Unnatural Habits

October 22, 2012
When thugs assault an unescorted woman on a Melbourne street in Greenwood’s entertaining 19th Phryne Fisher mystery set in 1920s Australia (after 2010’s Dead Man’s Chest), Fisher, who’s on her way to her club, comes to the rescue. Reporter Margaret “Polly” Kettle, the intended victim, has been tracking down leads for a story on three pregnant girls who disappeared from the Magdalen Laundry at the Abbotsford convent. With the police uninterested, Polly appeals to Phryne for aid, but before Phryne’s inquiries can advance very much, Polly herself is abducted. The sleuth encounters more than a little human misery in her quest, and, endowed with a generosity of spirit and ample financial resources, puts things right wherever possible. While no one will confuse this for Dickens, Greenwood’s presentation of the horrific conditions in the Magdalen Laundry, an actual place, makes this a refreshing change from the series’ sometimes breezy story lines.

Starred review from November 15, 2012
Australia's answer to Lord Peter Wimsey takes on white slavers and the Catholic Church. The Honorable Phryne Fisher and a friend are on their way to the Adventuresses Club when they see a lone woman about to be attacked by several thugs. After the minions of Phryne's lover, Lin Chung, chase them off, Phryne finds she that she's rescued an ambitious, rather ungrateful young reporter named Polly Kettle who's investigating the disappearance of three women, pregnant and unmarried, who'd been working in the Magdalen Laundry at the Abbotsford convent. Late in their pregnancies, they were to be sent to a nursing home where the babies would be delivered and immediately taken away. According to Polly, the police have no interest in the case. When no bodies turn up, Phryne embarks on what will be a dangerous quest to learn the women's whereabouts. Although she's certain that the local brothels wouldn't be interested in such pregnant females, she discovers that an employment agency seems to be collecting very young women and shipping them overseas, never to be seen again. The police, in the person of Phryne's friend Jack Robinson, are forced to investigate when Polly is kidnapped. After calling on the laundry, whose working conditions are much less pleasant than those in the brothels she's visited, Phryne, who cannot abide injustice and cruelty, goes up against some well-armored antagonists in an attempt to find Polly and the other missing girls. Among Phryne's pleasantly dashing adventures (Dead Man's Chest, 2010, etc.), this one stands out for its emphasis on sexual orientation and institutional coverups.

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Starred review from January 1, 2013

Phryne Fisher, Australia's inimitable sleuth and flapper, returns to help the police find not only Polly Kettle, a reporter who's gone missing, but also three young unwed mothers who have disappeared from the nursing home where they had been banished because of their pregnancies. Polly had been investigating rumors of missing young women--not just pregnant ones--and now it looks as if she's been kidnapped, too. As always, Phryne defies convention and plows in wherever she feels an answer might be found. Enlisting help from an assortment of allies (commune residents, gay club owners, brothel madams), the charismatic Phryne pursues justice with vigilante fervor. VERDICT Greenwood's 19th entry (after Dead Man's Chest) in her long-running and justifiably popular historical cozy-with-a-social-conscience series is not to be missed. Not only are readers treated to vivid descriptions of late 1920s Melbourne, but clever turns of phrase and witty humor make the journey a treat. While the story is historical in setting, Greenwood's tone and ensemble cast could also appeal to G.M. Malliet fans; Dorothy Sayers aficionados need look no further. [See Prepub Alert, 8/20/12.]

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2012
Phryne Fisher, Greenwood's flapper-era sleuth, who hails from Melbourne, is distressed to learn that several young girls, some of them pregnant, have disappeared. Distress quickly turns to anger when Polly Kettle, an ambitious reporter who tends to rub people the wrong way, also vanishes. Phryne and Dot, her secretary-sidekick, leap into the investigation with both feet. Phryne is a highly engaging series protagonist: an aristocrat who came from humble origins, a decorated veteran of the Great War, a pilot, and a sort of proto-feminist who says what's on her mind and absolutely will not tolerate stupidity or arrogance. She feels in many ways like she's been transplanted from a modern-day crime novel: a character created by, say, Janet Evanovich or Lisa Gardner and then transported 90-odd years back in time. And, yet, the period setting works splendidly, making the most of the flapper ahead of her time. Series fans will be delighted, as always, but promotion to newbies could garner Greenwood some new readers, too.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)