The Will of the Tribe

Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte #27

by Arthur W. Upfield

A body has been found in a meteor crater in the middle of the Australian desert, with no hint of how it got there. No tracks around the crater and no stranger in town. It soon becomes obvious to Bony that both the locals and the Aboriginals are guarding a secret - until the will of the Tribe breaks their silence...

Genres: Mystery, Australia, Crime, Detective, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Audiobook

224 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Aka Arthur Upfield

Arthur William Upfield (1 September 1890 – 13 February 1964) was an Australian writer, best known for his works of detective fiction featuring Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte ('Bony') of the Queensland Police Force, a half-caste Aborigine.

Born in England, Upfield moved to Australia in 1910 and fought with the Australian military during the First World War. Following his war service, he travelled extensively throughout Australia, obtaining a knowledge of Australian Aboriginal culture that would later be used extensively in his written works. In addition to his detective fiction, Upfield was also a member of the Australian Geological Society and was involved in numerous scientific expeditions. Upfield's works remained popular after his death, and in the 1970s were the basis for an Australian television series entitled "Boney".

Reviews

[Janelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm just a few chapters into this, but the issue of Aboriginal assimilation has been featured already. It gives a window into the culture that accepted and promoted the official practice of removing aboriginal children from their parents in order to give them a white upbringing. It's become of controversial issue for our day, as we as a society deal with the repercussions on the lives of these children and their families.

Final comments
In The Will of the Tribe, we see more deeply into Bony's heart than in any of the previous books. Until now, Upfield has chosen to share Bony's thoughts and attitudes more through character and action. In the Will of the Tribe Bony vocalises his opinion and thoughts much more. This takes the focus off the mystery (which really is a small part of the book) and places it firmly on Bony, and the challenges faced by the Aboriginal people of the late 1950's. Given that I'm nearly at the end of my long quest to read the Bony books in (almost) chronological order, I appreciate the added intimacy I found near its end.

[Sarah B · Rating 2 out of 5]

So this is the first book in this series I have ever read (even though this is book #27). I needed to read a book set in Australia for a challenge and I happened to have this one on hand so it was time to actually read it. And the story plot sounded so intriguing! A body left inside a meteor crater with no footprints going there! How was that even possible??? And that is what I had wanted to learn....

So I did learn the secret of how to walk without leaving footprints. Does it actually work?? No idea....

BUT...

The plot in here is, well, its bad. To be honest even after I read the final page and finished the book I had felt very confused as to why the man had been killed. I had tried to reread the final three pages but still felt puzzled. I know who the Inspector is saying the murderer is, but why? And the Inspector doesn't seem to believe the one story by the one other guy either (the "excuse" of how the man was killed) - so if the Inspector doesn't believe this well then what is the truth?? I feel I am left hanging and very confused! Isn't the purpose of these books to explain the murder in a clear fashion? But nothing is clear in here at all.

And that doesn't cover the big confusion I had about the native Aborigines in here either. My confusion was pretty bad at the beginning of the book. They were talking about "wild" ones and "semi-civilized" ones. After much reading I have figured out that the "wild" ones are the ones who still live their native lifestyle, in "huts" with fires and such. And the others are the ones who live more like the western white man in houses and wear normal clothes, etc. Or I think that is what it means. But I did find it very confusing. I will admit I never read a book that featured the Aborigines before (but I have read lots of books about the various Native American tribes before so I can sort of use that as a reference). Still there are different words and different cultures (even if both live off the land).

There was another scene in here - towards the end - that I did not understand at all.. It made no sense to me. It starts on chapter 22. Its between Tessa and Captain. I do not understand why Tessa did what she did. And its hard to like a book if there are scenes like this that seem to twist sideways and go off on some tangent that makes no sense. I realize they are Aborigines but what Tessa does is the last thing a western woman would do in that situation.

Plus it seemed I had to read 50 to 60 pages before the actual investigation started!!

So add all of these things together and I rate the book very low.

The only thing that "saves" this book (to get a 2 star rating instead of 1 star) is Mr Lamb. I loved him!! What a feisty fellow!! And yes, he is an actual sheep. 🐑 He steels the show.

