The Lady with the Gun Asks the Questions

March 1, 2022
A delightful collection of short stories featuring the indomitable Miss Phryne Fisher of Melbourne. Phryne grew up poor, inherited a fortune and a title, and resolved to live as she wished. A clever detective who can relate to people of any social status, she's brave and sexually adventurous in these stories set in the late 1920s. In "Hotel Splendide," she helps Mrs. Johnson, a desperate Australian wife, find her husband, a Paris hotel room that doesn't exist, and a motive for an odd crime. She solves a murder at a party at her own home when she mistakenly invites two brothers at odds over an inheritance. When one of her many lovers wants to marry her, the fiercely independent Phryne isn't interested, but she'll happily investigate a jewel theft for a vulgarian and help out the meek woman under his thumb. Phryne takes on amusing cases like "The Vanishing of Jock McHale's Hat" and "Puttin' on the Ritz" and nasty cases of blackmail. Many of her villains are despicable bullies and wife beaters, and while she'll solve their murders, she'll keep the perpetrators to herself if she feels they were justified. A book stolen at a college provides a case that highlights her intelligence. In "Carnival," her social conscience comes to the fore when her rather dim escort has his mother's bracelet stolen, and she must solve the theft to save the carnies, who are often scapegoated as thieves. These stories highlight the many sides that have made the heroine popular to both readers and TV audiences.

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March 28, 2022
The 15 1920s-era stories in this welcome collection from Australian author Greenwood (Out of the Black Land) will delight fans of Miss Phryne Fisher, who indulges in “Sherlockery” for Melbourne’s citizenry when she’s not indulging her passion for “food, sleep, intellectual puzzles, clothes and beautiful young men.” Highlights include “Marrying the Bookie’s Daughter,” in which Miss Fisher intervenes unexpectedly at a society wedding; “The Boxer,” in which Mrs. Ragne, who “was wrapped up so tightly in furs and a sense of personal grievance that she resembled a polar bear with a hangover,” asks the detective to find her eight-year-old granddaughter; and “Come Sable Night,” in which a flagrant lothario dies, but was it an allergic reaction to a bee sting or was it murder? Never mind that the mysteries are simple and sometimes silly. These tales are studded with slyly witty observation and are the perfect place to enjoy a few hours in the company of a favorite sleuth who dispenses justice in her own inimitable way. This volume is a fine companion to the 21 novels featuring this dashing protagonist.

April 1, 2022
This volume of short stories, originally published in Australia in 2007, features four pieces written in 2019 and 2020; the older material has been revised, too, making the book a nearly new collection of Phryne Fisher adventures, which is great news for fans of Greenwood's 1920s Australian aristocrat and private investigator. Among other things, Fisher digs into the disappearance of a woman's husband; deals with an unwanted marriage proposal; investigates a jewelry robbery; hunts for a stolen book; and tries to solve an apparent triple homicide. As always, the star of the show isn't the crime; it's Phryne herself. She's outspoken, bawdy, streetwise, elegant, and absolutely impossible not to love. Fans of the long-running Fisher series or its television adaptation will really enjoy these bite-size adventures. Phryne last appeared in Death in Daylesford (2021).

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