A little over a year ago we learned that Australia's ABC was adapting Kerry Greenwood's "Phyrne Fisher" mysteries for television. Titled Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, thirteen episodes aired earlier this year, with the series being renewed for a second season.
We're fans of the books — we've read and reviewed eight of them so far — and had hoped that the series might find its way to our shores, and while that hasn't happened quite yet, it is a bit closer. The series was pre-sold internationally to a number of countries (not including the US), and most recently UKTV's Alibi channel has acquired it.
Essie Davis stars as Phryne Fisher, a glamorous and thoroughly modern woman — and sleuth — of the 1920s. She sashays through the back lanes and jazz clubs of Melbourne, fighting injustice with her pearl-handled pistol and her dagger sharp wit. The Australian network restricts viewing of the series trailers on YouTube in the US, but you can use this link to see a "programming slate" for 2012; Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries is featured from about the 1:50 mark to the 2:30 mark.
There are at present 18 books in the series, published in the US by Poisoned Pen Press. The first, Cocaine Blues, is currently (as of the date and time of this post) free to download.
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Cocaine Blues
Kerry Greenwood
A Phyrne Fisher Mystery (1st in series)
The London season is in full fling at the end of the 1920s, but the Honorable Phryne Fisher — she of the green-grey eyes, diamant garters and outfits that should not be sprung suddenly on those of nervous dispositions — is rapidly tiring of the tedium of arranging flowers, making polite conversations with retired colonels, and dancing with weak-chinned men. Instead, Phryne decides it might be rather amusing to try her hand at being a lady detective in Melbourne, Australia.
Almost immediately from the time she books into the Windsor Hotel, Phryne is embroiled in mystery: poisoned wives, cocaine smuggling rings, corrupt cops and communism — not to mention erotic encounters with the beautiful Russian dancer, Sasha de Lisse — until her adventure reaches its steamy end in the Turkish baths of Little Lonsdale Street.
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It is available on DVD but in the Pal format (does not play on American NSTC format). But you can buy a good multi-region DVD player for under fifty dollars, so the foreign DVDs are easier to watch than ever.
ReplyDeleteGood to know; thanks for the information!
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