Venom House

Set in Queensland, Bony's home state, the novel focuses on the disparity of character between 2 sisters and their brother. One sister is tougher than the majority of stockmen, the other as refined as the ladies of leisure in a city mansion. The brother is a virtual prisoner maintained in a purile state yet has great strength. They live with the housekeeper isolated on an island in a lagoon on which Venom House stands. Upfield uses the house's savage history to support his contention that the sins of the ancestors can be visited upon the living and Bony has to battle with his aboriginal fear of darkness to solve the succession of murders. The normal characters of solid local policeman and reliable bushman appear but this time the pretty "squatters" daughter expriences a quite different role.