When Inspector Bonaparte is called to the drought-stricken outback sheep station he finds that two men have been savagely beaten to death. Clues are scarce in this sun-baked, sand-blown country, but Bony's understanding of the bush and the people who live there - both black and white - leads him inexorably towards the killer...

Good-looking Marvin Rhudder came home from college on a long summer vacation. The day it ended he raped Rose Jukes...Thirteen years later, after a long series of sex crimes, he returns to Timbertown - wanted for murder. Some remembered him with hatred, some with love, but no one ever forgot Marvin. Hidden in the cliff caves of the dangerous southern coast, it would take an army to prise Marvin out - or maybe just Inspector Bonaparte...