His troublesome toothache must be put on hold when one-man police force Hamish Macbeth discovers the local dentist dead of nicotine poisoning, despite the fact that he was a non-smoker.
Bony, passing himself off as the vacationing owner of a sheep ranch, is investigating the murder of a naked man found in a locker at Split Point Lighthouse. Inspector Snook has failed to identify the dead man but Bony, working on the assumption that the murderer must have been a local person who knew the schedule of the Lighthouse Inspectors, insersts himsclf in the local people. He shares and sympathizes with their joys and sorrows, past and present, and finally he unravels an unhappy story and solves the mystery.
Two men are killed by cyanide poisoning before Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte comes to Broken Hill to take up the case, and a third dies soon after he arrives. All die in crowded public places, and all are elderly and single. Witnesses recall a woman being near each man before he died, but their descriptions seem to be of entirely different women. Clues are old and witnesses have been mishandled by an inept investigator before Bony arrives in the prosperous mining town, but with the help of the local constabulary, a professional burglar vacationing in Broken Hill, Inspector Bonaparte mounts an investigation to try to identify the murderer before she finds another victim.
When Samantha Harrigan attends the local rodeo, she doesn't expect to wind up in jail. But that's what happens when she tries to stop a drunkard from abusing his horse. Tucker Coulter, a handsome local veterinarian, comes to her defense, and both of them are arrested. The charges are dropped, but Sam's troubles have only started...
When Samantha Harrington attends the local rodeo, she doesn't expect to wind up in jail. But that's precisely what happens when she tries to stop a drunkard from abusing his horse. At least she isn't alone. Tucker Coulter, a handsome local veterinarian, comes to her defense-and is arrested too. The charges are dropped, but Sam's troubles have only started. Her champion quarter horses are falling ill and the culprit is poison.