And throughout this whole book I never cared at all about the murder or who done it or why. The other stuff in here was just too confusing. And it left too much unanswered.

Plus poor Star.... 😥

[Bev · Rating 3 out of 5]

An unknown man is found dead in the middle of a meteor crater in the Australian desert. None of the homesteads in the area or the the aboriginal encampments admit to the man having passed through their territory--though he must have gone through the land somewhere, somehow, whether alive or dead. He wasn't dropped from a plane because nothing is broken except the back of his head where it made contact with the proverbial blunt instrument. The local police are stumped and so, Inspector Napoleon "Bony" Bonaparte is sent to find out two things: 1. How did the man get to the crater without anyone taking notice. 2. What was the motive. The upper level authorities don't want Bony to bother with discovering who the man was...they know and it's all hush-hush. But how is a detective supposed to determine a motive when he knows nothing about the victim?

Well, if anyone can, then it's Bony, the half-white, half-aboriginal policeman with a perfect record in crime-solving. His dual heritage helps him understand both the tribal customs and the white settlers and he soon realizes that both groups are keeping back knowledge about what happened to the man and how his body arrived where it was found. He'll have to be very clever indeed to get the tribesmen to reveal what he needs to know.

The story highlights the dual loyalties of those who are either of mixed race or who, being black, have been raised or employed by the white settlers. Bony with his own mixed heritage is able to help the tribal people strike a balance that allows the mystery to be unraveled fairly. Upfield makes much of Bony's individualism that allows him to advocate for true justice (rather than a slavish adherence to the letter of the law). It sometimes gets him in trouble with his superiors, but that doesn't bother him much. He knows he's too good at his job for them do much to him.

The mystery itself isn't really much--since we have no clues about the identity of the man, there isn't any question of motive. The silence around how he got there makes it obvious that those who Bony talks with much know more than they tell and there's not much question about who is covering up. The strength in this story is in Upfield's description of the area and the depiction of the relationship between the black men and the white homesteaders. An interesting look at Australia in the early 1960s.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave this book four stars because of its unusual setting and deep dive into the relationship between whites and aborigines in Australia. The protagonist, Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte (Bony) is a worthy lead character. As a half caste white/aborigine, he displays the skills of both sides of his heritage. The setting is the wild outback and there is a great deal of material (maybe too much?) about the social mores of the place. The book was hard to get into, but as I became familiar with the setting, etc., I enjoyed the book. Upfield has written a ton of these books and I might read another, although it would not be at the top of my list.

[Gene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really just 2.5 stars for this book. I guess I went into it expecting something different. I didn't realize I would be reading a book about Australia and its white and aboriginal cultures. Some of the terms threw me off initially because of the differences of Australian English and terms related specifically to the aboriginal lifestyle. And then I never seemed to really regain my footing with the story. The mystery was well developed, and the characters fairly interesting, but I had a hard time picturing some of the behaviors and dialogues as being authentic, but that could just be my unfamiliarity with life there. I won't go out of my way to find another book in this series.

[Lila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Upfield's mysteries are always a bit difficult to handle. They do reflect older, more racist views of aborigine people, but much that is also positive. The Australian setting and description of life on far flung stations keep these works in print. Here a meteorite impact crater, called "Lucifer's Couch," form the the center of the story as a body is found there, but no tracks indicating how it got there. The crater is based on Wolfe Creek Crater that Upfield visited.in 1948. How the victim got there is more important than his identity and Boney is apparently not told of his identity.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bony (a policeman having some aborigines roots) is tasked to find out why a dead man lying in the center of a meteor crater in the Australian outback is not reported or what happened to cause his death. This story is steeped in loyalties among the aborigines tribe and the whites they work for. Eighteen year old Tessa, an aborigines raised as white wants to go to school to be a teacher and write a book of legends. Bony gets little sleep tracking all the members of the camp to get to the bottom of the real story. He is very smart and tries hard to avoid upset of all parties. A master!

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a late entry into the long-running series, but it was still published at a time when questions of race were not handled as well as we today might prefer. Still, the mystery is solid, the setting vividly evoked, and the period realized as one wold expect from someone who had been living and writing within it for as long as Upfield had. With the caveat that certain cultural assumptions may startle, this is not a bad glimpse at the past.

