Rating: 
Summary: An Awesome Book!
Review: "The Bone is Pointed"introduces readers to one of the most fascinating detective characters in fiction today. Set in 1940's Australia, Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte presents an interesting and challenging character. The son of a white man and an aboriginal woman,"Bony"brings characteristics of both cultures to his detecting. The story begins when Jeffrey Anderson mysteriously disappears into the bush while out inspecting his employer's cattle station one April morning. Anderson was known around the area as a cruel man with a bad temper, thus his absence is not really mourned. However, a search is begun but yields no results. Five months later Bony is called in to solve this seemingly unsolvable mystery. Using both modern detecting skills and aboriginal intuition and dealing with both English feelings of colonialism and Aboriginal rights, Bony solves the puzzle while narrowly avoiding death himself.
On a deeper level, Upfield presents a political and social critique of the English treatment of Aboriginals in the first half of the 20th century. For the 1940's, Upfield even broaching this topic was radical. Detective fiction provided a way to support civil and social rights for aboriginals in a time when such acts were not accepted. Bony presents a character who combines seemingly "the best of both worlds": a civilized, intelligent, and humorous man who understands the reasons behind both the English treatment of the Aboriginals and the Aboriginals resulting feelings. This book is not only an excellent mystery but also a wonderful look at an often ignored group of people.
Rating:
Summary: An Awesome Book!
Review: "The Bone is Pointed"introduces readers to one of the most fascinating detective characters in fiction today. Set in 1940's Australia, Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte presents an interesting and challenging character. The son of a white man and an aboriginal woman,"Bony"brings characteristics of both cultures to his detecting. The story begins when Jeffrey Anderson mysteriously disappears into the bush while out inspecting his employer's cattle station one April morning. Anderson was known around the area as a cruel man with a bad temper, thus his absence is not really mourned. However, a search is begun but yields no results. Five months later Bony is called in to solve this seemingly unsolvable mystery. Using both modern detecting skills and aboriginal intuition and dealing with both English feelings of colonialism and Aboriginal rights, Bony solves the puzzle while narrowly avoiding death himself.
On a deeper level, Upfield presents a political and social critique of the English treatment of Aboriginals in the first half of the 20th century. For the 1940's, Upfield even broaching this topic was radical. Detective fiction provided a way to support civil and social rights for aboriginals in a time when such acts were not accepted. Bony presents a character who combines seemingly "the best of both worlds": a civilized, intelligent, and humorous man who understands the reasons behind both the English treatment of the Aboriginals and the Aboriginals resulting feelings. This book is not only an excellent mystery but also a wonderful look at an often ignored group of people.
Rating:
Summary: Well-Intentioned Folly
Review: Arthur Upfield clearly has a grasp of what is required to create a solid piece of detective fiction, and yet, though all the necessaries of the genre are represented (murder mystery, self-assured detective, etc.) it seems there is still something missing. Though this book failed to grab my attention as a modern detective novel, it did serve as a poignant introduction to the not-so-underlying politics of Australia. Upfield's well-intentioned detective, Napoleon Bonaparte, known to readers as Bony, is infinitely aware of his part aboriginal, part white background, and this awareness is fundamental to all other action. As Bony attempts to solve the disappearance of the drunken Jeffrey Anderson he embraces aspects from all areas of his background, employing his ancestral history to reach a conclusion about the disappearance and death of Anderson. Bony's lineage means more to this tale than its ability to help him solve the mystery of the moment however. It is a stunning commentary about the nature of race and cultural relations in Australia. Upfield has written a book that serves as an indictment of the cultural politics of Australia, painting a picture that is a means by which he may critique the behavior of the very people most likely to seek out his tales. As a result, he is able to deliver a message that would otherwise fall on deaf ears. His is a tale is a condemnation of the inequality that has embraced Australia for more than a century.
Rating: 
Summary: The Bone is Pointed
Review: Arthur Upfield's "The Bone is Pointed" introduces those of us who are not already familiar with him to Napoleon Bonaparte, Upfield's Australian, part-aborigine super-sleuth. Bonaparte inherits from this aboriginal background the sorts of tracking skills, sensitivity to environment, and keen eye for detail that we have come to expect from our literary detectives, along with the arrogance and self-importance that come with those skills. Whether we (as readers) end up appreciating those qualities is a fine line that every detective fiction writer walks, and Upfield is fairly deft at keeping "Bony's" arrogance checked. Unfortunately, other aspects of Bony's personality, and certain aspects of the mystery he is unravelling, tended to grate on this reader as a bit tedious. The book's strength lies in its evocation of the Australian ranch country and the ranchers and aborigines who inhabit it; but at times Upfield seems so concerned with establishing the skills and magic of the aborigines (which is, at least, a worthy cause) that Bony's actual detection work gets a bit bogged down with explanation after explanation of aboriginal behavior and magic. After all this detail towards the conflict between Bony's native know-how and the aboriginal magic acting against him, I was hoping for a real stunner of an ending to salvage the novel, but instead found that Upfield had let me in on too many of Bony's discoveries to make the conclusion anything of a surprise. While I would recommend this book to anybody with a predilection for the Australian or aboriginal, I'd have to say that, within the larger context of the detective genre, "The Bone is Pointed" is largely mediocre.
