The pace picks up after Kiriko moves to Tokyo. This seems to be a straightforward case of police neglegence. Innocent man gets accused of a murder becThe pace picks up after Kiriko moves to Tokyo. This seems to be a straightforward case of police neglegence. Innocent man gets accused of a murder because didn't report a murder and took some of the evidence that pointed to himself. Police don't understand the autopsy. And browbeat the suspect into confessing. His sister, Kiriko, knows her brother's temperament doesn't include irrational rage, or even justified rage, and tries to get a famous lawyer to take his case after he was convicted. The Tokyo lawyer has no time or interest to work pro bono for this poor woman from Kyushu. Despite his decision the lawyer, Kinzu Otsuka, looks into Kiriko's brother's case after he dies in prison. It looks like he really was innocent. Guilt. Shame for being wealthy and enjoying life. Pressure from a journalist also interested in Kiriko's problem. As for Kiriko herself? Obsession that would make Woman of the Dunes seem like just another suburban housewife. And yes, we figure out who the real perp is long before the book ends. ...more
7 stars out of 5. The novellas are set in post-Brexit London, where MI5 is embracing efficiency and austerity. A couple of stories involve John Bachel7 stars out of 5. The novellas are set in post-Brexit London, where MI5 is embracing efficiency and austerity. A couple of stories involve John Bachelor, the 'milkman' checking in on retired spies and assets and making sure they didn't leave a mess when they died. Head of MI5, Diana Travernor, is busy covering up corruption and political disasters. Just because the East Germans have been integrated into West Germany the spying doesn't stop. As usual corruption is revealed when you follow the money. Molly Doran shows up in 2 novellas with Jackson Lamb. Wickedly funny. And the last novella makes you ask what was it all for. - It's always nice to how the Brits understand elite politics. And how Epstein's parties involved guests like Prince Andrew. Their society didn't really survive Brexit and now we in the US will share their fate. ...more
17 Excellent short stories. It was like opening up a box of chocolates (from one of the stories, The Chocolate Factory) and discovering a wonderland o17 Excellent short stories. It was like opening up a box of chocolates (from one of the stories, The Chocolate Factory) and discovering a wonderland of experiences (rose flavored chocolate cream). The stories take place where Phryne Fisher lives and mostly involve what could have been side stories to the main novels. I suspect when the TV series was composed some of these stories were incorporated. Justifiable homicides. Escaped abused children. Lovers eloping. Entitled men's advances thwarted. Abused wives lives set back on track. Accidental deaths. Tedious parties to display wealth. Excellent dinners. Gamblers, carnival workers, academics' crime. Greenwood has found odd little stories as she did her research on the main books in the series, and the little stories demanded airing. - Excellent diversion while Mad King Donald whips the world with tariffs/no tariffs, kiss-my-ass foreign policy. And his minions demolish peripheral government agencies like the Department of Justice, Immigration, and Health and Human Services. ...more
Set in the good old days before fentanyl, Corrina Chapman discovers a heroin addict not breathing and lying on a grate in front of her bakery when sheSet in the good old days before fentanyl, Corrina Chapman discovers a heroin addict not breathing and lying on a grate in front of her bakery when she opens the door one morning. After she calls emergency she applies CPR and the ambulance EMTs administer a version of narcan to the girl who wakes up cursing. Corrina lives above her bakery in a lovely old building in Melbourne but it's not in a great part of town. There's plenty of business during the day, enough office people buy her bread, rolls, and muffins; but in the evenings and weekends there is a serious problem with homeless people. She knows everyone in her building; they all own their flats; so when the downstairs businesses like hers are targeted with threats in red spray paint she collaborates with the local police to see who is threatening them. Complicated plot, great characters, Goth Girls, Wiccan spells, feeding the homeless, lost teens, retired drunks, alley cats, and a few rescues. - Great break from the barrage of fascist decrees from The President as he destroys our government and removes all the safety nets. ...more
