While working on a rabbit-proof fence in 1929, Australia's leading crime writer of the period, Arthur Upfield, began plotting the perfect murder for his 1931 novel The Sands of Windee. A discussion between Upfield and a fellow worker about finding a fool-proof means of disposing of a body to use in the novel was overheard by one of the author's friends, stockman 'Snowy' Rowles. Shortly afterwards Rowles murdered three men and put the scheme into effect. He was later charged by police, however, and the subsequent trial became one of Australia's most sensational during the 1930s.
The Sands of Windee
1931
single work
novel
crime
detective
'An Inspector Bonaparte Mystery featuring Bony, the first Aboriginal detective. Why had Luke Marks driven specially out to Windee? Had he been murdered or had he,as the local police believed, wandered away from his car and been overwhelmed in a dust-storm? When Bony noticed something odd in the background of a police photograph, he begins to piece together the secrets of the sands of Windee. Here is the original background to the infamous Snowy Rowles murder trial.'
