Murder and Mendelsohn
by Kerry Greenwood
Allen & Unwin
Thanks to ABC television, the unconventional detective Miss Phryne (pronounced fry-knee) Fisher is known to many people. Living in Melbourne in the 1920s, this exquisitely dressed and unflappable lady manages to run a household, solve a few crimes and have tempestuous affairs without putting a hair out of place.
Miss Fischer Murder Mysteries are created by historian, solicitor and author Kerry Greenwood and this book is the Melbourne sleuth’s twentieth adventure. In the summer of 1929, Phryne remains the epitome of elegance as she reads an autopsy report about an orchestral conductor who had sheets of Mendelssohn’s Elijah stuffed down his throat and enough opiates in his stomach to kill a small rhinoceros. Phryne helps Detective Jack Robinson by joining the choir rehearsing Elijah and discovers a hotbed of emotion, another dead body and several likely suspects.
With the shadow of the Great War still hanging over the world, Phryne is distracted when she reconnects with her bisexual lover from those disturbing times. Phryne has a penchant for pretty men and her friend Dr John Wilson has a penchant for needy men, particularly his boss Rupert Sheffield who is both pretty and needy. There are quite a few gay characters in this melodrama, including Phryne’s sister who is a devout Sapphic.
Phryne has to do a lot of drinking, dining and social chit chat in order to find information and Aunty Mark’s nightly soirees after choir rehearsals are particularly bacchantic. Phryne enlists help from many people she has helped in the past and uses her connections from when she used to dabble in a little bit of espionage to solve the tangled web of murders.
Lezly Hinton
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