19 OCTOBER 1956, Page 26

MAN OF Two TRIBES. By Arthur Upfield. (Heinemann, 12s. 6d.)

Here, by way of contrast, is the prose laureate of the great Aus- tralian out-back, and although the kidnapping of a number of released murderers, and the motive behind it, are both a little far-fetched, Napoleon Bonaparte the half-aborigine tracker- detective is as shrewd and as likeable as ever, and the description of the relentless, sun-tortured, dead desert heart of Australia is first class by any standards at all.