Mystery Review: Death Before WIcket, by Kerry Greenwood

 

Title: Death Before Wicket

Author: Kerry Greenwood 

Publisher: Allen & Unwin, 1999. My (US) edition: Poison Pen Press, 2008. 232 pages.

Source: Library

Summary: 

Phryne has responded to a call for help from a pair of young university students, and plans to enjoy a bit of a holiday in Sydney at the same time. She's watching some cricket, storming the Arts Ball in a rather daring costume, locating her maid's sister, solving a crime or two, and of course enjoying the company of a lover. All that despite a climate that she finds melting.

My Review:

I always enjoy Phryne Fisher's outings, but found this one perhaps a bit less to my taste than most. Part of that might have been the cricket, a game which makes even less sense to me than baseball. That makes it hard (read: impossible) to follow whole paragraphs describing the game (even the title I'm pretty sure has more depth than my vague awareness of a play on some kind of cardinal cricket-sin called "leg before wicket"). Another source of my discontent might have been the setting. In Sydney, Phryne feels the frustration of being without her usual set of henchpersons and sidekicks. I missed them too. So, nothing wrong with the story, I just didn't have as much fun as usual (though at least this time she was seducing someone old enough to know what he was getting into, at least sort of. I do worry sometimes when she's dallying with inexperienced young men).

Recommendation:

Even on an off day (and this was more about tastes than anything wrong with the story) Phryne is good company. I recommend the book, and the whole series, to anyone who likes the between-the-wars setting, intriguing mysteries, a goodly touch of humor, and isn't put off by a female lead who likes to jump into bed at every opportunity (part of the fun, for me, is watching her rather straight-laced Catholic companion Dot deal with this). 

Full Disclosure: I checked Death Before Wicket out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Mystery Monday: Ruddy Gore

 

Title: Ruddy Gore

Author: Kerry Greenwood

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press, 2005 (original publication 1995). 207 pages. 

Source: Library

Publisher's Summary:
Running late to a gala performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore, Phryne Fisher meets some thugs in dark alley and handles them convincingly before they can ruin her silver dress. She then finds that she has rescued the handsome Lin Chung, and his grandmother, who briefly mistake her for a deity.n Denying divinity but accepting cognac, she later continues safely to the theatre where her night is again interrupted by a bizarre death onstage. What links can Phryne find between the ridiculously entertaining plot of Ruddigore, the Chinese community of Little Bourke St., or the actors treading the boards of His Majesty's Theatre? 

My Review:
As usual, I found the adventures of Phryne Fisher to be a read-it-straight-through diversion. There is nothing very substantial about the story, but the addition of Gilbert and Sullivan plots to Phryne's already somewhat entertaining life gave the story some added fun for me (I believe I have confessed before to being a fan of G&S). There were a few things missing from this story that I always enjoy. Bert and Cec played no role, nor were there any appearances by Phyrne's adopted daughters, who tend to add a tough of common sense to the menage (along with Dot, Phryne's maid, who in this case gets to do little but fret over her mistress). But the introduction of Lin Chung is an important development for the series (which I initially began reading rather out of order, so it's nice to learn where he comes from), and the two threads are kept just close enough together to work well, without any unreal overlapping of worlds. The outcome of the mystery was reasonably satisfying, and it's always fun to see Phyrne making people's lives better in between solving crimes and heading to bed with lovely young men.

Recommendation:
If you are already of fan of the series, this is an important book! If you aren't, it's an okay place to begin, though I think it's a series that is well served by reading in order (or maybe that's just me being OCD; I've done it both ways and jumping into the middle was good enough to hook me). These books aren't for anyone upset by an unmarried woman with a love of good sex, but they are not particularly explicit and I would be willing to recommend them to my mom.


Full Disclosure: I borrowed Ruddy Gore  from my library, and received nothing from the author or the publisher in exchange for my honest review. The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."  

Mystery Monday! Murder on the Ballarat Train

 

Author: Kerry Greenwood

Title: Murder on the Ballarat Train

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press, 1991, 151 pages

Source: Library

Summary:

When Melbourne's #1 flapper detective Phryne Fisher decides to take the train to Ballarat, she lands herself in the middle of her next case. She awakens in the night to find that the First Class carriage has been poisoned with chloroform, and one passenger is missing. Searching for the murderer leads Phryne to a lost girl, a white slavery ring, a (another) beautiful lover, and a spot of danger before she sorts everything out, sees the killer hauled away, and everyone can relax with a cup of tea.

Review:

While Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher mysteries tend to be short, they are jam-packed with action of all sorts. Murder on the Ballarat Train is no exception. We are whisked from hairs-breadth escapes to luscious seductions to shopping expeditions and excursions into the seamier side of Melbourne, and Greenwood never puts a foot wrong.

The killer was fairly easy to guess, but it took Phryne a bit of work to line up the proof and confirm my guess. And during the whole case she never loses sight of the importance of protecting the pair of abused girls who show up on her doorstep (nor of the pleasures of seductions). Searching out the truth of their lives involves two of Greenwood's more delightful creations, Bert and Cec, always a crowd-pleaser.

As is frequent in Greenwood's books, there are two equally important plots apparently running parallel throughout the book. In some books, they remain parallel to the end; in this case they are brought just close enough together to satisfy, while remaining realistically individual.

Recommendation:

This is a very sound mystery for any lover of mysteries, but will especially appeal to those who like period pieces (1920s), and those who are not troubled by a freely sexual female lead.

