Ted Sharp, the handsome boss stockman, is managing a drive to market of 819 cattle. Eilizabeth has noticed his “swinging grace” upon a horse.
As Nettleford and Elizabeth near a waterless lake they see a crimson varnished monoplane in the middle of the lake. In the front cockpit is a young woman. No one has left the plane. There are no tracks. She cannot move or speak though she is conscious.
The plane has been stolen from Golden Dawn 174 miles away.
Nettleford contacts Sgt. Cox at Golden Dawn. Sgt. Cox and Dr. Knowles fly that evening to Coolibah station.
Dr. Knowles, 38, is a severe alcoholic who flies better drunk than sober. Known as the “flying doctor” he covers a vast territory.
Dr. Knowles thinks the young woman, who remains unidentified, was drugged. He prescribes rest. As the young woman can drink he prescribes a liquid diet.
Elizabeth commits to caring for the young woman. She is excited to have a genuine purpose in her life.
The investigation becomes complex because of what appears to be a mysterious stranger or strangers.
Napoleon “Bony” Bonaparte is dispatched to solve the case. He takes the case because it is a challenge not routine. His record of never failing to finalize a case will be severely tested at Coolibah.
In almost every Bonaparte book I learn something about tracking. In Wings Above the Diamantina it is that indigenous Australians make tracking them very difficult by having feathers dipped in blood that hardens upon their feet. A variation is to wear sheepskin on the feet.
Bony needs a meticulous investigation as the evildoer or evildoers are wily and dangerous. However, the paralytic young woman’s health is deteroriating and Bony cannot let the investigation proceed patiently.
Bony deplores red tape, official procedures, for getting confidential information. As with most fictional detectives, carefully established rights to prevent arbitrary and inappropriate investigations are of little consequence.
Still, despite Bony’s best efforts, the investigation takes weeks. He spends days looking for airplane tracks. Few fictional detectives, past and present, would spend days seeking out tracks.
Along the way he is caught in an Australian weather phenomenon:
A sandstorm without wind! Far westward, possibly near the eastern border of Western Australia, a storm of wind had raised sun-heated sand particles for many miles above the earth. And then in its freakishness, nature suddenly allowed the wind to drop from fifty to five miles per hour, and the heated sand particles had slowly fallen earthward to be cushioned by the earth-stored heat of the sun in so dense a mass as to appear, as Captain Loveacre said, like a fog.
There is a wonderful description of a plane from an indigenous chief. It is the emu that flies.
Tension builds as Bony closes in on the wicked and the young woman nears death. Huge spring (November) thunderstorms unleash heavy rains and cause flash floods. Neither man nor vehicle nor plane can push their way through the storms.
Bony shows an aggresive edge not present in most of the books in the series. There is a genuine thriller ending with the action perfectly attuned to the setting, characters and era.
Wings Above the Diamantina is one of the best in the series. The characters are well developed, the plot is credible and the story is unique to Australia. Upfield is not racially sensitive in the context of 2026 but he upholds Bony as a person though many white Australians of the 1930’s in the book have a hard time respecting Bony because, in the language of that era, he is a half-caste. I am glad I read Wings Above the Diamantina after The Mountains Have a Secret. Wings Above the Diamantina re-assured me that most of the Bony books are excellent mysteries.
****
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