Phryne and Dot travel inland, up the mountains to visit a hot springs spa for a vacation. Meanwhile at home Inspector Robinson is sent off to investigPhryne and Dot travel inland, up the mountains to visit a hot springs spa for a vacation. Meanwhile at home Inspector Robinson is sent off to investigate corruption in the higher offices of the country's police and Hugh ends up working for an arrogant stupid replacement. A girl in Ruth and Jane's class goes missing and Tinker finds a body floating in the river. Hugh recruits these kids to help him solve the case. Phryne starts hearing about missing women in next town, Daylesford, and ends up investigating even though she's on vacation. The local Detective Inspector turns out to be an idiot when someone dies mysteriously in a crowd. Phryne drives 70 mph along windy roads in her powerful sports car. Dot gets tricked into attending a Protestant church service. Great country food. Daylesford only serves beer, wine and cider at the Temperance Hotel, but the wine is great. - The book is a nice vacation from the news of Trump/Musk taking an axe to government agencies, turning the historical clock back to apartheid Jim Crow, destroying international law... But, like we find in the book, resistance is growing under repression. ...more
6 stars out of 5. These stories aren't about finding the perpetrators, they're about finding justice. Some of them feature Zoe Boehm, private investig6 stars out of 5. These stories aren't about finding the perpetrators, they're about finding justice. Some of them feature Zoe Boehm, private investigator Joe Silverman's wife. One involves Molly Doran, archivist for MI-5, mentor to Slough House's Jackson Lamb. 'The Last Dead Letter' was an especially poignant investigation, punctuated with Lamb's sarcasm. The story about the Santas was an excellent examination of Christmas. And the last story in the book, 'What We Do', is deliciously Zoe. - The best antidote to the poisonous Trump/Musk Coup hitting the fan every hour of every day since they took office. Take solace where you can. The end is probably worse than we can imagine....more
Lin Chung is on a buying trip in China so Phryne has plenty of time to help Inspector Robinson figure out why a choral director was murdered and the sLin Chung is on a buying trip in China so Phryne has plenty of time to help Inspector Robinson figure out why a choral director was murdered and the score to the symphony has been stuffed down his throat. Phryne watches a lecture by a famous British mathematician on deductive reasoning and discovers his assistant is a doctor she worked with in WWII when she was an ambulance driver. PTSD in Melbourne thunderstorms. Scars. Flashbacks to the trenches. Conductor divas. Eccentric amateur chorus members. A gorgeous idiot savant. Red-flag wharfies. Gang war. .45 caliber bullets. Poison. And mysterious motives even retired MI6 agents can't figure out. Phryne has to call on help from everyone in her extended family. Tinker seems to be falling for Jane who's teaching him how to play chess. It's sweet. - The essential decency of most of the characters is an antidote to the daily shelling of Musk's assault on US agencies and Trump's corrupt international relations. I guess I'm going to have to YouTube some of 'Elija', Mendelssohn's choral symphony, for the full understanding of the novel. ...more
A young woman reporter, Polly Kettle, disappears while investigating unmarried pregnant girls who went missing from a Catholic church associated birthA young woman reporter, Polly Kettle, disappears while investigating unmarried pregnant girls who went missing from a Catholic church associated birthing center. Usually the babies were taken away from the girls, given to orphanages for adoption and the girls set to work for the Church laundry as their families had banished them for their sins. Polly took the story away from another reporter at the newspaper where she works so he's a suspect. Maybe the horrible people running the birthing center have her, or the convent that runs the laundry. Maybe the rumors of white slavers selling girls to Egypt are involved. Maybe the local brothels are involved. The police are unable to enter many of these organizations so it's up to Phryne and her helpers to infiltrate them. Clues show up like a series of letters and numbers scratched into one of the punishment cells in the birthing center. At one point Phryne is so angry about what she discovers she is unable to eat, drink, or speak to anyone for and entire evening. Lin Chung manages to calm her down but he's the only one who can do it. - This might be the darkest novel in the series. Entrenched evil. Perfect story to read while Trump's Cabinet is installed as representatives of the US Government. Horrifying. People bent on destroying societal trust....more
Phryne takes her family on vacation to Queenscliff by the sea. The home they are to stay in has no furniture, the couple who has lived there for decadPhryne takes her family on vacation to Queenscliff by the sea. The home they are to stay in has no furniture, the couple who has lived there for decades is gone, and the back door is open. The archeologist owner is somewhere in Arnhem Land looking for bones so she can't find out if he knows what happened to his servants. Phryne has to hire locals to help with housekeeping and food delivery. The neighbors help out, too, but they're an odd lot. The old lady across the street, living downstairs from her daughter's family, watches the archeologist's house all the time, but she didn't see the couple leave. When their pet dog shows up filthy and starving Phryne is afraid the couple may have been murdered. The other crimes in town involve girls losing their long plaits when someone snips it off in a crowd. There is also a pirate movie being filmed in the fishing harbor, which inspires one of the housekeeping staff to become a movie star. Ruth is learning how to manage a kitchen and cook meals so there are a lot of fabulous food. And recipes. And of course there is a criminal element making a lot of money in the town. Phryne is invited to a party by a lady she knew in Paris who is a Surrealist poet. - The story is a nice change from 47's coronation spectacle and his dark Project 2025 vision of America's future. Snow in Galveston, TX and New Orleans, LA. The massive fires in LA are slowly being contained. LA looks like WWII Dresden after bombing....more