Rating:
Summary: Bony
Review: Arthur W. Upfield's beautifully crafted protagonist, Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte unravels another mystery, this time exploring the Australian outback. Bony, (as his friends call him, and he hopes you are his friend) is half-aboriginal and half-white. The powers of reason he has cultivated in white schools and the sixth sense of the outback ingrained from his aboriginal side have made him into a sort of Australian Sherlock Holmes. Enchantingly arrogant, and outrageously tenacious, Bony is ready to solve the disappearance of an abusive drunk that has been missing for five months and no one seems eager to find. Upfield masterfully keeps the reader's attention, casting suspicions as fast as Bony's mind can create them. As new clues are discovered, new suspects are created and the old discarded, only to be brought in again. What Bony finds leads him and the reader into a struggle to create an Australian identity in the vast and desolate landscape; a struggle between an aboriginal identity and white. As Bony skates the race line, the tension between the white world and the black becomes greater, and the aborigines "point the bone" at him, a sort of death curse. Racing against his weakening body, Bony struggles to find a culprit, or to discover that whether there is a culprit at all. In a superb finale to a gripping read, Upfield both reaffirms the affable side to Bony"s otherwise obstinate character and comments on the racial divide in Australia.
Rating:
Summary: The stunning detective captures the past
Review: From the very first page, the reader's mind starts spinning, trying to figure out the mysterious death of a young man. The clever Detective-Inspector Bonaparte embarks on a challenge to pin the murderer a long five months after the incident. This book is set in a small town, a ranch-like state, which aids the book in obtaining a individual essence for each of the characters. Since the events take place in one place, we see the characters interacting with each other and are able to form our own opinions for ourselves. This only creates an even more climatic ending when Bonaparte surprises the reader with an extreme discovery.
The reader is able to view the sharp wit and good-natured humor of the detecive. The detective is almost suggested to be mad, or stubbornly insane, because it seems like he is trying to find a needle in haystack. In is only in the end, when we see through the eyes of the detective, when we are able to agree on the intelligence and creativity of the characters, especially the detective himself. The local inhabitants are keeping their own secrets, so the reader is forced to think of ways to hurdle obstacles. Upfield is in his glory, writing his best and demonstrating his clever ideas and wit.
Rating:
Summary: The stunning detective captures the past
Review: From the very first page, the reader's mind starts spinning, trying to figure out the mysterious death of a young man. The clever Detective-Inspector Bonaparte embarks on a challenge to pin the murderer a long five months after the incident. This book is set in a small town, a ranch-like state, which aids the book in obtaining a individual essence for each of the characters. Since the events take place in one place, we see the characters interacting with each other and are able to form our own opinions for ourselves. This only creates an even more climatic ending when Bonaparte surprises the reader with an extreme discovery.
The reader is able to view the sharp wit and good-natured humor of the detecive. The detective is almost suggested to be mad, or stubbornly insane, because it seems like he is trying to find a needle in haystack. In is only in the end, when we see through the eyes of the detective, when we are able to agree on the intelligence and creativity of the characters, especially the detective himself. The local inhabitants are keeping their own secrets, so the reader is forced to think of ways to hurdle obstacles. Upfield is in his glory, writing his best and demonstrating his clever ideas and wit.
Rating:
Summary: A unique look at aborigines
Review: Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte ("Bony") is a likeable character. I enjoy the character and the series. However what elevated this book from just another mystery is the Australian and aboriginal element. You will learn about aboriginal mind warfare, the mind telegraph, and the massive rabbit migrations. Don't "point the bone" at me. This is a memorable book.
Rating:
Summary: Squatters and aborigines in the outback
Review: It's worth a read! My first contact with protagonist Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte, motivates me to read more of Arthur Upfield's literary output.Gives us some notions about tribal aborigines in Australia half a century, much as a Tony Hillerman novel does for contempary Navajo. (Regretably, I am not competent to evaluate the reliability of these insights.) Has interesting characterizations of life among squatters in Queensland's outback. Comments on Australia's color line, whose artifacts only recently departed from public policy. Some bits intended to be quite enlightened fifty years ago may strike some readers today as racist. They should press on.
Rating:
Summary: A compelling novel of detection.
Review: The Bone is Pointed operates - and operates well - on at least two levels simultaneously. First it functions as a highly successful detective novel. Upfield must have sorted through the various legacies of the detective genre when creating his characters - Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte certainly has reasoning powers that rival those of Sherlock Holmes himself. Moreover, "Bony," as the detective requests to be called, knows Australia like Holmes knows London; he knows its intricacies, its characters. And in the absence of a Watson, the reader is allowed to participate in Bony's thought process, not completely, but enough that by the end of the novel a firm sympathy with its protagonist has been created, reinforced by Upfield's careful narrative style. Secondly, Upfield's novel operates as an insightful look at mid-twentieth century Australia. Some of the tensions in that society are personified by Bony himself, a half-caste Australian who acknowledges that to succeed, he must rely on both of his inherited halves. Ultimately, it is Bony's sensitivity to both his European and Australian that draw him - and the reader - into the landscape and the people of Australia. I will be back to read more of Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte.
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