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The Bony Mysteries
The Barrakee Mystery
The Sands of Windee
Wings Above the Diamantina
Mr. Jelly's Business
Winds of Evil
The Bone is Pointed
The Mystery of Swordfish Reef
Bushranger of the Skies
Death of a Swagman
The Devil's Steps
An Author Bites the Dust
The Mountains Have a Secret
The Widows of Broome
The Bachelors of Broken Hill
The New Shoe
Venom House
Murder Must Wait
Death of a Lake
The Cake in the Hat Box
The Battling Prophet
Man of Two Tribes
Bony Buys a Woman
Bony and the Mouse
Bony and the Black Virgin
Bony and the Kelly Gang
Bony and the White Savage
The Will of the Tribe
Madman's Bend
The Lake Frome Monster

Other Books
The House of Cain
The Beach of Atonement
A Royal Abduction
Gripped by Drought
The Murchison Murders
Breakaway House
The Great Mebourne Cup Mystery
The Gifts of Frank Cobbold
Up and Down Australia
Up and Down the Real Australia
Follow My Dust
Life and Times of Bony's Man

The Boney Television Series

Links

An Introduction
to Upfield's "Bony" Novels

Arthur Upfield wrote twenty-nine novels centred on the character of Detective-Inspector Napoleon "Bony" Bonaparte between 1929 and his death. The final novel, The Lake Frome Monster, was completed from notes posthumously.

Bony is best known for his being half English and half aborigine and the character is developed around his innate aboriginal ability to know the bush and to find signs and clues others would never find, combined with his European reason and intellect. While Bony works for the New South Wales police, he often finds himself on loan to other jurisdictions, sent out to solve mysteries that no one else has been able to solve.

Much of the charm of these novels lies not only in the winning Bony, but in Upfield's vivid descriptions of Australia. Before settling down to write, Upfield spent years travelling the length and breadth of his adopted country, working at various professions and doing a lot of odd jobs–many in the bush country of the outback. Upfield is one of those writers who knows his subject and writes it amazingly well.

In the navigation bar to the left you will find a list of Upfield's novels. I am frequently emailed by people noting that I've left out a title or two. I haven't left any out. The problem is that Upfield's books were often published under multiple titles, usually differing between the Austrialian and British market and the American market. A title like Wings Above the Claypan sells better in the United States than Wings Above the Diamantina. A title like Cake in the Hat Box uses slang that many Americans wouldn't understand, thus in the U.S. the title was changed to Sinister Stones. Note also that in some cases, the alternate titles were used for early editions, but later dropped. Below is a list of those books with alternate titles.