"Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte arrives in the little town of Mitford, New South Wales, to find that five babies have been abducted and a murder committed. The half-aborigine sleuth calls in Policewoman Alice McGorr to help him, and one of the most important clues they find is a cave drawing depicting an aboriginal legend. Bony, as unorthodox and cunning as ever, re-enacts the legend in order to solve the mystery." – from the jacket of the 1971 Heinemann edition

"In the little town of Mitford, New South Wales, four babies have mysteriously disappeared--all boys, all under three months old, and all apparently neglected by their mothers. The local police have given up, the trail is cold--the only hope is Bony. And when Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte arrives on the scene a new dimension has been added to the puzzle: a fifth child has vanished and his mother has been found lying beside the empty cot--dead. But Bony's brief is to find those babies and, for once, murder must wait." - from the 1987 Collier edition

"Sergeant Yoti thinks the case of the four missing babies, which is completely baffiing him, will be the one case that Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte will not be able to solve. Bony arrives in Mitford just as the police are discovering that Mrs. Rockcliff has been murdered and her baby has been taken from its crib. Bony is much helped in this case by his 'cousin,' First Constable Alice McGorr, whose penetrating comments on the nature of the mothers of the lost babies are most revealing. A delightful story." – from "The Armchair Detective

Location: Mitford (fictional) on the northern bank of the Murray River, NSW.

Murder Must Wait was published in 1953 by the Doubday Crime Club. The first British edition was published by Heinemann the same year. Shown above is the 1987 Collier edition.