6 stars out of 5. The fabulously wealthy twins, Gerald and Isabel, have invited Phryne (and at least 100 other friends) to a 4 day, hedonistic extrava6 stars out of 5. The fabulously wealthy twins, Gerald and Isabel, have invited Phryne (and at least 100 other friends) to a 4 day, hedonistic extravaganza of a New Years celebration at their mansion out in the countryside near Melbourne. She went to their parties in Paris during WWI so she knows exactly what they're like. The weather is hot and dry. Phryne is perfectly happy spending Christmas holidays at her house with her little family and friends, swimming at the nearby beach and eating her cook's excellent food. She was going to decline the invitation but she gets a couple of death threats and Gerald calls her begging her to find out who is sending him death threats also. She accepts. The days are filled with feasting, costumes, theater, poetry, drinking, dalliances, drugs, dancing, music, amplified sound system, electric lights, a competitive polo game, a deer hunt with hounds and horses... The experience is as opulent and decadent as 1928 can be. And the ominous threats increase. Isabel's adoptive daughter disappears. The plot is Byzantine enough to baffle Phryne. - And distract me from climate chaos winter flooding and snowstorm news. The looming horror of President elect Trump is similar to the reader's memory of the worldwide Great Depression, rise of fascism, and world war....more
Police detective Konrad is retired but he is still in close contact with his Reykjavik colleague Marta. When an elderly couple, friends of his dead wiPolice detective Konrad is retired but he is still in close contact with his Reykjavik colleague Marta. When an elderly couple, friends of his dead wife, call him about their missing granddaughter Danni, he advises them to call the police. They admit she is involved in drug smuggling but they're from a wealthy prominent family and don't want a scandal. So Konrad goes to Danni's boyfriend's squat and discovers a mess. On the way there he gets a call from Eyglo, who wants to talk to him about why her father was murdered 3 days after Konrad's father was stabbed to death 40 years ago. The fathers were friends and petty criminals. Eyglo is psychic like her own father and now thinks a drowned 12 year old girl was somehow involved. Konrad is kind and agrees to look into it. 3 cold cases. Corrupt incompetent detective. The girl's autopsy is missing. Danni's grandmother turns over Danni's cell phone and the police join forces with the drug squad to catch her killer. The sting works better than planned. And by the end of the book we find out all the horrific secrets people have been hiding since WWII. What drives drug addiction. - And it's a nice distraction as the US plans to inaugurate the most corrupt administration in its history. ...more
6 stars out of 5. Phryne is hired to find out who the jewel thief is on a New Zealand-Australia cruise ship. Along with the mystery we get to meet an 6 stars out of 5. Phryne is hired to find out who the jewel thief is on a New Zealand-Australia cruise ship. Along with the mystery we get to meet an anthropologist studying the Maori, an art photographer, a retired British Indian official (who likes his curry picante), and several sets of young people wealthy enough to afford that kind of travel. The crew is mostly Maori, and the officers are an endless source of stories on ship disasters. Well researched. I didn't start noticing the letters home from steerage passengers until about halfway through the novel. Phryne has a number of lovely outfits for dancing to the modern ladies jazz band, the Melody Makers; and they all are designed to set off the lovely fake sapphire she wears to entice the jewel thief to steal it. There are many attempts, including one that sets off a mousetrap in her bag which she hears go off. - An excellent diversion from the morally bankrupt kakistocracy our recently elected President is setting up before he's inaugurated. ...more
