Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte is on leave, staying with an old friend near Adelaide. Ben Wickham, a meteorologist whose uncannily accurate weather forecasts had helped farmers all over Australia, lived nearby. Ben died after a three-week drinking binge and a doctor certified death as due to delirium tremens – but Bony's host insists that whatever Ben died of it wasn't alcohol…<br /> <br /><i>This is an unusual crime story for Upfield, but, revealing the vast range of his interests, it is one of the better ones … Constable Alice McGorr returns and is at her strongest and most profane best … she is extraordinary, and should be appreciated as one of his major creations.</i> – from <i>The Spirit of Australia </i>by Ray Browne.<br /> <br /><i>Bony – a unique figure among top-flight detectives</i> – BBC