[John Sheahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am hankering for the landscapes of Upfield's novels. The cultural setting has changed but not beyond recognition - this is the world to which I am deeply connected but never belonged. The conclusion of this mystery is a little clunky, perhaps. A slow pace, vivid descriptions, Australian characters and Bony make for an absorbing read.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A body is found in a meteorite crater in the top end and Bony is sent to find out how the stranger managed to reach the location without anyone knowing.. An intriguing mystery which keeps the reader guessing.

[Elisabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

A crime story similar to any other master detective I'd say, but including culturally different circumstances with tribal dynamics. In the end, the whole incident was revealed in a culminating finale.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: a body is found in the middle of a crater in the outback of Northern Australia. With no tracks, how did he get there? Bony must solve it!

[Elva Paulson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Upfield has never disappointed me.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not much of a mystery and certainly not one of the better books in the series. Interesting for Upfield’s interpretation of why aboriginals have difficulty assimilating into white culture.

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I'll employ a few cliches. We mustn't rush our fences or charge about like a bull in a china shop. Everything will come out in the wash."
"I adore cliches," Rose avowed unsimilingly. "Kurt, you behave. We have agreed to do certain things first thing in the morning. They will be more interesting than losing the temper and thrashing an aborigine. You look for that horse. Leave Captain and Gup-Gup to me."
The powerful, square-faced cattleman who had thrived on battling with drought and flood and fire, who had fisted his way to and fro across these northern mountains and over the spaces of the arid desert, subsided physically and mentally, and grinned like a boy found in an apple tree.
"The wife's always right," he admitted to Bony. "We start a race. I ride straight and true and hard. She rides round corners, stops to admire the scenery, rides on again and stops to do her hair. And gets first to the post. It's been always like that."
"Well, it isn't hard to take, is it?" asked the chuckling Bony.
"No, not particularly" (96).

"The Aboriginal Culture is like a well to the bottom of which no white man has ever descended to the water of complete knowledge, and because of the ever-expanding influence of an alien white race, no white man ever will. Confusion has been created by the white man himself to add to the certainty of frustration and defeat in his latter day efforts to investigate. Today it isn't possible to determine what are the legitimate legends and what the fabrications of imaginative white men" (107-8).

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chronologically, this is the last of the Upfield Bony mysteries, about the half-cast Australian detective. It doesn't have the same element of mystery as most of the others in the series, nor the depth of mystery-solving skills for Bony, but it is worth a read for the continuation of descriptions of Australia of the mid-20th century, and the role in the time and place of the Aborigine people in the northwest corner of Western Australia.

Having read all of these books many years ago, it has been enjoyable for my husband and I to listen together to the narration by Peter Hoskings, produced by Bolinda Audio.

[Sue Law · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bony does espionage (in a detective sort of way).
A body appears in the middle of Wolfe Creek Crater with the back of his head bashed in. There are no tracks leading to or from the body. The security services know who it is, but aren't saying anything. Bony is called in, not necessarily to find out who delivered the blow, but how the body got there...

[Lemar · Rating 5 out of 5]

In what may be the last of the series of "Bony" mysteries, Upfield once again delivers a nuanced mystery which is also a window into the life of aborigines and white settlers. The Will Of The Tribe Northern Australia around 1962.

[Sharron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good narrator and a strong sense of the Outback but figuring out "who did it" didn't pose much of a challenge. Fortunately, why it all happened was a bit more intriguing. That said, this title is by no means his best and could readily be skipped by all but diehard fans of the series.

[Rogue Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will really have to spread out the Upfield books, they are a real pleasure and shouldn't be rushed. This is the last Bony mystery and it is full of introspection, reflection and self awareness. The incredible landscape and the increasingly complex lives of the native peoples are beautifully done.

[Nfreynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good detective mystery of the old Sherlock Holmes genre set in Broome, Northern Australia, 1950's. Good quick vacation/beach read.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A man is found dead in the middle of a crater in the desert. There are no tracks to show how he got there. Interesting plot will keep you guessing until the end.