Death in Daylesford
UnCovered
review by Pam Saunders, ACLS Mays Landing Librarian
The waiting is over! After seven years, there is a new Phryne Fisher mystery to revel in: several mysterious goings-on, some involving deaths and others not, all the interpersonal twists and turns of Phryne’s household menagerie of folk who would otherwise have slipped through society’s cracks, two critters, and her diverse friends, and the background details of life in 1920s Melbourne (Australia) and environs.
Phryne travels to Daylesford with her trusted companion Dot for a country sojourn at the invitation of a somewhat mysterious retired Captain Herbert Spencer, who runs a retreat for Victoria’s shell-shocked WWI veterans and hopes for Phryne’s monetary support. Any thoughts of relaxation soon depart, however, as a murder occurs at a local Highland Games which bears similarities to a prior and then subsequent death. And then there is the matter of a spate of disappearances – local married women who have disappeared without a trace over a period of some years.
Meantime, back home in Melbourne, Phryne’s three wards become involved in solving the mystery of the drowning death of their schoolmate, along with Dot’s fiancé police Sergeant Hugh Collins, socialist taxi-drivers Bert and Cec, and household butler and housekeeper Mr. and Mrs. Butler.
Phryne ties up all the various mysteries with her usual panache and returns home to be regaled the adventures of her brood as she observes their growing maturity and social consciences to match her own.
Fast-moving but complicated, and studded with humorous prose (a police officer’s five-o’clock shadow is described as looking “as if he had just gone three rounds with a cheese-grater and been defeated on a technical knock-out”), this latest entry in the series will delight both series fans, fans of the Australian TV shows based on the books, and newcomers alike. This is the twenty-first novel in the series, and while having read the previous titles helps in understanding the characters’ relationships, one can start here without reading those that came first – although be forewarned that Phryne can be very addictive and you may find yourself binge-reading from the beginning.