Customer Reviews

Flying Too High: A Phryne Fisher Mystery

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The second book in the series takes place only a few months after "Cocaine blues" ends and with it returns its bright and luminous Phryne Fisher. Many of the secondary (if you can call them that) characters return which adds a nice touch. I liked this book even more than the previous one. Phryne seems to have found her grove in this story along with moving into her new, fashionable domicile. She has to solve two cases at once, the murder of a cantankerous, generally disliked husband and father and the kidnapping of a little girl. Phryne handles both cases with her normal aplomb, intuition and style along with a little wing walking and flying. I especially like Greenwood's use of language and how it reflects the times; this adds another layer of fun and effervescence to these stories that makes me look forward to the next one. I recommend this book highly.

Having read all of Kerry Greenwood's Phryne mysteries I cannot say which one I like the best. But, I love them all and when I get jaded from reading some of the "modern" mysteries full of sex, four letter words and blood and guts I settle down with one of these before bedtime. Let me say I am in love with Australia and would live there if I could--too old to move and my wife would never go. We were fortunate enough to visit several years ago and loved every minute.
Greenwood has developed a very likeable and superlative heroine. The supporting cast is well drawn and interesting in their own. These are truly "cozies" and I find them very enjoyable reads, rationing them carefully lest I run out.
If you like Australian mysteries I would heartily recommend anything you can find by Arthur Upfield, who wrote in the period after WW II. His hero is an Australian police detective "halfcaste" who specialized in solving mysteries in the outback and rural areas of Australia. Great flavor and good story telling!

i have been reading mysteries for decades. i have favorite authors whose books i reread with pleasure. but my absolute favorite for the last ten years is kerry greenwood and her phryne fisher series.

the novels are incredibly well-written and well researched, have wonderfully twisty plots, great dialogue, clothes, food and drink. phryne fisher is a complex and fascinating character with, thankfully, no angst or moral quandries. she has ethics and morals and acts on them fearlessly.

there is humor of all kinds as well as suspense. the twisty plots also pay homage to the plots of the golden age of mystery, the period between the wars when mystery writing became culturally acceptable.

even non-mystery lovers would enjoy the series for the fascinating facts from australian history. the only thing ms. greenwood doesn't include is footy, probably because our phyrne lives in st. kilda. it's not a noticeble lack.

In my review of the first in Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher series, Cocaine Blues, I wrote this:

"The Phryne Fisher series came highly recommended by a man not usually given to Affirmative Action crits, but I can't help feeling that if this had been written by a bloke . . .

"Female readers may well enjoy the anachronistic cheap shots at Twenties' inequalities, and God knows there could be worse heroines for the Noughties. (Or do we call the present decade the Oh-Ohs?)

"Lovers of crime fiction will surely be disappointed, and not only by the fact that the King of Snow was obvious from the start. This is an amateurish effort, best illustrated by having the members of a White Russian noble family speak French when alone with each other in private (rather than Russian) the better to be eavesdroppedupon by our French-speaking heroine.

"It's not bad wordsmithery, as you might expect of a lawyer who moonlights as an author, but I'm guessing most male readers will not find this enough."

I figured I should give Greenwood the benefit of the doubt (legal pun there, or perhaps a cricketing one) since as an Aussie I had my own bit of Positive Discrimination going. And I'm sure those who know Melbourne better than me take great pleasure in the "local" settings, albeit displaced 80 years into the past.

So I turned to this one, which adds Geelong (and indeed Queenscliff) to its Aussie locales. It also adds precocious kid (and an array of loveable urchins) to its stock of clichéd characters, but I'm guessing that's a chick lit thing.

It also adds to the scale of Phryne's derring-do, having her walk out on the wing of a Tiger Moth minus parachute (with a man she has only just met and never flown with before and who is completely unprepared for this stunt, left at the reserve controls) just so she can prove she is one of the boys.

I don't want to give the solution to the mystery away (although I'm not sure these novels are really intended for lovers of that genre, the plots are way too weak), but my jaw dropped even further than the murder weapon at how much could turn on not one of the cops bothering to look over the fence!

It's worth half a star more than Cocaine Blues, but since I still can't work out how to award half stars (and Cocaine Blues was only worth 2.5 anyway, IMHO), this one gets three.

I've quickly become a great fan of the Phryne Fisher series, and again, this did not disappoint. Greenwood does a wonderful job creating an atmosphere and giving the 1920s in Melbourne a distinctive character. The story in itself is engaging and Phryne, as always, is charming and fabulous!

Another great Phryne Fisher adventure. I couldn't put it down. I can't wait to read the next one.

In the three months that the Honorable Phyrne Fisher has lived in Australia, she has made a name for herself as an investigator who always solves her cases. She solved a case for a woman who travels in high society circles and that woman gives Phyrne's business a glowing recommendation to her friends. Her latest client Mrs. McNaughton is afraid that her son will kill her husband because he refuses to lend his son money to go on an airplane adventure. At the airport Phyrne talks to Bill McNaughton and tells her about her mother's fears and he tells he was never intending to kill his father. Bill's friend Jack Lawton is amazed as he watches Phyrne fly Bill's plane with much skill.

The next day Phyrne learns that Mr. McNaughton has been murdered and Bill has been arrested. When he is released on bail he hires Phyrne to find the real killer. While she works that case Candida Maldon is kidnapped and held for ransom. Jack convinces the family to hire Phyrne, who she devises a plan using Bill's plane to find and retrieve the kidnapped girl. Solving Bill's problem is a piece of cake in comparison.

Kerry Greenwood is one of Australia's most talented mystery writers. Her heroine is a woman who would be at home in the twenty-first century but since she lives in the 1920's she is careful to project a proper image while still doing what she wants. The wily, spunky heroine somehow makes the audience believe she is smart enough to easily solve two cases in a matter of days while the exotic locale will please armchair travelers.

Harriet Klausner

I am just getting started on Phryne Fisher mysteries, and they are proving quite addictive. Much of the charm comes from the setting- Australia in the 1920's, but the plots are well thought out. The heroine is charming, witty and surrounded by a large cast of helpers. Try them, bet you can't read just one!

this second in the series is even better than the first. and it features airplanes.

the characterizations are first rate, the plot is nicely paced, the resolution satisfying, the information about bi-planes enough to send anyone out to find and fly one.

phyne's situation develops and characters who will continue in the series are introduced. this book could still be read without reference to the first, as there is enough backstory to bring a reader up to date.

this series is a must for any mystery lover, but any read could enjoy them for the writing, the humor, the history of australia, and, of course, for phyrne.

this is the second title of one of the best series around. the other reviewers are absolutely right. and i, too, want to be phyrne.

greenwood writes wonderfully well. there is humor, suspense, excitement in all her books, and tricky plots. the only complaint i could ever possibly make is that there are no references to footy (australian rules football)--and phyrne lives in st. kilda. this is probably not going to be a drawback for most american readers!

this title harks back to many of the mysteries of the early 20th century, which is appropriate for the 1928 setting. there's great excitement in the descriptions of early flying--i wanted even more to go up in a bi-plane after reading this.

none of this series could be described as 'cozy,' since there is a clear-eyed view of reality under the mystery. neither is there violence for the sake of titillation. the motives are believable, the characters--good and bad--are well drawn, the dialogue is wonderful, the australian background fascinating.

this is a book and a series that any reader could enjoy.