Monday, April 25, 2011

A-Z Blogging Challenge: Letter U



Day 21 of the A-Z Blogging Challenge. Every day in April (except Sundays) I will be doing a post for each letter of the alphabet. I have been sticking to my plan and making most of my posts about reading and/or books. April 25th is brought to you by the Letter U.

U is for Upfield. Arthur W. Upfield. Upfield was a mystery writer who was born in Britain but lived in Australia all his life. He is best known for his series starring Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte ("Bony") of the Queensland Police Force. Bony was created and based upon a man whom Upfield had met in his travels. "Tracker Leon" Wood was a "half-caste" (in the language of the day) Aboriginal man who was employed by the Queensland Police. Upfield's novels are known as detective stories that are good puzzles and yet have solid characters and backgrounds. They tend to avoid the more familiar patterns found in other crime novels of his day.

Upfield is on my mind because I have one of his novels on my TBR list for some of my challenges. Looming in my future is An Author Bites the Dust. In this one, a literary clique is gathered together at a house party put on by Mervyn Blake. Blake is a famous author and critic who is used to character assassination and verbal backstabbing. The house party is shocked when an actual assassination takes place and their host if found dead in his writing room. The cause of death is not immediately apparent. Detective Inspector Bonaparte finds himself in a world that is a far cry from the bush characters he is used to and must find clues among the literary hates and jealousies. It is Bony's shrewd observation of human nature that will win the day.



1 comment:

Sherrie said...

Hi!
Sounds very intriguing. I'll have to check out this author's books. Have a great day!

Sherrie
Just Books
http://sherriesbooks.blogspot.com/2011/04/to-z-blogging-challenge-u.html