Windows To The World

                     


DEATH 
       BY
           WATER


KERRY GREENWOOD

Since there is a bit of upheaval in her home at 221B St. Hilda’s, Phryne Fisher announces that she is going on a luxury cruise around the island of New Zealand. In her capacity as a private investigator she has been ask to try and solve a series of  jewel thefts that have been plaguing the passengers of the SS Hinemoa.  On several recent trips there has been a case of theft on the high seas, always taken is the most valuable set of gems on board. Since the ship and the crew are carefully searched it seems likely that the thief is a passenger.

Phryne, who is a beautiful woman with dark hair, fair skin and cupid’s bow lips, is able to mingle freely with the upper class passengers. She will take with her the Great Queen of Sapphires, the Maharani as bait.

As on every cruise there is a cross section of characters, parties, excitement, wonderful scenery and shipboard romances.  Phryne is shrewd and is able to keep the sapphire safe but the thief is getting desperate which leads to attempted murder and finally murder itself.

Royal Victoria Hospital

I first encountered Kerry Greenwood’s Phryne Fisher when she took her first ocean voyage in COCAINE BLUES.  This mystery introduced Phryne as a wealthy young woman with some relation to the British nobility. It was the decade of the 1920’s and Phryne was at loose ends in London. She is given the commission by relatives of a young woman to come to Australia to determine if her husband was poisoning her. They live in Melbourne. It was in this city that Phryne was born and grew up in poverty until her father was found to be next in line for a title and wealth.

One of the characters she meets a is woman Doctor on board ship who is working at the Royal Victoria hospital for women, her companion Dot she rescues from a dire situation and she becomes known to the local constabulary. She gets herself a beautiful Hispano-Suiza the only one in Australia and she is a woman on the move. Greenwood makes the twenties seem a great time to be alive if you are Phryne Fisher.

Hispano Suiza

Fisher’s character is developed further in FLYING TOO HIGH in which we learn she can pilot a plane as well as look for kidnapped children and solve murders. She has purchased a house in Melbourne with the number 221B and has clients clamoring for her services.

Fokker

The Fisher stories are always well done, never predictable and are always served with a dollop of history, which makes a nice icing on the cake. The cast of characters is pretty stable and one gets to know and like them. There are still a few more in ths series that I am saving for a rainy day. I don’t want to think about not having a Kerry Greenwood book on tap for my enjoyment.