The Mountains Have a Secret by Arthur Upfield

(13. - 1302.) The Mountains Have a Secret by Arthur Upfield (1948) - Napoleon “Bony” Bonaparte travels to the Grampians, the mountainous area a few hundred kilometres northwest of Melbourne. Two young women were hiking in the area when they disappeared five months earlier. An extensive search was fruitless.

Bony takes a new approach to investigating the disappearance. He pretends to be on holiday. Another edition of the book is actually called Bony Takes a Holiday. As John Parkes he raises 10,000 sheep on 100,000 acres in New South Wales.

Bony gets a room at the Baden Park Hotel near where the women were last seen.

The Simpson family run the hotel. Joseph is a senior in a wheelchair and a tart tongue. Bony sees he may be an invalid but has his mind intact. His son, James “Jim”, considers him addled. His daughter, Ferris, is a part of the background.

The Benson family of Baden Park Station are the local aristocracy. Wealthy, they drive a Rolls-Royce, they are raising the Grampian strain of sheep. The sheep draw premium prices.

On Bony’s arrival at the Hotel a “great yellow-breasted cockatoo” greets him with a “What abouta drink?”

He accepts the offer. The Simpson family is welcoming and the Hotel is spotless. Bony does find James unusual, for a rural Australian hotel, in his formal clothing and expensive Buick.

Adding to the mystery is that a young police detective, Price, spent some time investigating after the search ended. He was found shot to death in his car over 20 miles from where the women vanished.

Bony is a patient man. After eight days at the hotel he continues to observe and study. 

Bony has casually but thoroughly explored the area around the hotel. Jim and Shannon keep a close eye on him. The lack of physical clues to the women is suspicious to Bony, an experienced tracker.

He spends hours examining foot by foot an era of quartz shingle where a vehicle had turned around. Eventually he finds a ruby brilliant.

Bony has a dread of the dead. From his indigenous ancestry there is fear of the dead that can overwhelm the living.

What could be going on in this remote area that requires such an elaborate coverup? Bony struggles to find the reason.

What I enjoyed most in the book involved Bony in the bush using his skills as a tracker and a bushman. His ability to decipher events in the bush from what he sees and hears is extraordinary.

The Hollywood ending dramatically breached my credulity. Bony is not an action hero. The bizarre conclusion left me disappointed in the book.

****

Upfield, Arthur - (2011) - Cake in the Hat Box; (2011) - The Widows of Broome (2011) - "U" is for Arthur Upfield; (2011) - The Bushman Who Came Back; (2012) - The Will of the Tribe; (2012) - The Battling Prophet; (2012) - "U" is for Arthur W. Upfield; (2013) - The Bone is Pointed; (2013) - Q & A with Stan Jones on Nathan Active and Napoleon "Bony" Bonaparte - Part I and Part II; (2013) - "U" is for Death of a Swagman (1945); (2015) - Death of a Lake; (2015) - The Clue of the New Shoe (1952) and Split Point Lighthouse; (2026) - Sinister Stones