Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of Murder in the Dark by Kerry Greenwood. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.
Murder in the Dark by Kerry Greenwood
A Phryne Fisher Mystery
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
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.
If you are interested in purchasing Murder in the Dark from Amazon.com, please click the button to the right.
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.
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