One of the most common complaints about mystery novels is that they’re unrealistic. It’s just not believable, the nay-sayers say, for an amateur sleuth to solve a crime that baffles the experts. But a 1980s case from the Australian Outback shows the assumptions upon which that claim is based, and disproves them.

Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, is a huge sandstone…

My uniform pocket, meanwhile, felt rather heavy. And increasingly hot.

That midnight, while Greentree and those who couldn’t escape continued the search, I rappelled down the outside wall of his apartment building, let myself into his bedroom, and planted the ruddy things in the trouser pocket of the uniform he’d worn the previous day. It seemed a decent enough plan at the time, and my skills weren’t so rusty that I left any fingerprints that would incriminate me. And I must admit to…