found Bony very likable.

I have read most of them and like them very much. Bony is a great character - very clever and yet likable. They're old-fashioned mysteries but that's not a criticism.

Excellent. Highly recommended. Usually set in different areas of the out-back.
Also check Robert Van Gulik. His Judge Dee series set in ancient china is excellent.

Will definitely pick some up then. :-)

4: tros

Read all the Judge Dee books, great stuff. My chosen editions are the Mass Market Scribners versions which have great art (and the early University of Chicago Editions for the others Scribners didn't do)

I was lucky and managed to score 7 of the Bony books today at a used bookstore:

Murder Down Under (Book 4)
The Bone is Pointed (Book 6)
The Mountains Have a Secret (Book 12)
The Widows of Broome (Book 13)
Venom House (Book 16)
Murder Must Wait (Book 17)
Death of a Lake (Book 18)

Is it okay to read these out of series order?. Since obviously I don't have books 1-3 ;-) Or will I be missing something drastic.

I am hitting 3 more used bookstores tomorrow so I may come up with more.

Rich

As far as I can remember (which isn't that far), there is little to no overlap between novels.
Also looks like 7 out of 7!

Lucky! And I've had no problem with reading them out of order.

Thanks Guys.

I managed to pick up two more today Wings Above the Diamantina (Book 3) and Man of Two Tribes (Book 21)

So I guess I'll start with Diamantina :-)

So I finished Wings Above the Diamantina and The Bone is Pointed.

Just Great. It's always fantastic to discover a new series especially when there are 20+ more books :-) to plough through.

The Bone Is Pointed and Death of a Lake are my favorites by him.

I did enjoy The Bone is Pointed , I can see the influence on Tony Hillerman.

I read Mr. Jelly's Business which had a great ending, which I had guessed, but that didn't detract from the impact.

In the process of trying to locate more of the earlier books before reading more.

"Bony" has long been one of my favorites. Somehow they don't seem "old-fashioned" to me, just in tune with the outback. I will look for some of the Judge Dee books, thanks for mentioning those.

Yep. Judge Dee has a pretty Unique feel to it. Good stuff. I'm going to try and re-read those this year.