Description
I love reading about Phryne's adventures. They are lighthearted, fun and frothy but have informative and serious social commentary as well. Unnatural Habits is no exception. The plotting is clever with Phryne's search for the missing women taking her all over Melbourne and into all echelons of society. She cuts a wide swathe in her charming, inimitable style. She meets the horror of the Magdalen Laundries, white slavers, brothel keepers and the love which must not say its name as she pursues her enquiries....The issues are very real and well documented but Ms Greenwood has a light touch. She never preaches, just lays it out and uses Phryne's visceral reactions to expose the horror of it, all the time keeping the tone of the novel upbeat. I really admire her skill as it seems to be an impossible task and she manages it with ease....Phryne Fisher is an inspired creation. She is rich and well educated, but that wasn't always the case so she knows both sides of the rich/poor divide. She is frivolous and revels in her privilege and the lifestyle it affords, hedonistic maybe, but she is also kind, caring and compassionate when the situation requires it. She is also smart and determined. What more could you ask for in a protagonist? (Elaine Tomasso NetGalley ) Elegant, fabulously wealthy and sharp as a tack, Phryne sleuths her way through these classical detective stories with customary panache. ( The Age ) 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.
Features & Highlights
- Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, now streaming on Netflix, starring Essie Davis as the honourable Phryne Fisher
- "Among Phryne's pleasantly dashing adventures, this one stands out for its emphasis on sexual orientation and institutional coverups." ―
- Kirkus Reviews
- STARRED review
- The decidedly raven-haired Miss Phryne Fisher returns to delve deep into the dark side of Melbourne, Australia.
- It's 1929, and girls are going missing. Little, pretty golden-haired girls. And they're not just pretty. Three of them are pregnant, poor girls from the harsh confines of the Magdalene Laundry. People are getting nervous.
- Polly Kettle, a pushy, self-important girl reporter with ambition and no sense of self preservation, decides to investigate and promptly goes missing herself.
- It's time for Phryne and Dot to put a stop to this and find Polly Kettle before something quite irreparable happens to all of the missing girls. It's all piracy and dark cellars, convents and plots, murder and mystery...and Phryne finally finds out if it's true that blondes have more fun.
