Part of Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte, book 19
First published 1983
Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte tracks a dangerous suspect through Australia's remote outback. A policeman lies dead, and all evidence points to an Aboriginal tracker whose skills in the wilderness match Bony's own. The hunt becomes a deadly game of cat and mouse as two expert trackers pit their knowledge against each other across the harsh landscape. Bony must use every technique he knows to stay alive while pursuing a man who knows the country as well as he does. The investigation forces Bony to confront not just a clever adversary, but the complex tensions between his own mixed heritage and his role as a lawman. In the unforgiving bush, survival depends on reading the land correctly, and one mistake could be fatal.
Genres: adventure, mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: cat-and-mouse, enemies-to-allies
Setting: Australia, Outback
Period: 20th-century
192 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Scribner Paper Fiction