Customer Reviews

The Mystery of Swordfish Reef

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I enjoy reading this series.Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte ("Bony") leaves the bush to investigate a murder that occurred several months before at sea. Deprived of his usual bushmaster skills he must rely on others to read the sign of the sea. A solid mystery. You experience big game fishing with him as he solves the crime.

I've been reading Arthur Upfield's "Bony" mysteries for several years now, hunting them down as I can, as they were written in the late 40's and 50's. ...the books are absolutely awesome in their sense of the place that is Australia, the character delineations and the incredible world of "the tracker," someone who can read "the story of the bush" to tell what happened. In all of these mysteries, I've never figured it out before Bony did. The pace of the stories is slow, even languid, but the books are very well written, and full of information about a place most of us will never visit, and its culture. Sometimes Bony goes undercover, as he does here, and these are my favorites. "Bony" is Napolean Bonaparte, the detective: a half aborigine, half white man. He's smarter than anybody, and while he sounds like a pain in the neck, in the book his manners are smooth and charming. There is nothing vulgar (except drunkenness) in any of these books. I find them fascinating, and enthralling. Mystery at Swordfish Reef is one of my favorites.

As an Arthur Upfield fan of the first water I feel like an apostate for giving one of the Master's works only four stars, but this one deserves it. The ending's trite. Sometimes Upfield's a poor closer and this book is one example. Otherwise the story's compelling and for most of the book this one's vintage Upfield. Get "The Mystery of Swordfish Reef," forget that you read somewhere that it has a weak ending, and enjoy. Maybe for you the last will be as good as the first. Then buy another Bony mystery and another and another 'till you've read them all. They're all good and, maybe they all truly deserve five stars.

This book is quite different from most modern writings in fiction in that it is written in a more literary sense. The writing could be compared somewhat to a Hemingway novel. The entire environment and the characters are so richly painted and crisply defined that you not only enter the story but really feel it as well. The story takes place in an australian fishing village where you'll feel like you've lived for a while when you're done reading. If you're a person who likes the true mystery in a story this reading is for you. If you only like blood, gore and unending suspense and thrills with your mystery fiction I'd highly suggest you go elsewhere. The story is believable and well conceived as well as very well written for its time.
Anyone who enjoys fishing, especially deep sea, will really enjoy the book and it's attention to detail with respect to fishing for marlin. Just an added bonus for a few readers out there but another fine point that shows the author goes to great extremes in an unbelievably concise manner to bring in every detail. The overall story develops a little slowly, but the rich detail, believability and fine characters make this a great read for those who would enjoy a more literary fiction novel.

Although I've enjoyed all of the "Bony" mysteries, this one left me unimpressed. While Upfield's detective, the indomitable Napoleon Bonaparte, was as charming as ever, the plot drifted away with the tide once he headed out to sea.

In this book, Bony takes a "busman's holiday" while he engages in a bit of deep-sea fishing in Bermagui, Australia. The story begins with the disappearance of the "Do-Me" a sport fishing vessel which has unnaccountably vanished with the entire crew. When fishermen later discover a head with a bullet hole in it, Bony is called in to investigate. At that point Upfield completely drops the plot in order to go fishing. He gets back to the story after Bony catches a couple of swordfish (roughly another 100 pages), but by then, unless you are a deep-sea fishing enthusiast, you will have put the book down.

I wouldn't have minded Upfield's excursions into fishing if he had paid more attention to his plot and to his characters, but both suffered enormously in this story. So did the general atmosphere. I missed the Australian outback-- its vegetation, its vast spaces, the uniqueness of the aboriginal perspective.

If you are eager to begin the Bony series, I would suggest you start with any of Upfield's other novels (with the exception of The Monster of Lake Frome, which was not written by Upfield). Death of a Lake, Bushranger of the Skies, and Man of Two Tribes are all excellent starting points and much more representative of the series as a whole.

Upfield has a skillfull panache for generating a superb ambiance for his numerous "cozy murders". And this one is a real zinger.

Right away, the reader begins to wonder, how in the world is Inspector Napoleon Bonepart ("Boney" to his pals) going to solve a murder that took place out to sea, off the Australian coast? All the clues appear unretrievable, at the bottom of the ocean! But Boney wades right on in, now worrying in the least about this actuality and he DOES come up with clues -- he even manages to get in a good amount of exciting fishing time.

Boney is half-caucasian, half-Aborigine, and he utilizes his almost magical indigenous skills to solve the toughest of crimes where others have only failed. His superiors are always pushing him on time but Boney ignores them, (and their hollow threats to fire him for insubordination), plodding along and never failing to unearth the criminal. This particular entry is also a bit of a thriller near the end as the stormy action escalates and suspense builds.

Arthur Upfield is a real "find" for mystery lovers and his unique detective, Napoleon Bonepart, is at least a match for Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes. Upfield's other "Bony" mysteries, such as "Murder Down Under," are equally great. Don't miss this one!

The opening is quite promising with the disappearance of the Do-Me (kind of an unfortunate name) along with her captain, herone man crew and the angler who hired them. Then the angler's head with a gun shot wound turns up in a trawler's net. An attempt is made to investigate, but the police are stymied. So they send in Napoleon Bonapart, their best detective.

Then Boney starts to fish-- and he fishes and he fishes. I don't have any ethical problem with fishing as a sport, but I found myself feeling a bit indignant about the wastefulness of catching a 580 lb. fish for sport, hanging it up by it's tail on the "town triangle" to have pictures taken, then disposing of it after a few days when it probably rank.

Boney the fisherman is not nearly as interesting as Boney the detective.

Oh, as for the mystery, it was pretty obvious by mid book (if not earlier) who had done the angler in and why. The how was not as obvious though.

Unless you like long descriptions of fishing activity I recommend reading The Bone Is Pointed or one of the other books in this series instead.

This editionis missing the map entitled, "Bony's Key Plan' which is in the front of previous editions. (The first page of this edition is page 7.) Without this map is would be difficult to follow the solution of the crime.

One of the best "Bony" novels, received in excellent new condition, before the date delivery was due

Another Upfield success. Detection and Aussie "Abo" insight is the perfect match. An older series that needs to be brought back to press in a complete set.