I don’t know what it is about me reading books involving the
devil’s footprints of late. But that’s precisely what we get in Arthur
Upfield’s The Devil’s Steps—at one
point, it seems that Satan himself walked across a patch of grass, killing the
grass there and leaving the imprint of enormous feet. And indeed, this is the
cleverest situation of the book, and rather quickly explained. The rest of the
book is a rather unsuccessful attempt to combine a mystery and a spy thriller
of sorts.
Please be warned: I read an audiobook edition, and the
narrator was good… but I have no idea how most of these names are spelled. So I
won’t risk it. I’ll be avoiding names throughout this review. Anyhow, The Devil’s Steps opens with the murder
of a German man down in an Australian guest home. Luckily, Inspector Napoleon
Bonaparte is there to conduct the investigation? Although it’s not really a stroke of luck—it turns out the
murder victim was a very highly placed official during the Third Reich and left
the country with important state secrets that ‘Bony’ must recover before they
fall into the wrong hands!
