Murder in Williamstown
4/5
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About this ebook
The Honourable Miss Phryne Fisher is up to her elegant eyebrows in mystery once again!
Awakening unusually early one morning, Phryne Fisher finds herself with a rare stretch of free time to fill. After dropping her daughters off for their school-sponsored charity work at the Blind Institute, she visits a university professor whose acquaintance she'd made--and admired--on a prior case. At lunch, the smitten professor invites Phryne to dine at his home in Williamstown later that week.
Bookending her pleasant dinner with her new friend Jeoffrey, Phryne makes two disturbing discoveries: first, a discarded opium pipe in the park, and later the body of a Chinese man on the beach--cause of death not apparent, yet ultimately ruled a homicide. Shortly thereafter, the teenaged sister-in-law of Phryne's longtime lover Lin Chung disappears from her home. But when one of Jeoffrey's colleagues is murdered in front of a houseful of guests at a Chinese-themed party he is hosting, Phryne can't help but wonder--are the incidents all related somehow? And who on earth has been leaving notes in her letterbox, warning her to "REPENT" and that "THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH"--?
In addition to the formidable and fashionable Phryne, this clever mystery once again features Phryne's three wards with their own mysteries to solve: Ruth and Jane, tracking an embezzler at the Institute, and Tinker, whose help Phryne enlists to uncover the author of the threatening missives.
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 in Williamstown
25 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is the 22nd book in the long-running Phryne Fisher mystery series set in Australia during the 1920's. After reading all of these books along the way, Phyrne and her household almost feel like family to me so it was quite enjoyable to see her adopted kids, Jane, Ruth, and Tinker, solve mysteries of their own in this one.Besides great characters and a clever plot with lots of different angles, I love how this series brings the 1920's Australia to life.One of my favorite series and this was one of the best of them all. Very highly recommended!!(I received this book from the publisher, via Net Galley, in exchange for a fair and honest review.)
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The latest in Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher series, Murder in Williamstown grapples with themes of family, racism, discrimination, class, and disability, with limited success. Phryne Fisher, the celebrated detective, in this book is proud to see her two adoptive daughters, Ruth and Jane, and her adoptive son, Tinker, doing well for themselves, not just academically, but also in the detection department. Ruth and Jane volunteer at the local institute for the Blind, helping in the kitchen, and in the accounts department, respectively, and promptly notice something fishy with the money that the Institute. Encouraged by Phryne, they discreetly investigate, while also navigating their entry into a society that struggles to see past their status as adopted children (at a classmate's birthday party, a rich parent says to them, "Blood will tell."). Meanwhile, Tinker helps Phryne investigate some nasty, Biblically-threatening notes she's been receiving from an anonymous source, as training for his goal to eventually become a police officer. At the same time, Phryne, engaged in a dalliance with a history professor in Williamstown, comes across the body of a Chinese man, and thus, into an investigation by the Melbourne police into a possible opium smuggling operation. Phryne's occasional lover, Lin Chung, in turn, and his pregnant wife Camellia (who is aware of, and consenting, to the affair) are concerned about how the murder and the possible drug operation, might cause backlash against the Chinese population in Australia (there is much discussion of 'we all look the same to you, don't we,' and so on). Simultaneously, a runaway Chinese girl engaged in a clandestine affair with another woman navigates prejudice and exploitation, as they work as professional dancers for a man who is accumulating vast, and unexplained wealth. With no less than 4 plots and such deep underlying concepts being discussed, ranging from racism, colonial history, classism, socialism, disability, and discrimation against Asian people and LBGTQ people, it isn't a surprise that everything receives a facile, glib treatment. It's light and entertaining enough in terms of plot, a bit heavy-handed, unsubtle, and lacking in any nuance in terms of themes.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The first title in this series was COCAINE BLUES published in 1989. 33 years on, Kerry Greenwood has published #22. Most of the books are set in the late 1920s, and this one appears to be just before the Depression of 1929.It features most of the usual cast of characters although her adoptive daughters are now old enough to be undertaking small investigations of their own. This story also features Tinker, a boy whom Phryne has also adopted.I enjoyed this book as much as I remember enjoying earlier titles and Phryne has lost none of her talents and allure.