By Kerry Greenwood
Publisher/Year: Allen & Unwin/2021
Publisher description
The elegant Miss Phryne Fisher returns in this scintillating collection, which features four brand-new stories.
The Honourable Phryne Fisher – she of the Lulu bob, Cupid’s bow lips, diamante garters and pearl-handled pistol – is the 1920s’ most elegant and irrepressible sleuth.
Miss Phryne Fisher is up to her stunning green eyes in intriguing crime in each of these entertaining, fun and compulsively readable stories. With the ever-loyal Dot, the ingenious Mr Butler and all of Phryne’s friends and household, the action is as fast as Phryne’s wit and logic.
Reviewer: Dianne Honey
A delightful variety of short stories which was originally published in 2007 as A Question of Death. The new edition, The Lady with the Gun Asks the Questions has a number of brand new stories is like a box of assorted chocolates allowing the reader to dip in and out of the book at will, without losing any of the plot lines, and is perfect for a quick read while commuting, over a coffee, in a cafe or lounging in bed with a divine cocktail close by.
Kerry Greenwood’s stories are well plotted and all about murder, lost bodies, jealous husbands, fires, feuding families, thefts, society scandals, missing items of clothing, blackmail, and all manner of deception. But her main character, the Honourable Phryne Fisher can solve them all with her quick wit, and agile mind. When a marriage proposal is stirred into the mix, it throws Phryne into a state of confusion and raises several questions. Was she looking for exclusive love? Could she really become the demure bride?
Greenwood takes readers back into the 1920s with the classic flapper in the shape of the Hon. Phryne Fisher who’s dressed in the era’s gorgeous clothes and jewellery. Phryne is living in her own house surrounded by her favourite staff and people, and shows Greenwood at her best. The detail of Phryne’s Melbourne, and Greenwood’s knowledge of people’s psychology is woven in, through and around every story.
Phryne–a reflection of Greenwood’s devious mind–involves herself in a variety of problems, follows the leads, reflects and solves it. The female sleuth often allows the perpetrator to mend their ways and remain in their position of employment, while all the time indulging herself with gaspers, cocktails and delectable young men.