The Green Mill Murder (Phryne Fisher Mysteries (Hardcover)) [Hardcover]

Kerry Greenwood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 9, 2007 | Series: Phryne Fisher Mysteries (Hardcover)

Phryne Fisher is doing one of her favorite things --dancing at the Green Mill (Melbourne's premier dance hall) to the music of Tintagel Stone's Jazzmakers, the band who taught St Vitus how to dance. And she's wearing a sparkling lobelia-coloured georgette dress. Nothing can flap the unflappable Phryne--especially on a dance floor with so many delectable partners. Nothing except death, that is.

The dance competition is trailing into its last hours when suddenly, in the middle of "Bye Bye Blackbird" a figure slumps to the ground. No shot was heard. Phryne, conscious of how narrowly the missile missed her own bare shoulder, back, and dress, investigates.

This leads her into the dark smoky jazz clubs of Fitzroy, into the arms of eloquent strangers, and finally into the the sky, as she follows a complicated family tragedy of the great War and the damaged men who came back from ANZAC cove.

Phryne flies her Gypsy Moth Rigel into the Autralian Alps, where she meets a hermit with a dog called Lucky and a wombat living under his bunk....and risks her life on the love between brothers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While fans of Australian author Greenwood's light and humorous Phryne Fisher mystery series (Cocaine Blues, etc.) may expect the plot to be subordinate to the heroine's displays of wit and libido, the degree to which that is the case this time out makes this a less successful entry than most. The action begins dramatically as Bernard Stevens, a participant in a dance marathon, drops dead in a Sydney nightclub, just before the end of the competition. Fisher, an amazingly self-possessed and competent amateur sleuth, happens to have been nearby at the time, and soon is involved in the investigation. When her date vanishes, after slipping away from the scene of the murder, ostensibly to compose himself, she's hired by his mother to trace both him and his brother, a veteran of the worst trench warfare of WWI. The period is, as always, well-portrayed, but the resolution of the whodunit will disappoint some.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The 16 Phryne Fisher mysteries have been appearing steadily in the U.S. over the last several years in mostly random order. This latest to land here was the fifth of the series to be published in Australia (in 1993). It finds the uncontainable, outspoken Australian flapper and private eye trying to figure out who murdered a dance-contest participant and why. As usual, it's the setting--Australia in the 1920s--that sells the story. Fisher herself, as always, is a thoroughly modern heroine, sharp-tongued, self-reliant, and more than able to handle herself when push comes to shove. Greenwood assumes we have read the previous entries in the series, and that we are familiar with the supporting cast (including Mr and Mrs. Butler, who are Phryne's, well, . . . butlers), but she provides enough explanation to keep us from feeling lost. Australian crime fiction is becoming increasingly popular in North America, but Greenwood's series, thanks to its sparkling evocation of how the 1920s roared Down Under, manages to stand apart from the crowd. Anyone who hasn't discovered Phryne Fisher by now should start making up for lost time. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 173 pages
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press; First U.S. Edition edition (April 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590582403
• ISBN-13: 978-1590582404
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,570,202 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent look at 1920s Australia, April 7, 2007

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Green Mill Murder (Phryne Fisher Mysteries (Hardcover)) (Hardcover)

The Honorable Phryne Fisher accompanies Charles Freeman to Green Mill, a dance hall that was very popular in Australia in the 1920's. She promised his mother that she would look after her son when one of the participants in a dance hall is knifed to death. He was behind Phryne who didn't see the actual stabbing but when her escort sees the bloody body, he gets sick and runs into the men's room. By the time the police arrive on the scene, Charles has disappeared.

His mother, a cruel and hateful virago, asks Phryne, who moonlights as a private detective, to find him. She discovers Charles is gay and possesses pictures that could get him killed since at that time and place sodomy was against the law. When she finally finds Charles she hands him over to the police even though she doesn't think he is the killer. She also has to make a trip to the outback to find Victor, the brother who Charles believes is dead because his mother told him so. Mrs. Freeman wishes Victor was dead so she would inherit the house and money as her late husband left her with nothing. Phryne finds a confrontation between the two brothers is inevitable.

THE GREEN MILL MURDER is so much more than a murder mystery, it is a journey into the heart of a family, a trip into the new musical world of jazz and it is the story of a woman who lives her life her way regardless what society thinks. 1920s Australia comes to glorious life in Kerry Greenwood's capable hands, but though the mystery is superb, the locale vivid, and the era descriptive, readers will continue reading this series because the heroine is such a fascinating character.

Harriet Klausner

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars pages are indeed missing, June 12, 2007

By 

E Rice (western ny state) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Green Mill Murder (Phryne Fisher Mysteries (Hardcover)) (Hardcover)

in my copy, which i ordered from australia since it wasn't available here at the time, the main mystery was definitely solved. (i am editing my review to include this information: a chapter and a half is missing from this edition, which i bought to replace my worn australian paperback. i just re-read the novel yesterday and compared it to the paperback. i'm appalled.)

so, assuming you can get a complete copy, i would recommend this and every other phryne to anyone interested in mysteries (except the writer of the synopsis who thinks, goodness knows how, that the mysteries are light), or in australian history 9and if you aren't interested in australian history, you will be after one of these books), or just wonderful writing. the series is consistently high quality, with even the less than perfect far superior to most of what is currently being published. phyrne is refresingly adult, decisive, independent, and competent. the plots hark back to the great mysteries of the 20s and 30s. there is humor, suspense and interesting characters.

who could ask for anything more?

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Missing pages?, May 30, 2007

By 

allemande - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Green Mill Murder (Phryne Fisher Mysteries (Hardcover)) (Hardcover)

The main mystery isn't concluded -- which is itself a mystery. What I'm wondering, given that the book has approx. 173 pages and amazon lists it as 270 pages, is whether the last 100 pages might be missing for some reason, which would account for the comments on the slightly disappointing ending or lack of conclusion. Otherwise, a witty and enjoyable novel and particularly interesting on the jazz age.