Mountains Have a Secret, The

pp. 192 (Originally published 1952, out-of-print.)

In the Grampian Mountains, two girl hitch-hikers have disappeared without trace, and the policeman sent to investigate has been murdered. Bonaparte visits the lonely hotel where the girls were last seen, and meets up with the suave proprietor, his strangely terrified father, an ex-US paratrooper with a penchant for knife-throwing, and a talking parrot…

Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte (Bony) is a half aboriginal, half-white detective who never fails to get his man. He routinely ignores orders from his superiors for a quick arrest and takes his time until the crime is solved. The result is that his superiors grumble and groan but knowing that Bony always gets results do as he asks when he needs help. Bony is highly intelligent (he has a university education) and even though a member of the police (he frequently says he is a terrible policeman) he is very understanding of, and even sympathetic to, many of the lawbreakers he encounters, e.g. the Kelly Gang, and will do all he can to give them a break. He makes friends easily (my friends call me Bony”) and earns the respect of the many people he meets