At least 6 stars out of 5. Phryne pulls the boot off a 'cowboy' mummy on a carnival ride on the beach near her house and discovers the thing is a realAt least 6 stars out of 5. Phryne pulls the boot off a 'cowboy' mummy on a carnival ride on the beach near her house and discovers the thing is a real mummy. Cold case from 1857. She's determined to find out who it is. Heraldic tattoo, gold rush in Australia, anti-Chinese riots. Meanwhile Lin Chung is busy negotiating terms with the Lin family's arch rivals, the Hu family. The Lin family lost a large amount of gold and 4 men transporting it from Castlemaine in the anti-Chinese riots so both Lin and Phryne end up in Castlemaine to track down the clues. Lin finds that taking over the family business from Grandmother is a chore, but he's watched how she feeds the kids the endless delicacies at a banquet so she doesn't have to eat everything herself. And Phryne's irritating younger sister Eliza has escaped two unsuitable suitors in England by fleeing to Australia. Eliza is an insufferable aristocrat until Phryne finds out the most unsuitable suitor has followed her to Melbourne. Phryne finds herself tied up in a big flour sack, unable to reach her revolver, and bundled off to some hunter's hut in the outback where she's almost killed. - Totally absorbing thriller to take the edge off daily news about Trump's despicable cabinet choices and ensuing dread....more
Again, bibliography at the end of the book. Phryne is selected to be Queen of the Flowers in the Flower Festival parade and bazaar. Charity fundraiserAgain, bibliography at the end of the book. Phryne is selected to be Queen of the Flowers in the Flower Festival parade and bazaar. Charity fundraiser. And she discovers one of her old London friends has 3 elephants that have joined the traveling circus and carnival camping at the beach near Phryne's house. One of the four 13 year old flower maidens disappears and Phryne is hired to find Rose. Her own 13 year old daughters seem to be fighting about something but they are helpful about passing on information they gleaned from the flower maidens while they were being fitted for costumes in Phryne's house by the dressmaker, Madame Fleuri. A couple maidens have a crush on a pretty boy. Phryne hears a fiddler playing a familiar near the carnival and finally remembers when she visited the Orkneys before WWI. Memories. Fathers. Broken homes. Gambling and prostitution. And letters from a tragic love affair in 1912. - Masterfully woven story linking the past with the present (1928). And a respite from the insanity of Trump being reelected. Voters' motives incomprehensible. Neo-apartheid propaganda? Racism? Delayed Covid mourning? Inflation backlash like many other nations?...more
6 stars out of 5. Phryne's lover, Lin Chung, is in China buying fabric for the Melbourne family business and China is falling into chaos in 1928. Japa6 stars out of 5. Phryne's lover, Lin Chung, is in China buying fabric for the Melbourne family business and China is falling into chaos in 1928. Japan has invaded Manchuria, warlords have taken over much of the rest of the country, and the pirates near Hong Kong have become much more brazen about boarding and taking over large ocean liners. When Inspector Robinson asks for Phryne's help investigating the death of the children's story editor for a women's magazine, Phryne jumps at the chance. Miss Lavender writes and illustrates fairy stories. Who would want to kill her? And how? Her cottage is nauseatingly cute, pastel, and filled with fairy decorations. Not Phryne's taste. She joins the writing staff of the suffragette magazine in an attempt to see who has a motive, but eliminates practically everyone. - Greenwood lists her sources on China, pirates, WWI Italy, and Melbourne society in 2 pages at the end of the book. As usual, the story is extremely interesting based on the research. Great book to take my mind off the insanity of the 2024 US Presidential Election (Mussolini echos across time)....more
Bert and Cec tell Phryne a couple of their WWI soldier friends have been murdered and ask her to look into their 'accidents'. Phryne finds out they weBert and Cec tell Phryne a couple of their WWI soldier friends have been murdered and ask her to look into their 'accidents'. Phryne finds out they were all celebrating the end of the war in Paris, in the district where she worked (artist model) and lived, Montarnasse. The soldiers may have witnessed who pushed her employer (painter) under a train at the end of their last drunken evening in Paris. And a wealthy horse breeder tries to hire her to find his missing 18 year old daughter. Phryne figures she ran away, so she won't take his money. Hugh Collins discovers the police didn't investigate Bert and Cec's soldier friends 'accidents' properly when he goes up country to look into the circumstances. And there's a mystery woman mentioned in every few chapters who is shackled in some dump waiting for her captor to feed her and give her water. We don't find out who she is until very late in the novel. Jack Robinson grows cattleya orchids and his wife Rose has a wonderful rose garden. Phryne's yard is weeds. Her lover Lin Chung is getting married to a Hong Kong girl his grandmother approves of and Mr. Butler refuses to serve in Phryne's home if she maintains her relationship with Lin. Much of the book is 10 year old memories Phryne has of her first lover, Rene Dubois. Starvation vs. French cuisine....more
