Published by Hodder and Stoughton in 1955 at 7/6 (37½p.) with an initial print run of 9,000. Like its immediate predecessor, Castle Minerva, it is told as first-person narrative. The title appears to pick up the line "Of his bones are coral made" from the song "Full Fathom Five" in The Tempest. This was too obscure for some readers, so the book was retitled Twist of the knife for its US hardback editon, The Shark Run for the paperback edition and Shark for the film.
The 1970 film with Burt Reynolds and Silvia Pinal was directed by Samuel Fuller but then so much altered by the producers that he disowned the film.
Howard Smith (re-named Howard Caine for the movie) is a pilot ferrying cargo between Port Sudan and Cairo. He has been persuaded to carry drugs. His plane crashes. He takes a job working for a professor ostensibly doing underwater archaeology, in fact retrieving gold bullion. Love, danger from sharks, betrayal, all as expected.
 First edition 1955 |
 NEL paperback 1968 |
 DVD of the 1970 movie |
| Index of characters, locations and themes |
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