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    Murder on a Midsummer Night
    Murder on a Midsummer Night
    Murder on a Midsummer Night
    Ebook320 pages4 hours

    Murder on a Midsummer Night

    By Kerry Greenwood

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, now streaming on Netflix, starring Essie Davis as the honourable Phryne Fisher

    "As usual, Greenwood populates the novel with an assortment of offbeat characters...and Phryne has plenty of opportunities to unleash her acid tongue and apply her razor-sharp wit." —Booklist

    The Hon. Phryne Fisher, languid and slightly bored at the start of 1929, has been engaged to find out if the antique-shop-owning son of a Pre-Raphaelite model has died by homicide or suicide. He had some strange friends—a Balkan adventuress, a dilettante with a penchant for antiquities, a Classics professor, a medium, and a mysterious supplier who arrives after dark on a motorbike. Simultaneously, she is asked to discover the fate of the lost illegitimate child of a rich old lady, to the evident dislike of the remaining relatives.

    With the help of her sister Beth, the cab drivers Bert and Cec, and even her two adoptive daughters, Phryne follows eerie leads that bring her face-to-face with the conquest of Jerusalem by General Allenby and the Australian Light Horse, kif smokers, spirit guides, pirate treasure maps, and ghosts.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateFeb 6, 2018
    ISBN9781464209789
    Murder on a Midsummer Night
    Author

    Kerry Greenwood

    Kerry Greenwood was born in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray and after wandering far and wide, she returned to live there. She has degrees in English and Law from Melbourne University and was admitted to the legal profession on the 1st April 1982, a day which she finds both soothing and significant. Kerry has written three series, a number of plays, including The Troubadours with Stephen D’Arcy, is an award-winning children’s writer and has edited and contributed to several anthologies. The Phryne Fisher series (pronounced Fry-knee, to rhyme with briny) began in 1989 with Cocaine Blues which was a great success. Kerry has written twenty books in this series with no sign yet of Miss Fisher hanging up her pearl-handled pistol. Kerry says that as long as people want to read them, she can keep writing them. In 2003 Kerry won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Australian Association.

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    Reviews for Murder on a Midsummer Night

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    • 5/5
      It’s summer down under. The beginning of a new year and things seem to be quiet. Very quiet, until Phryne’s sister, Eliza, shows up with a Mrs. Manifold in tow and a request for Phryne’s services.Mrs. Manifold’s son, Augustine, has been found drowned on St. Kilda’s beach. The police say suicide, but Mrs. Manifold say not.As Phryne delves into Agustine’s life and friends, she meets a dilettante in antiquities, a medium, an adventuress and a supplier who does his business at midnight on a motorbike. Trying to get information out of any of them is just that — trying.Immediately after taking on the case, she is approached by Mr. Adami, a lawyer, who needs her services in solving a very delicate problem. A very rich woman recently passed away and Mr. Adami is handling the estate. There are four living children, but the will states the bulk to be divided evenly between the children — all the ones she has borne. The snag is a possible child born out of wedlock, in her youth, and given up for adoption. Is it alive? Is it a boy or girl? There is very little to go on.Again she meets with an assortment of personalities, this time it is the dysfunctional family.Again, another good read for me!
    • 4/5
      Synopsis: Phryne's sister brings a woman to her whose son has been drowned. She is convinced that he was murdered. Of course Phryne takes the case and finds hidden treasure, ghosts, 'those who have passed over' are all involved.Review: This was fun to read, particularly since Lin Chung made an appearance.
    • 4/5
      A very good book as usual. Good plot, good set of characters and the right level of suspense. Miss Fisher books are never a disappointment.
      Many thanks to Netgalley and Poison Pen for giving me the chance to review this book
    • 4/5
      I really, really liked this book.

      Not only was there a double mystery, there was some forensics and Lin Chung is back!

      Phryne is asked by an attorney to find a missing illegitimate heir and by a distraught mother to find out who murdered her son (the coroner called it suicide, but he was an excellent swimmer and there was soap water found in his lungs).

      With the assistance of Lin Chung during a spooky seance and Jane taking forensic samples...the mysteries unfold beautifully.