Phryne goes to Sydney to see a cricket match. Two students, cricket players, ask her to clear their student friend of charges that he stole items out Phryne goes to Sydney to see a cricket match. Two students, cricket players, ask her to clear their student friend of charges that he stole items out of the Dean's safe. And one of the professors whose manuscript was in the safe also wants her to find it. Dot's sister Joan has left her husband and two little children possibly to earn money as a prostitute in Sydney. Phryne finds the most Bohemian bar in Sydney is where the followers of Aleister Crowley's Satanism have set up shop. University politics, hot dusty weather, Sydney Harbor Bridge builders, digging for information in a city where Phryne has no trusted informants, Egyptian papyrus with a monumental curse, ancient magic, numerous abductions, subjugation of women, domineering men... But Phryne sorts everything out despite all the cultural obstacles. The use of poisons for mind control is speculative....more
6 stars. Phryne has a new lover, the handsome young Jewish man Simon Abrahams, who lives with his parents in a lovely home in Melbourne. She met him a6 stars. Phryne has a new lover, the handsome young Jewish man Simon Abrahams, who lives with his parents in a lovely home in Melbourne. She met him at a dance hall. When one of Simon's friends is murdered in a used bookstore and the owner is accused with his murder Simon lets his wealthy father, Benjamin, know that Phryne is a detective she's hired to find out who really killed the Kabala student. Hebrew, Kabala, alchemy, ancient translations, chemistry, polymerization. The murder is very complex and enlists Dot, Cec and Bert, and Jack Robinson to assist. Phryne herself interviews the Hebrew scholar teaching Simon and other young Jews about the Kabala. The Rabbi goes into a trance and 'sees' murder in an underground structure, which Phryne guesses is the section of the East Market under Miss Lee's bookshop. Fruitstands, exotic birds, strychnine laced sunflower seeds, burglaries of homes related to the students, including Phryne's own bedroom. The Jewish community is divided politically between radicals who want a Jewish homeland (not Uganda) and the moderates who are fine with living in their current country. It's 1928 so the Russian pogroms are all too familiar. - And it's a surprisingly thorough examination of what led to Palestine being chosen for the Jews after WWII. I read this book after Netanyahu spent the last nine months nearly eradicating Gaza and was starting to eradicate Lebanon. Greenwood correctly identifies motives not being based on religion....more
6 stars. Buchan Caves is a real place. After solving the mysteries of 'Ruddy Gore' Phryne goes on vacation with Dot, Lin Chung and his servant Li Pen 6 stars. Buchan Caves is a real place. After solving the mysteries of 'Ruddy Gore' Phryne goes on vacation with Dot, Lin Chung and his servant Li Pen to the home of a publisher/journalist friend of hers, Tom Reynolds. Tom and his wife Evelyn invited a number of strange guests to share a weekend house party in their fantasy mansion, Cave House, which was built by a wealthy eccentric brewer and sold to Evelyn's father on the condition no one disturbed the funeral urns around the property. On the fog-bound road into the property Phryne hears a shotgun blast and a girl screaming so she gets Lin to to point the headlights of her car at the bushes so she can locate the girl. The servant girl is hysterical but one of the guests is a doctor so she has treatment. Phryne is there to find out who has been sending Tom threatening notes so she and Dot begin poking around. Everyone seems slightly or hugely suspicious except the man they haven't met, Dingo Harry. And then people start disappearing and the river floods trapping the guests on the property. Architecture and furnishings imported from the 1889 Paris Exhibition. Eccentric characters found in rural Australia. Trysts and illicit love affairs. Several attempted murders. High cuisine, Australian style. Terrible coffee. Excellent booze. And funeral urns turning up in Phryne's room every time she leaves it. - Great twisted plot and geological tour of the caverns. ...more
Phryne and her pal Benji rescue an old Chinese lady who is being attacked, which leads Phryne to become friends (with benefits) to the lady's son, LinPhryne and her pal Benji rescue an old Chinese lady who is being attacked, which leads Phryne to become friends (with benefits) to the lady's son, Lin Chung, who has an Oxford accent. Then a bit later when Phryne is at the theater one of the leading men in the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, Ruddigore, drops dead at the end of a scene. Fortunately there is a doctor in the house, but he can't figure out what happened. His understudy does the next scene and collapses at the end of it, too. He's taken to the hospital and his stomach is pumped. Poison. The theater director hires Phryne to investigate. Then the actors start seeing ghosts, missing gloves appear in the wrong dressing rooms, Inspector Jack Robinson is called in to investigate, and all the theater staff are on edge. The ghost seems to be a leading actress who 'committed suicide' with the company when they were in London. During Phryne's investigation she learns exactly how the stage works, not just the interplay of actors. Very complex plot. Lots of suspects, a cold hearted woman, and a bounder of a leading man. Well researched view into acting companies....more
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