It was originally published in the Australia by Angus & Robertson in 1938, and subsequently serialised in The Herald newspaper in Melbourne between September and November 1938, under the title Murder on the Station.

(Publication summary)"[1] The action of the novel takes place around "Opal Town" or Opalton, Queensland in the Channel Country of the Diamantina River.

Considered solely as a mystery yarn, featuring that ingenious and original sleuth, Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte, it is one of the best things that he has written.

And, fourthly, scene and local colour that, apart altogether from the story itself, grip the imagination and hold the reader's unflagging attention.

Mr. Upfleld is among the first flight of detective story writers, a peer of the Dorothy Sayers's and other leaders in this class of fiction.