  ©Rebecca M. Douglass

Full Disclosure: I checked Murder on the Ballarat Train out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Mystery Monday: Away With the Fairies, by Kerry Greenwood

Title: Away With the Fairies, Phryne Fisher mysteries #11, by Kerry Greenwood.  241 pages.
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press, 2001.
Source: Library

Have I ever mentioned how much I love my library?  Books all over the place, and free for the borrowing.  No risk if you don't like it, so try anything that catches your fancy!  And that was how I first read this book, which was the first of the series I read (if you can follow that: this book, which is #11 in the series, was the first of Greenwood's books I read).  I decided to re-read it after having read most of the preceding books, just to see what it felt like to see the story with the backstory in my head.

Summary:
Set in between-the-wars Melbourne, Australia, Phryne's latest adventure starts as a pleasant distraction from missing her lover.  Lin Chung is on a silk-buying trip to China, and investigating the death of a writer and illustrator of cloying fairy stories is a bit of amusement for the wealthy and unusual Phryne.  To learn who might have done the dastardly deed, Phryne takes a job at a women's magazine.  But the fun is taken from her investigations by the growing awareness that something very bad has been happening to Lin Chung.

Review:
This mystery is two mysteries, held together of course by the fact that it is Phryne (whose name is pronounced "Fry-knee") investigating both.  It's a tricky balancing job for an author.  Greenwood resists the temptation to make the two intertwine in any way; instead they continue to run in parallel.  It's up to the reader to track both and care about both.

That, of course, is the hazard: we inevitably care about one more than the other, and, like Phryne, we soon find ourselves more concerned about Lin Chung than about the murder of a woman who doesn't seem to have been as pleasant as her little fairy drawings would suggest.  This also leaves us (or Greenwood) with a problem, as the Lin Chung story is treated as a side story (this is, after all, a murder mystery).  Yet I felt like wrapping up that one was much more of an important denouement than was the unveiling of the murderer.  In all honesty, I just wasn't that concerned with the murder (much as Phryne herself must have felt, though she drags herself out of bed to tie up the loose ends--a real sacrifice, given that her bed is where Lin Chung is by that point).

On a final note, though I definitely count the Phryne Fisher books as cozy mysteries, they do have more sex in them than most cozies (at least one good bedroom scene per).  I'm not sure the scenes add much, though they are fun.  We are very much aware that Phryne is unashamedly a sexual being without ever setting foot in the bedroom--she exudes sexuality, and makes total, unabashed use of it when needed.  The level of detail on the reunion with her lover, while a very long way from erotica, is unnecessary, and some may find it distracts from the generally light nature of the book and the series.

Full Disclosure: I borrowed Away With the Fairies from my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

G: Dorothy Gilman, Kerry Greenwood

Monday Mysteries!  This time, not a specific book review, but a couple of authors (filed under "G") whose work I have enjoyed a lot.  Also, on reflection, we could call it "Girls Gone Independent" (sorry, couldn't think of a "g" word to finish the alliteration).

First: Dorothy Gilman, author of the Mrs. Pollifax series and a number of stand-alone books.

I have to admit it, though it probably marks me as a fogey: I love Mrs. Pollifax.  There she is, 60-something, bored with retirement, so she becomes a spy for the CIA.  Realism?  Check that at the door and get a load of fun instead.  This isn't gritty and hard-core, this is the head of the garden club (and from New Jersey, at that!) stumbling her way through mysterious spy rings and capture by evil-intentioned enemy agents and coming out on top because she doesn't know the meaning of defeat. The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, the first book in the series (also the first Gilman wrote, I believe) is my favorite, even though structurally it violates most of the rules.  Fully 1/3 of the book could be called set-up, before the action really heats up.  But what a set-up it is!  And then to see Mrs. Pollifax blithely corrupting communists with ideas about democracy, trusting all sorts of dubious people--and getting them to do exactly what she wants.

Despite the essentially light nature of the Mrs. Pollifax stories, Gilman is no pussycat about hairbreadth escapes and flirting with death.  Mrs. Pollifax does it all, and is no stranger to carving victory painfully from the iron grip of defeat.  In many books, she faces death with a calm born in part of her age: she's been there before, and knows it's only a matter of time.  In fact, on reflection, Mrs. Pollifax is a great role model in several ways.  Heck, she even takes up yoga and karate so that she can be better at what she does.  Plus: taking volunteerism to a whole new height (did I mention she just walked into the CIA and volunteered to be a spy?).

For an extra treat, get hold of the Recorded Books versions of the stories read by Barbara Rosenblatt.


Second: Kerry Greenwood, author of the Phryne Fisher mysteries, set in Australia in the 1920s.  Another female who doesn't follow the rules,  Phryne (pronounced "fry-knee"), the daughter of an English lord, has moved to Sydney, Australia just to get away from a family that would insist she be modest and chaste and marry the man they chose.  She has no plans to do or be any of those things.  Rich now, but from a poor background, she has her own unique take on the world of both the rich and the poor.

Phryne parties hard, sleeps with her Chinese lover (and at times with any other attractive young men she wants to), and drives fast cars to chase the bad guys, all the while dressed to the nines.  Like Mrs. Pollifax, she's not terribly realistic, but she's a lot of fun, and her adventures are fast-paced, entertaining, and occasionally thrilling (I wonder how Phryne and Emily Pollifax would feel about being lumped together this way?  Maybe less upset than you'd think).  However, while Gilman keeps her writing PG, Greenwood definitely embraces an "R" rating.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.

 Cocaine Blues is the first of the Phryne Fisher mysteries.


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