| The Sands of Windee | |
| Author: | Arthur Upfield |
| Country: | Australia |
| Language: | English |
| Series: | Detective Inspector Napoleon 'Bony' Bonaparte |
| Genre: | Fiction |
| Publisher: | Hutchinson |
| Release Date: | 1931 |
| Media Type: | |
| Pages: | 291 pp |
| Preceded By: | The Beach of Atonement |
| Followed By: | A Royal Abduction |
The Sands of Windee (1931) is a novel by Australian writer Arthur Upfield. It was the fourth of the author's novels and the second to feature his recurring character Detective Inspector Napoleon 'Bony' Bonaparte. It was originally published in the UK by Hutchinson in 1931, and subsequently serialised in The Herald in Melbourne in 42 daily instalments between 23 January and 11 March 1932.[1]
"At Windee Station, in the far west of New South Wales, a man named Luke Marks had disappeared. He had been visiting the owner, Jeff Stanton, and his car was found six days after he left the homestead. Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte, of the Queensland police, who is an educated half-caste, goes to Windee to take up the case."[2]
The action of the novel takes place about 240 kilometers (150 miles) north of Broken Hill.
Following the book's initial publication by Hutchinson in 1931 it was subsequently published as follows:[1]
and subsequent paperback, ebook and audio book editions.
This novel was adapted for television as Boney and the Powder Trail (1973), from a screenplay by Tony Morphett, and directed by Peter Maxwell : Fauna Productions.
A reviewer in The Telegraph from Brisbane noted: "Mr. Upfield is making for himself a niche among the elect of mystery-story writers and Australia may be proud of the fact that he is making such picturesque and unexaggerated use of the backgrounds provided by bush, seashore, and mountain in this country. And his stories themselves are more transcripts of life than the excited figments of imagination so often found in the crime book. In his latest novel we see him again the faithful portrayer of local colour and life, and again using his gifts in the construction, of a yarn which is typical of bush conditions."[8]
The Herald reviewer "Touchstone" wrote that the character of "Bony" is "a truly original andentertaining character, one who reflects great credit on his creator. Mr Upfield is to be congratulated on giving a local color and setting to the ever-popular detective story. "Bony." as he is familiarly called by his friends, is a lineal descendant of Sherlock Holmes, a true character in his eccentricities, and his own peculiar methods of handling his cases."[9]
The book achieved some degree of notoriety when it was discovered that "Snowy" Rowles, an acquaintance of Upfield's, had used Upfield's then unpublished novel's method of body disposal to destroy evidence of a murder.[10] Rowles was charged, convicted and later executed for the murder of a New Zealander, Louis Carron, although he was also suspected of being involved in the disappearance and deaths of two others, James Ryan and George Lloyd. These deaths came to be referred to as the Murchison Murders.