Battling Prophet — Arthur W. Upfield

Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte is on leave, staying with an old friend near Adelaide. Ben Wickham, a meteorologist whose uncannily accurate weather forecasts had helped farmers all over Australia, lived nearby. Ben died after a three-week drinking binge and a doctor certified death as due to delirium tremens - but Bony's host insists that whatever Ben died of it wasn't alcohol...

 

This is an unusual crime story for Upfield, but, revealing the vast range of his interests, it is one of the better ones ... Constable Alice McGorr returns and is at her strongest and most profane best ... she is extraordinary, and should be appreciated as one of his major creations. - from The Spirit of Australia by Ray Browne.

 

Bony - a unique figure among top-flight detectives - BBC