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The Beach of Atonement

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An early Upfield mystery novel, first published in 1930. This is the story of a man who shot his wifes lover and thus created a memory which wrecked his own life. It is a strong and strangely compelling tale full of vivid descriptions and graphic pictures. Arnold Dudley loved his wife and killed the man who stole her from him. Hunted by justice, pursued by bitter remorse, he fled to a stretch of beach on the Australian coast and lived in utter loneliness. When almost driven to madness by the solitude, he meets two women, who strive with splendid sacrifice to re build his broken life. They fail; and it is left for fate to provide the great opportunity for expiation.

Arthur Upfield was born in Gosport in 1890 and arrived in Australia in 1911, working near Broken Hill as a rouseabout and cook. He enlisted in 1914 and was allotted to Light Horse Brigade train and served from Gallipoli to Beersheba, at the same time as Ion Idriess. He began writing while in the outback, and created the first Aboriginal detective, Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte – or Bony – based on the Aboriginal tracker Leon Wood. The first Bony appeared in The Barrakee Mystery in 1929, and he became an international celebrity in 1932 when his book The Sands of Windee was the model for the murderer Snowy Rowles (see Upfield's Murchison Murders) 29 Bonys were published, also in France and Germany. 26 episodes were made for TV in the early 1970s, and will soon appear again on your screen. “In the mystique of the bush, Upfield saw elements of epic power in Australian life. In contrast, his rather dry style and meticulous plotting seem distinctly smaller in scale. But that is part of Upfield's impact, creating a worm's eye view of awesome natural grandeur, a sense of human inadequacy in a dominating continent.”

* Hard to get early Upfield thriller.

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