Oh, Phyrne, how much do I love you? A lot. From your unabashed sexual prowling to a decor sense that includes nude paintings of yourself, to the consideration that causes you to buy pretty things for your maid, you are a fine person.It turns out that you also solve mysteries, understand (but dislike) urchins, wing-walk, fly planes, and plot with the best of them.In this installment, Phyrne participates in a kidnapping rescue not-unlike the Ransom of Red Chief, and she solves the death of a man who no one mourned. She is beginning to make connections in Melbourne, and she never hesitates to expect that peple are capable of performing up to her standards. In this way she is a little like Miles Vorkosigan. People accomplish things they never thought they could do because she believes they can. And she is so enrapt in her plans that she calculates risk, but not very fearfully. One gets the feeling that Phyrne is surprised to have lived as long as she has, and is not deeply attached to safety, although she is enjoying life.As in the previous book, I loved loved loved the writing style and voice. The authorial voice:"He had made an unwise investment in the fourth at Flemington, putting the proceeds on a horse which was possessed of insufficient zeal and had not been able to redeem them." is different than the way her domestics talk:"She said. ‘Sleep well.’ ‘You too, Miss Fisher,’ he replied with perfect gravity, and chuckled all the way down the stairs. ‘I know what she is, Mrs B.,’ he said at the kitchen door. ‘She’s a vamp.’ ‘Ah, well,’ sighed his wife. ‘At least it ain’t like the last place. Young men are clean about the house. It’s better than the old gentleman’s greyhounds.’ Thereafter Phryne’s household always referred to her lovers as ‘the pets’."And of course different again than Phyrne's own voice.Read if: You have liked other Phyrne books. You would love to watch the seduction methods of a different decade. You always wondered how wing-walking works. You like it when secondary characters evolve.Skip if: You don't love personality-driven mysteries. You don't want to read about emotional abuse (part of the plot).Also read: I got nothin'. I'm going to keep reading the series.
Well, I really want to like this series, but I just don't know if I'll continue with it. In my review of the first book of the series, I noted Phryne Fisher's quickness--that she's always a step ahead of the reader in terms of figuring out the mystery.While this is appealing, it's also frustrating for the reader who wants to solve the mystery along with the detective. Phryne almost always knows more than we do, so there's a kind of a deus-ex-machina quality to the solution--in this case, to the mystery of how William McNaughton died. There are also a couple of turns of phrase here that I found irritating; at one point, Phryne is creeping around "like a Red Indian looking for a scalp," and at another, she notes that "it's picaninny daylight." Such casual racism was, unfortunately, all too common in mysteries of the *actual* British Golden Age: witness the long debate about Dorothy Sayers' anti-Semitism. But the thing is, while Kerry Greenwood's series is set in the 1920s, this book was published in 1990. Granted, Greenwood is Australian, so these phrases don't pack the same wallop that they do for American readers. Nevertheless, since both are used purely as figurative language, one wonders why Greenwood didn't choose less fraught descriptions. If the intent is to make the books seem more "authentic" to the 1920s, she's succeeded, I guess, but in a way that makes me reluctant to read more. Still, Phryne is an appealing detective figure, so I may give these another shot sometime....but I think I've read enough for the time being.
Do You like book Flying Too High (2015)?
I'll probably finish this book before going to bed tonight. These are nothing substantial but they are fun. Greenwood has made Phryne quite rich (but with a background in poverty so we know she's no snob) and a renaissance woman (she can fly a plane, knows Apache fighting skills, and has the bedroom skills of courtesan), so she can meet any adversity. And she's so charming, the police and ordinary folks just go along with her mad schemes. A moment's thought would destroy the tissue of disbelief on which we're suspended, but the quickly-moving plot and the already-familiar byplay among the recurring characters allow us to gobble it all down uncritically. Frothy and fun, and ultimately forgettable.
—Naomi Young
BOTTOM LINE: #2 in one of my all-time favorite series, the intrepid Phryne finds herself literally up in the air for this story, as one of her cases leads to some chancy behavior whilst trying to rescue a kidnapped child. Several cases - and multiple plot-lines - as is usual with the Phryne stories, this time encompassing not only the kidnapping but also a peculiar murder of a nasty husband who definitely deserved to be murdered! Nicely twisted plot-lines, along with wonderful period details, made this just as enjoyable as it was when I first read it in 2007. Not the strongest in the series as some of the "bits" with the kidnapped child are a mite too "cute!" for my taste, but generally everything is nicely leavened with humor throughout and that makes it a bit more palatable; at no time is the depiction of either the child or the kidnappers, while terribly cliched (and deliberately so, methinks), boring or annoying - they remain interesting up to the last, although the extremely sweet ending bits made this, for me, not one of my favorites. Still, the murder mystery was satisfying and engrossing, and the kidnapping element was rather fun at times too. This is one series that truly NEEDS to be read in sequence, if you can at all manage it - the slow inclusion of Phryne's friends and, um, "accomplices.." are gently presented, gradually growing into complete portraits of very interesting people over the course of the series. And this book has one of my favorite characters - the wonderful Bunjii Ross, pilot extraordinaire, modeled, I suspect, on Beryl Markham (one of my heros!).
—Abbey
Really fun, wittily written book series that are quick easy reads. I really enjoy books with culture from another time and or place and these have both. They are from Melbourne, Australia in the 1920s. Ms. Phryne Fisher, is a socialite who has discovered a talent for amateur investigation. She's an heiress who's rich, has loads of time with little to do and used to be poor so she fits into areas where a person born into the upper class never would. On the negative side... I think perhaps the time period is a bit idealized. Phyrne sleeps around and, while it's mentioned that she worries a little her servants might leave-- they always take it very well because she's so clever and special-- but in reality at the time you were either a "good girl" or you were not. So, they're lovely to read but you do have to suspend disbelief a bit as the prominent policemen all treat this young woman as an intelligent human being (as they *should* --and would NOW-- but likely wouldn't have treated a nobleman's daughter who's living on Daddy's money and catting around... (She does come up with some unusual and rather hot boyfriends for her to cat around with though, so... not complaining. :) )
—Clare
