History Literature / Bony

Bony -- properly speaking, Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte -- is the protagonist of a long-running Australian series of detective novels by Arthur Upfield. The first novel of the series, ''The Barrakee Mystery'', was published in 1929, and sequels continued to appear until the author's death in the [[TheSixties 1960s]].

Bony -- properly speaking, Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte -- is the protagonist of a long-running Australian series of detective novels by Arthur Upfield. The first novel of the series, ''The Barakee Mystery'', was published in 1929, and sequels continued to appear until the author's death in the [[TheSixties 1960s]].

* DoesNotLikeShoes:
** In ''The Barrakee Mystery'', Mrs Thornton is in a running conflict with her Aboriginal servant Martha, who (although otherwise conforming to civilized dress standards) contrives to lose whatever shoes Mrs Thornton gives her to wear. At the time of the murder, they've temporarily compromised on a pair of men's boots, which confuses the evidence trail because the murderer left the print of the same style of boot. In the end, [[spoiler:Mrs Thornton dies]] and Martha is last seen with "her feet unencumbered by hateful, unnatural footwear".
** In ''The Mystery of Swordfish Reef'', the sailor Joe Peace has always gone barefoot as long as anyone can remember. His deep knowledge of the sea and its contents makes him something of a marine equivalent of an EarthyBarefootCharacter.

* IdentificationByDentalRecords: In ''The Mystery of Swordfish Reef'', the murder victim's corpse is significantly decomposed by the time it's discovered, but a friend of the deceased recalls that he had dental work done within the past year, and knows the dentist who did it, so the identity of the deceased is able to be established from the dental records.

* IdentificationByDentalRecords: In ''The Mystery of Swordfish Reef'', the murder victim's corpse is significantly decomposed by the time it's discovered, but a friend of the deceased recalls that he had significant dental work done, and knows the dentist who did it, so the identity of the deceased is able to be established from the dental records.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: In ''The Barrakee Mystery'', Mrs Thornton is in a running conflict with her Aboriginal servant Martha, who (although otherwise conforming to civilized dress standards) contrives to lose whatever shoes Mrs Thornton gives her to wear. At the time of the murder, they've temporarily compromised on a pair of men's boots, which confuses the evidence trail because the murderer left the print of the same style of boot. In the end, [[spoiler:Mrs Thornton dies]] and Martha is last seen with "her feet unencumbered by hateful, unnatural footwear".

** In ''The Bone Is Pointed'', Bony gives several surrogate progress reports to various animals, including his horse
and his hunting dog.

** In ''Winds of Evil'', Bony is sent to investigate two old murders because the killer is still at large and expected to strike again. He has to deal with all the evidence being lost or obscured by time and the incompetence of the detective who investigated at the time.

* MagicalNegro: Some Aboriginal shamans, such as Bony's friend Illawarra who appears in several novels, are depicted this way and are able to communicate telepathically to pass messages, wake unconscious characters, and the like.

* SurrogateSoliloquy: In ''The Sands of Windee'', Bony spends most of one chapter explaining his current progress on the investigation to a small bird that happens to perch nearby.

* IdiotBall: In ''Winds of Evil'', Bony sets up [[BaitingTheSerialKiller a trap for the Strangler]], in the form of a decoy victim wearing a special collar that will protect his throat and indelibly mark the Strangler's hands so that he can be identified even if he escapes. The decoy is attacked, there is a scuffle in the dark, and the police bodyguard emerges triumphant with an unconscious suspect in handcuffs. Bony spends several minutes checking the unconscious man over to make sure his head injury isn't too serious, but neglects to look at his hands and confirm that they're marked, despite that being the entire point of the trap. This oversight, lampshaded by Bony himself later as one of the worst lapses of his career, is necessary so that Bony can be ambushed by the real Strangler at the end of the chapter for the dramatic final confrontation.

* SwitchedAtBirth: In ''Winds of Evil'', part of the backstory is that two local women -- the wife of the local landowner and another, poorer woman whose husband was an unstable drunkard -- gave birth to sons around the same time. The official record is that the poorer woman's child died soon after, but Bony figures out that it was actually the landonwer's son who died, and the landowner persuaded the poorer woman to let the babies be exchanged. She tells Bony that she doesn't regret the exchange, as she's been able to watch her son grow up, in a much better home environment than she'd have been able to offer him, into a man any mother could be proud of.

* SerialKillerBaiting: In ''Winds of Evil'', Bony is trying to catch a serial killer, and resorts to baiting the killer with an appartently unwary young lady who is actually a young man in HarmlessLadyDisguise. The trap doesn't entirely come off -- in the darkness and confusion, the killer gets away while the police collar another man who had been staking out the area in an independent attempt to catch the killer -- but the killer sustains an injury that leads to his identity being revealed shortly afterward.

* DrivenToSuicide: In ''Mr Jelly's Business'', one of the two culprits commits suicide to avoid having to live with the consequences of discovery. The other contemplates suicide as preferable to a public trial and execution, but can't bring himself to go through with it.

* MagicalNegro: Some Aboriginal shamans are depicted this way and are able to communicate telepathically to pass messages, wake unconscious characters, and the like.