Mystery of Swordfish Reef

I like Napoleon Bonaparte, the detective. Sadly, I had to wait until around page 194 until he started working on the mystery. The book ended page 256. If you like to read about swordfishing, you will like this book.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.