"Our distinctive student of violence arrives incognito at Merino, in western New South Wales, and, as a first move, provokes the local sergeant to lock him up. The method in Bony's madness is that while serving a semi-detention sentence and being made to paint the police station, he wears the best of all disguises. Here again is a first-rate Upfield mystery, made warm by humour, by the background characters and his portrayal of the natural background scene." - from the 1983 Angus & Robertson "Arkon" edition

Death of a Swagman was printed in 1945 by Doubleday's Crime Club in the United States and by McClelland and Stewart in Canada. Aldor of London printed the first British edition in 1946 and Angus and Robertson of Sydney printed the first Australian edition in 1947. Pictured above is the cover of the 1983 Arkon edition printed by Angus and Robertson.