The Green Mill murder : a Phryne Fisher mystery

Format:

Book

Title:

The Green Mill murder : a Phryne Fisher mystery

Author:

Greenwood, Kerry author

ISBN:

9781590584071

Edition:

First U.S. trade paperback edition.

Publication:

Scottsdale, AZ : Poisoned Pen Press, 2007.

Physical Description:

192 pages ; 22 cm

Series title(s):

Phryne Fisher ;

Number in series:

General Note:

2007 hardcover book (173 pgs), lacks last 1.5 chapters, which are in 2007 paperback (192 pages).

Summary:

"Phryne Fisher is doing one of her favorite things--dancing to the music of Tintagel Stone's Jazzmakers at the Green Mill, Melbourne's premier dance hall. And she's wearing a sparkling lobelia-coloured georgette dress. Nothing can flap the unflappable Phryne--especially on a dance floor with so many delectable partners. Nothing but death, that is. The dance competition is trailing into its last hours when suddenly a figure slumps to the ground. Phryne, conscious of how narrowly the weapon missed her own bare shoulder, back, and dress, investigates. Phryne fllows the deadly trial into the dark smoky jazz clubs of Fitzroy, into the arms of eloquent strangers, and finally into the sky, as she uncovers a complicated family tragedy from the Great War and the damaged men who came back from ANZAC cove."--Back cover

Personal Subject:

Fisher, Phryne (Fictitious character)-Fiction.

Fisher, Phryne (Fictitious character) (OCoLC)fst00926050

Subject(s):

Women detectives -- Australia -- Melbourne (Vic.) -- Fiction.

Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction.

Murder -- Investigation -- Australia -- Melbourne (Vic.) -- Fiction.

Nineteen twenties -- Fiction.

Dance -- Fiction.

Competition (Psychology) -- Fiction.

Melbourne (Vic.) -- Fiction.

Australia -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Melbourne (Vic.) -- Fiction.

Australia -- Fiction.

Victoria -- Melbourne.

Australia.

Genre:

Historical fiction.

Detective and mystery fiction.

Fiction.

Mystery fiction.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Silver Falls Library	MYS GREENWOOD	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

"Anyone who hasn't discovered Phryne Fisher by now should start making up for lost time." --Booklist

Phryne Fisher is doing one of her favorite things--dancing to the music of Tintagel Stone's Jazzmakers at the Green Mill, Melbourne's premier dance hall. And she's wearing a sparkling lobelia-colored georgette dress. Nothing can flap the unflappable Phryne--especially on a dance floor with so many delectable partners. Nothing but death, that is.

The dance competition is trailing into its last hours when suddenly a figure slumps to the ground. Phryne, conscious of how narrowly the weapon missed her own bare shoulder, back, and dress, investigates.

Phryne follows the deadly trail into the dark smoky jazz clubs of Fitzroy, into the arms of eloquent strangers, and finally into the sky, as she uncovers a complicated family tragedy from the Great War and the damaged men who came back from ANZAC cove.

Author Notes

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.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

While fans of Australian author Greenwood's light and humorous Phryne Fisher mystery series (Cocaine Blues, etc.) may expect the plot to be subordinate to the heroine's displays of wit and libido, the degree to which that is the case this time out makes this a less successful entry than most. The action begins dramatically as Bernard Stevens, a participant in a dance marathon, drops dead in a Sydney nightclub, just before the end of the competition. Fisher, an amazingly self-possessed and competent amateur sleuth, happens to have been nearby at the time, and soon is involved in the investigation. When her date vanishes, after slipping away from the scene of the murder, ostensibly to compose himself, she's hired by his mother to trace both him and his brother, a veteran of the worst trench warfare of WWI. The period is, as always, well-portrayed, but the resolution of the whodunit will disappoint some. (Apr.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Review

Elegant Phryne Fisher visits the Green Mill jazz club with a foppish acquaintance and is once again a witness to murder. The gentleman half of one of the last two couples still standing in a 1920s Australian dance marathon falls dead at the feet of Phryne Fisher (Death at Victoria Dock, 2006, etc.) and her partner Charles Freeman. As Phryne's old pal Police Inspector Jack Robinson arrives to investigate, squeamish Charles goes off to the gents and quietly disappears from the club. Phryne, chatting with the attractive bandleader Tintagel Stone, barely notices his absence. When Charlie remains missing, Phryne is hired by his hysterical and unpleasant mother to find him and his brother Vic, who was shell-shocked during the war and has retreated to an unknown mountain hideaway. Phryne enjoys a dalliance with Tintagel, helps the marathon winners claim their prize, gets Charlie to turn himself in and discovers the murderer, but decides not to mention it to Jack until she returns from a dangerous plane trip to track down Vic. She encounters many a delightful character, including a potato-loving wombat, enjoys a brief fling with Vic and returns to Melbourne a satisfied woman. Despite the joys of traveling Australia with the delightful Phryne, readers may be somewhat less satisfied by this messy mystery. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

The 16 Phryne Fisher mysteries have been appearing steadily in the U.S. over the last several years in mostly random order. This latest to land here was the fifth of the series to be published in Australia (in 1993). It finds the uncontainable, outspoken Australian flapper and private eye trying to figure out who murdered a dance-contest participant and why. As usual, it's the setting--Australia in the 1920s--that sells the story. Fisher herself, as always, is a thoroughly modern heroine, sharp-tongued, self-reliant, and more than able to handle herself when push comes to shove. Greenwood assumes we have read the previous entries in the series, and that we are familiar with the supporting cast (including Mr and Mrs. Butler, who are Phryne's, well, . . . butlers), but she provides enough explanation to keep us from feeling lost. Australian crime fiction is becoming increasingly popular in North America, but Greenwood's series, thanks to its sparkling evocation of how the 1920s roared Down Under, manages to stand apart from the crowd. Anyone who hasn't discovered Phryne Fisher by now should start making up for lost time. --David Pitt Copyright 2007 Booklist