Murder
in the Dark
A
Phryne Fisher Mystery
Kerry
Greenwood
Poisoned
Pen Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-59058-439-2 (1590584392)
ISBN-13: 978-1-58058-439-2 (9781580584392)
Publication Date: March 2009
List Price: $24.95
Synopsis (from
the publisher): It’s Christmas, and Phryne has an invitation
to the Last Best party of 1928, a four-day extravaganza being held at
Werribee Manor house and grounds by the Golden Twins, Isabella and
Gerald Templar. She knew them in Paris, where they caused a sensation.
Phryne is in two minds about going. But when threats begin arriving in
the mail, she promptly decides to accept the invitation. No one tells
Phryne Fisher what to do.
At the Manor House, she is accommodated in the Iris room, and at the
party dallies with two polo-playing women, a Goat lady (and goat), a
large number of glamorous young men, and a very rude child called
Tarquin.
The acolytes of the golden twins are smoking hashish and dreaming. The
jazz is as hot as the drinks are cold. Heaven. It all seems like good
clean fun until three people are kidnapped, one of them the abominable
child, and Phryne must puzzle her way through the cryptic clues of the
scavenger hunt to retrieve the hostages and save the party from further
disaster.
Review:
Phyrne Fisher attends an exotic (and erotic) New Year's Eve celebration
and attempts to prevent a Murder in
the Dark,
the 17th mystery in this series by Kerry Greenwood.
Phyrne doesn't particularly want to attend the multi-day event at the
height of the Melbourne summer. But the best way to get Phyrne to do
something is to tell her she shouldn't, and when two threats, one quite
deadly, appear on her doorstep strongly suggesting she skip party, she
sets her mind not only to attend but to identify and deal with the
person who seems so determined to keep her away. "The trickster will be
at the party. And when I find him," she bared her teeth, "then he shall
learn that I known a few tricks of my own." Upon arriving at the
estate, she's quickly faced with two missing persons: a young lad and
an even younger girl. Determined not to allow anything to happen to
them, she sets out to discover why someone took them and if their
disappearance has anything to do with the threats she received before
arriving and the riddles she's getting once there.
Murder
in the Dark is
replete with all the intricate details that make this series so
successful. A mix of over-the-top characters (such as the "Golden
Twins", Isabella and Gerald Templar) and down-to-earth souls (like the
head housekeeper, Mrs. Truebody) together in a colorful, entertaining
environment. And of course there's Phryne's mystery man of the hour,
Nicholas Booth. But the plot is a little sketchy and not fully
developed. It's never made quite clear, for example, why Phyrne was
sent the initial threats. And the riddles, while clever in and of
themselves, really have little to do with anything other than as a
pretext to leading Phyrne around in search of the next one. Finally,
the conclusion ties up all the loose ends a bit too neatly and
conveniently. Still, Murder in the
Dark
is fairly typical of the series; readers who have enjoyed the earlier
adventures of Phryne Fisher will be pleased with this one as well.
Special thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for providing an ARC of Murder in the Dark for this review.
Review Copyright © 2009 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Have you read Murder in the Dark? How would you rate it?
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Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover), March 2009
ISBN-10: 1-59058-439-2 (1590584392)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-439-2 (9781590584392)
Murder on a Midsummer Night
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Omnimystery
keywords for Murder in the Dark
...
Location(s) referenced: Melbourne,
Australia.
