Vale Kerry Greenwood

We were sorry to read of the recent death Kerry Greenwood, the Australian author famous for her Phryne Fisher cosy mystery series. Kerry was a committed defence lawyer as well as a prolific author of plays and fiction, including science fiction, children’s stories as well as murder mysteries. She also won the Davitt Award for her YA novel, The Three-Pronged Dagger.

But it’s her historical cosy mysteries featuring a glamorous private investigator that really made her name. Set in 1920s Melbourne, the Phryne Fisher books have been televised as Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. In the first book, Cocaine Blues, the Honourable Phryne Fisher abandons the tedium of high society in England for Melbourne where she thinks it might be fun to be a lady detective.

Phryne has plenty of daring outfits as well as panache, drives an enviable Hispano-Suiza and, when called for, totes a pearl-handled pistol. Through the books, she works alongside Detective Inspector Jack Robinson, but she also relies on her helpful maid, Dot, and adopts two orphan girls, Ruthie and Jane.

The series brings 1920s Melbourne to life – the nightclubs and theatre as well as the seedy side of the city. One mystery, Death by Water, takes Phryne on a cruise around New Zealand, investigating a string of jewel thefts on the SS Hinemoa, and giving the reader a flapper era view of NZ tourist spots, as well as a cracking story and luxury cruise glamour.

There have been twenty-two Phryne Fisher books published between 1989 and 2023, but another mystery series by Greenwood, the Corinna Chapman novels, is also well worth checking out.

Corinna is another sassy sleuth, a former banker who throws in her career and unpleasant husband, to run a bakery – Earthly Delights – in Melbourne’s Flinder’s Lane. Along with the quirky characters among her neighbours in her Roman styled apartment building, the stage is soon set for a series of delicious cosy mysteries.

The library has a good selection of Kerry Greenwood books available to borrow in both print and digital formats, as well as talking books. Or if you prefer, pop in for a binge viewing of the Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries TV series, available as rental DVDs.

Posted by JAM

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