      This was a smooth and engaging read that I didn't want to put down!
    • 3/5
      This isn't the best Phryne mystery that I've read but I always enjoy the pace of Kerry Greenwood's mysteries and I feel like I am friends with her characters.
    • 4/5
      In this installment, 1929 is just getting underway, but Phryne is going full steam ahead. This time, she has two mysteries to cope with -- the death of an antique dealer, and the existance (or non-existence) of a missing heir. The characters who feature in both mysteries are interesting, but I found the stories somewhat less compelling than usual. Perhaps I am getting more demanding as I approach (oh woe!) the end of Phyrne Fisher series as it now stands.
    • 3/5
      There were two different plots in this one and I didn't especially care about either one, and I don't think the author did either. What it was really about, as far as I could tell, was How To Cope When it's Really Hot and You're Fabulous.
    • 4/5
      Delightfully light. The books about Phryne Fisher, which take place in Australia in the 1920's, would appeal to fans of The Number One Ladies Detective Agency which take place in Botswana.
    • 4/5
      This was my first Phryne Fisher mystery and I loved it! Because it's so far in the series I felt I rather missed out on some of the inside jokes, but despite being a newcomer, I had no trouble following the plot, figuring out each characters' place and role, and appreciating the little habits and folklore which help make a successful cozy mystery.I thoroughly enjoyed Greenwood's nod to Marsh and Christie and find that she does a great job of creating an elegant and sophisticated young heroine with a touch of 21th modernism: a lovely mix of nostalgia and new.The story itself was simple enough but had all the elements of a good mystery. I was transported to the end and will no doubt now turn to other novels of the series for new indulgences.
    • 4/5
      The Honorable Miss Phryne Fisher is fun! Even at #17 in the series, and even suffering through a typical Melburnian summer heatwave, the comings and goings of the Fisher household are just as frantic, just as enlivening and just as entertaining as ever.In customary Phryne-fashion, in a twinkling our inimitable doyenne of detection is immersed in two seemingly unrelated cases: one, an apparent suicide that a mother refuses to believe plus a second, that of a missing child, born out of wedlock, and now a beneficiary of a forever-grieving mother’s will. It is 1929 and closing on Phryne’s 29th birthday but our incomparable investigator navigates the difficulties and the disagreeable diversions obstructing these latest cases with her usual aplomb despite the discomfort of the weather - if at times stretching her own, and every last member of her household’s, usual equanimity.There is something most satisfying in these books for me. Ms Greenwood consistently replenishes her stories with intriguing originals surrounded by curious and fascinating environs, enchanting in their authenticity. I always learn a great deal about my country from these times; both good and bad. Although readily described as lightweight, somewhat melodramatic and, perhaps at times, overly supplied with caricature, there is an ease to the perusal of these books and a lingering warmth and an enduring emotion of delight one feels throughout. I simply feel good after finishing these books!Whilst not flawless, Miss Fisher is however an impeccably accomplished personage; interestingly fresh and splendidly faultless in her attitude to life, and love, and fair play - providing a most amusing interlude and much joy. And what can be wrong with that? Thus I am happily anticipating the next Phryne adventure - pleasingly soon to arrive.(Oct 12, 2010)
    • 3/5
      It's been a long time since I caught up with Phryne and her household of adopted daughters, faithful retainer, dedicated companion, cook and exotic lover. Part of the reason for that was the feeling that it was all a little same old same old. What I did find with MURDER ON A MIDSUMMER NIGHT is that sometimes a short visit with old friends is just plain good fun.If you're going to live in the 1920's in Melbourne, in the middle of a heatwave you'd be quite comfortable if you had Phryne's life. You'd be less happy if you were an aspiring antique dealer and purveyor of high class junk whose body was found in the water at St Kilda beach. His mother simply does not accept suicide and Phryne, and her entire crime-busting household must prove that his death was anything but. Meanwhile Phyrne is also called upon to resolve an old mystery for the family of a recently deceased mother - is there an illegitimate child from before her marriage?The mysteries that occupy Phryne's time in this book are interesting, and there are little snippets of investigative technique that sit well within the period of the book (such as working out the contents of the lungs of a drowning victim). Luckily that timeframe makes any odd procedural elements just not an issue. Of course, most of the investigating seems to be done by Phryne swanning around parties and such-like, getting people to talk to her, although Dot - her faithful companion is not above donning her good hat and heading out for some fact checking and tree shaking. Perhaps that's one of the strengths of these books now - there's more of an ensemble cast, all of whom have their roles and the story seems more multi-layered because of it. There's also those lovely little reminders of time gone by. Alas the idea of a block of ice and a fan somehow being old fashioned just made this reader feel desperately old as that was a well known trick when we were children (albeit we needed to be ill for it to be called into play). Now if there's 1 or 2 people left out there who haven't read these books, Phryne's sex life is a tiny bit risqué - not so that you'd notice these days - but it's still a little titbit that gives the books that little extra.The Phryne Fisher books are undoubtedly highly entertaining, lovely little pieces of fun wrapped up in a mystery and an idyllic lifestyle. This isn't a series that I work at keeping up with - and I have missed a lot of books in the middle which one day I will try and catch up with, but it is nice to know they are out there waiting. For readers who are looking for something fun, light and just a little bit saucy, MURDER ON A MIDSUMMER NIGHT would be a wonderful way to spend some time.
    • 4/5
      The year is 1929 and Phryne Fisher will be 29 on the 13th January. Phryne is asked by her sister Eliza to investigate the death of Augustine Manifold. The coroner has brought in a verdict of accidental drowning while drunk, but his mother, Eliza's friend, is convinced that he was murdered. The same age as Phryne, Augustine was a dealer in antiques and the only family Mrs Manifold had left.A second case comes Phryne's way when a barrister at law asks her to solve the case of a missing inheritor. Mrs Bonnetti has died leaving her estate to be divided equally between her children, the issue of her body, that is. The barrister suspects there may have been a child born out of wedlock.Of course, Phryne finds that neither case is solved either quickly or simply. Both involve a nest of characters, some of whom are particularly nasty.I felt the book lost a little through the division of attention between the two cases. Of interest though is the way in which Phryne involves members of her household in the investigations, in particular her companion Dot, and her adopted daughter Jane who is a budding forensic pathologist.Kerry Greenwood takes great pains to get historical details correct, and supplies a Bibliography with further reading for those who want more reading. She says in the Afterword "This book has left me feeling a bit like a Dr Who casualty; time-sick. Fortunately I can vouch for all of my facts."One reference that interested me was this one:Phryne is speaking to her friend Detective Inspector Robinson: "...I have been in some awful company before - I have dined with torturers and Apaches and strict Plymouth Brethren and politicians - but I have never met such vile company as those people. Each in his or her own way, they were frightful."The use of the word Apache was something I discovered in Agatha Christie's THE MYSTERY OF THE BLUE TRAIN and in THE BIG FOUR. It was interesting to find Kerry Greenwood using it, and for me it added just that bit of authenticity to the story.MURDER ON A MIDSUMMER NIGHT is #17 in the Phryne Fisher series, and Kerry Greenwood is the holder of a Ned Kelly Award for Lifetime contribution (2003).

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    Murder on a Midsummer Night - Kerry Greenwood

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