We arrived on Miss Fisher’s doorstep in a “bass-akward” kind of manner: first by the television series from Australian Broadcasting being “recommended” by the Affinity Engine in Netflix, and then discovering that there is a whole shelf of books following the Honorable Phryne Fisher through her career as Melbourne’s most discerning, delectable, sexually-active, and wealthiest female detective.For someone who tries to write well, it’s hard to shake the idea that “more” equals “less”. When biographies report that Kerry Greenwood has written more than twenty novels, my initial reaction was that of someone typing eight hours a day, six days a week, recycling tons of characters and idea, not showing much creativity or imagination as her editor sits in the living room, waiting for pages.In fact, with some experience behind me, I’d say that Miss Fisher stacks up pretty well with most of the classics: at least as entertaining as Agatha Christie, and miles ahead of the plain vanilla “cozy mysteries” that are being produced by the thousands to fill Kindle readers.In case you’re unacquainted with them, “cozy mysteries” are among the oddest of our new genres. It’s murder, without much mayhem, usually in a more rural setting: diluting Death to the point where it’s such another thing to talk about when you run into someone at the post office. “Oh my...someone’s been murdered! I hadn’t heard. Will there be cake at the funeral?”“Cozy” is easy to write, because it’s never very disturbing—you can pull characters “off the shelf” so to speak—and the narrative doesn’t need to be the least bit tight, as events move very, very slowly. The author has an entire book to fill up, and chatting (with a side of misdirection) takes up most of it.And then we have Phryne Fisher, who—apart from the other virtues contained in these books—qualifies, for me, as one of the most interesting characters in modern fiction: what James Bond might be like, if he went on the operating table for a change of plumbing.She’s the yin-yang symbol itself: male and female contained in the same space. The emotional distance of a man—with the full emotional spectrum of a woman. Passionate, yet cool. Analytical, yet empathetic. A crack shot who carries a gun almost everywhere, and doesn’t mind using it. Someone who has her own plane, and knows how to fly it. A woman who drives herself, and doesn’t even ask if the man who’s with her might want to take the wheel. Ready for sexual intimacy with the right person, but never being sentimental about it—and, beyond any question, bisexual (I could never imagine Phryne passing up some bedroom action because the person in question is the “wrong” gender).Because the narratives have been written in modern times, they include modern problems to the 1920s venues where Phryne is solving her cases, and (of course) the terrain is not the usual place—not London, or New York, or L.A. We’re in Australia: with its strange landscape, and convict-laced history. The seasons, there, are entirely wrong—and legend has it that water takes a wrong turn down a drain. The Miss Fisher Mystery books are quite small, only about 60,000 words, but I could definitely see loading about six of them into an e-reader to pass some time away from home. You could do worse than vacationing with Phryne, her ultra-religious assistant and seamstress, Dot, and all the other voices that chime in when Miss Fisher has a case.
What do You think about Death Before Wicket (1999)?
Originally posted at Nose in a BookIn her 10th novel Phryne goes on a trip! To Sydney! It was nice to leave Melbourne for awhile, and there was a cricket back story and even a story involving Dot, Phryne’s companion. Yet this story could not be saved for me. It was dry, it was dull, it was boring. I missed the usual pizazz that is Phyrne Fisher in this story. Part of her is still there, but at the same time she changed a lot from the previous stories. Maybe that is because her lover, Lin Chung isn’t there and she obviously missed him.I wanted to like this book. Really, I did. I tried to like this book. I love Phyrne Fisher (evidence here.) I love the fact it takes place in 1930s Australia. I love the fact this book series is fun and quick. However, Death Before Wicket, was rough. I can try to blame the fact that I was sick while I listened to most of this. A number of factors could go into the fact that this book just wasn’t my favorite Phyrne.I did give it two stars however cause it is Phryne, and the writing is strong.
—Ashley (yAdult Review)
Phryne Fisher is on holiday. She means to take the train to Sydney (where the harbour bridge is being built), go to a few cricket matches, dine with the Chancellor of the university and perhaps go to the Arts Ball with that celebrated young modernist, Chas Nutall. She has the costume of a lifetime and she's not afraid to use it. When she arrives there, however, her maid Dot finds that her extremely respectable married sister Joan has vanished, leaving her small children to the neglectful care of a resentful husband. She rescues the children, but what has become of Joan, who would never leave her babies? Surely she hasn't run away with a lover, as gossip suggests? Phryne must trawl the nightclubs and bloodtubs of Darlinghurst to find out. And while Phryne is visiting the university, two very pretty young men, Joss and Clarence, ask her to find out who has broken into the Dean's safe and stolen a number of things, including the Dean's wife's garnets and an irreplaceable illuminated book called the Hours of Juana the Mad. An innocent student has been blamed. So there is no rest for the wicked, and Phryne girds up her loins, loads her pearl handled .32 Beretta, and sallies forth to find mayhem, murder, black magic, and perhaps a really good cocktail at the Hotel Australia.
—Katie
Phryne goes on vacation to Sydney with Dot. She wants to watch the test team cricket match. While she's there, she's persuaded to look into two mysteries, a theft at the university and finding Dot's missing sister.Unfortunately neither really work for me because there are far too many characters and too much going on. If she's not going to nightclubs, she's going to dances, slums, or cricket matches. I just got lost in the muddle.I still enjoyed the central story about Phryne and her relationshi
—Grey853
