The fabulous Phryne - the 1920s most elegant and irrepressible sleuth - returns for her seventeenth adventure investigating the death of a man at St Kilda while at the same time trying to find a lost child who could inherit an old woman's fortune.
Phryne turns 29 and solves another mystery
This is the latest in the series of Phryne Fisher mysteries. As always, it's more about the style than the plot and the style is there in buckets. I love the descriptions of live in Melbourne in the late '20s. The murder is curiously disinteresting, perhaps because we never met the victim and though he is described extensively, he never achieves a sympathetic character. The usual characters weave their way through the book, Phryne, her two adopted daughters, her lover Lin Chung makes a welcome but brief return, her pets and various acquaintances from past books. All in all, a reasonable read. Not one of the best of the series but enough to keep me waiting until the next one.
Carol, 12/12/2008
