Crime

Cocaine Blues the first story in the series. Miss Fisher agrees to go to Australia to find out what is going on with a couples' daughter. We are introduced to all the main characters, Dot has the last name of Bryant in this book only; Flying Too High Phryne has two cases - a murder and a kidnapping, she is involved in a daring rescue of a little girl; Murder on the Ballarat Train Phryne awakens to the smell of chloroform. There is a missing passenger, it turns out there was a murder. Who is the killer? She also becomes involved in the lives of young girls. ( )

Poor girl who suddenly inherits goes to Australia and sets up as a detective. Rescues a stream of lost girls, finds unlikely friends and lovers and solves several cases.

Introducing the Honourable Phryne Fisher contains the first three of Kerry Greenwood’s “Miss Fisher” series of detective novels: Cocaine Blues, Flying Too High, and Murder on the Ballarat Train.

Cocaine Blues introduces the main characters of the series – the titular Phryne Fisher, her ladies’ maid Dorothy “Dot” Williams, Dr. Elizabeth Macmillan, cabbies Bert and Cec, and Detective Inspector Jack Robinson. The story also sets up a pattern of Miss Fisher handling two-to-three seemingly-related cases at once, in this case an back-alley abortionist and a cocaine smuggling ring. Flying Too High sees Miss Fisher working to prove the innocence of a flying instructor while also working to rescue a kidnapped child. This novel also sees Miss Fisher move into the house that is her home for the series and introduces recurring characters Mr. and Mrs. Butler as well as lawyer Jillian Henderson. Murder on the Ballarat Train is a locked-room mystery in the classic tradition, where a woman disappears from a locked train car and is found dead further down the track. Miss Fisher must discover how she was killed and the body got rid of while also looking after a mysterious girl on the train who can’t remember her name or origin.

Greenwood brilliantly recreates the jazz age, reveling in fashions, cars, and pastimes as well as judiciously using dialogue and slang in order to add a further touch of authenticity to the stories. With fast cars, fast planes, and a determined protagonist, it’s easy to see why the Australian Broadcast Corporation adapted these novels as a television series. Fans of the show will enjoy the books, which naturally go into more detail than the show can do in a television format. ( )

Definitely a series I want to find more of. Fun mysteries, set in Australia in the 1920s. ( )