Upfield, Arthur - Murder Must Wait (1953)

From the blurb:

In the little town of Mitford, New South Wales, four babies have mysteriously disappeared - all boys, all under three months old, and all apparently neglected by their mothers. The local police have given up, the trail is cold - the only hope is Bony. And when Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte arrives on the scene a new dimension has been added to the puzzle: a fifth child has vanished and his mother has been found lying beside the empty cot - dead. But Bony's brief is to find those babies and, for once, murder must wait.

Bony is never at his best out of the bush, and this is not one of the great Bony novels. The most memorable moments stem from his interaction with the Aboriginal population of the settlement outside Mitford, while the complicated and improbable plot involving the white town middle-class is soon forgotten. Part of the problem is the introduction of police constable Alice McGorr, from Melbourne, who provides feminine insights into the baby thefts. Upfield was seldom convincing with his female characters, and the forced joviality of the Alice moments brings his rather creepy misogyny a little too close to the surface. For collectors only.

Jon.