The Mystery of Swordfish Reef is the 7th in the Bony series by Arthur Upfield. It is set on the South Coast of New South Wales at Bermagui (which was delightful in itself as this is only a short distance from my home) and the story concerns the disappearance of the fishing launch Do-Me with all hands. A thorough search by other launches, Police and even small planes fails to turn up anything of the launch, the two crewmen or the angler aboard her, except for a thermos flask. Some days later, the captain of a fishing trawler finds amongst his catch the head, complete with bullet holes, of the missing angler, a Mr Ericson visiting from UK. Three months later, Bony is called in to investigate, as Mr Ericson was a good friend of the NSW Police Commissioner. Thus Bony manages to combine his investigative work on a very interesting case with the opportunity to try his hand at sword-fishing: one does, after all, have to examine the scene of the crime! Bony freely admits that his expertise lies in tracking on land, rather than at sea where traces of crime are soon obliterated if they are even apparent, but his pride leads him to attempt to solve the case despite the chance that he may, in this instance, fail to do so. There is rather a lot of description of landing marlin, together with not so much detective work, but what detection is described is first-rate. Upfield packs his story with much information about big game fishing, as well as touching on twins, weather, visibility and coastal currents. As always, Upfield treats the reader to realistic characters and an original plot with a gripping climax. Another good Bony read.
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"More fish in that shoal than would be wanted to feed Australia for a year," Wilton said, seriously. "If all the fish in that shoal was put aboard a twenty thousand ton ship they'd sink her. And, Bony, Australia imports every year more than a million pounds' worth of tinned fish.""So I've heard," Bony said. "And I recently heard Joe refer to the various governments sending out ships to look for fish along our coasts. I wonder if they have ever heard of Bermagui and Montague Island. I don't suppose so. There's enough fish in this sea to provide us all with fish at a penny a pound. Yes, Jack, it's a mad world, and it's getting madder every year."An hour later they trolled in water clear of shoal fish, only to pass into another area crowded with countless billions of king-fish averaging four pounds each in weight."And men on the basic wage in the cities and wondering how to feed the kids," Wilton said, bitterly. "And fishermen along this coast struggling to make a living in a limited market."Again they got free into clear water, and Bony watched the receding area of tortured sea whilst he wondered at the selfishness of man which denied a stupendous harvest of the sea to the hungry. As he had said, it is a mad world. [182-3]
—Lucy
