"On March 1st an engineer began his tour of inspection of the Split Point Lighthouse. He found the light in perfect operation, and saw nothing to indicate anything unusual . . . nothing, that is, until he discovered the naked body of a man entombed in the thick wall. Who was he? And who had fired the shot that had killed him? Nine weeks later the police were no closer to answering these questions. They had no clues to the identity of either victim or murderer, and the case was beginning to look like the perfect crime . . . perfect for Bony." - from the 1984 Angus & Robertson "Arkon" edition

"Bony, passing himself off as the vacationing owner of a sheep ranch, is investigating the murder of a naked man found in a locker at Split Point Lighthouse. Inspector Snook has failed to identify the dead man but Bony, working on the assumption that the murderer must have been a local person who knew the schedule of the Lighthouse Inspectors, insersts himsclf in the local people. He shares and sympathizes with their joys and sorrows, past and present, and finally he unravels an unhappy story and solves the mystery." – from "The Armchair Detective"

Location: Split Point (fictional), 80 miles from Melbourne, between Anglesea and Lorne.

The New Shoe was first published in America by the Doubleday Crime Club in 1951. Heinemann printed the first British edition in 1952. The Arkon edition of 1984, printed by Angus and Robertson, is shown above.