Death at Victoria Dock

Exciting and delightfully downplayed!

I have to say I love Phryne Fisher. I love her spirit of independence and savoie faire, a sleek fashionable woman, whose exterior hides a determined and compsionate heart. And
The epitome of the cool flapper detective and thoroughly modern woman fresh from the horrors of the European war theatre where she drove ambulances. Now she is here in Melbourne flouting convention at every turn, during the time between the wars when lives were recovering from unspoken terrors and full of hope. And her two side kicks, archetypal ex-diggers Cec and Bert are fabulously under-spoken, laconic characters.
Knowing the areas of Melbourne the story is set against, I enjoy figuratively walking down the streets that show more Phryne treads in her pursuits of information.
In this case, a late night encounter with an errant shot that smashes into her window screen and a dead body draws Phryne knee deep in Latvian anarchists and revolutionaries, whilst pursuing a second case of a missing school girl.
In this story her maid Dot meet Constable Hugh Phillips for the first time and Phryne forms an attachment (short term) with a marvellously soulful anarchist.
When Dot is kidnapped, Phryne does not take kindly to such underhanded play. The chase is on!

A NetGalley ARC show less

When someone takes a shot at Phryne as she’s driving past the dockyards, shattering her windscreen, she is annoyed; when she comes across a gunshot victim, a young man, and holds him as he lies dying on the docks, she is enraged. Her investigations lead her to a group of Latvian anarchists, who are far more dangerous than her usual foes. As if that’s not enough, a young girl has run away after her father refuses to accept that she has a calling to become a nun, but she is not to be found at the convent where she might be expected to flee….This is the fourth Phyrne Fisher novel and, perhaps just because I read the first three in the four or five days prior to reading this one, it came across as a bit repetitive and formulaic. Not show more that I didn’t still entirely enjoy Phryne and her companions, but perhaps I shouldn’t read each book back-to-back, especially when each one only takes a couple of hours to read! Still, while a little tired, an enjoyable read. show less

Death at Victoria Dock by Kerry Greenwood is the fourth installment in the Phryne Fisher series.

I am seriously irked. This Greenwood moll has something against teenaged girls, and puts them repeatedly in the most heinous jeopardy imaginable and then when they're extricated all is suddenly sweetness and light.

I don't do book reports, because if I want to know what a book's about I read it. I also hate spoilers. But I am about to make a big fat plot-ruining spoiler here, so go away if you don't like them.

Are you gone yet?

Good.

I have one daughter in this life. She is, thankfully, well out of teen-age and in fact is pushing thirty. I still find stories of teenagers abused by adults extremely upsetting, on her behalf as well as my own. The show more teenaged girl in this story is abused sexually by her older brother. She quite naturally Has Issues, and one of them is her new stepmomma is preggers by that same brother. She gets locked up in the goofy garage by stepmomma, who wants brother boy all to herself, and is sprung by our own Phryne, only to be delivered TO THE NUNS!!! Child abuse on top of child abuse. Poor deluded little lass has expressed a desire to become a nun, and in the only bit of sanity in this plotline, her father is outraged and drags her out of their clutches. Then Phryne, normally a force for good, chucks her back into the maw of evil.

This book has upset me greatly. I think the other plot, about a Latvian anarchist plot to rob a bank, is pretty tame, but it gives Fisher's Watsoness Dot a chance to fall in love at last. Janie and Ruthie appear to have settled into a life of luxury without a hitch, so all is well.

If the next book in this series has another girl getting abused, I am so outta here. I won't recommend this book except for completists who MUST read every volume of a series. show less

Another awesome Phryne read!!
Phryne has driven into another catastrophe, literally. She was driving home when someone shot out her windscreen. And even worse is the death of the young man she witnesses, mowed down on the road. Enormously upset, she swears to find the culprit but to do this she has to infiltrate the anarchists circle which leads to more classic Phryne adventures.
Well, I don't know what I can say that I haven't said before. I love these books! The prose is snappy which makes these stories so easy to read, the characters rock. The good guys are good & the baddies are awful! The thing I love about these stories though is the things I learn in these books. The old fashioned slang as well as words & phrases that have fallen show more into disuse like 'the megrims' or 'necrophile'. As usual, this book is a lot of fun with plenty of action. show less

Short, breezy, with lightly sketched characters and a flimsy plot, this isn't great literature—but it is great fun. This is the fourth of the Phryne Fisher books, and perfectly comprehensible to me though I hadn't read the previous three. Phryne is newly returned to 1920s Australia after several years spent in Europe—wealthy, independent-minded, smart and practical, she sets herself up as a private detective. This installment has anarchists, nuns, marvellous descriptions of cloche hats, and not one jot of gendered BS from our main character that I could see. There are lots of female characters being gutsy and awesome, and if you like some period mystery-investigating Australian flapper ladies, I think you'll like this!

The fourth Phryne Fisher mystery starts with a pretty young man dying in her arms. Phryne is determined to get justice for the young man. But to do so she will have to get involved with Anarchists who are planning a bank robbery.

Meanwhile, she is hired to find a young girl who had disappeared. The girl goes to the same school as Phryne's newly adopted daughters. As she searches for Alicia, she uncovers quite a number of unsavory secrets from her family.

This was another excellent entry in this series. 1928 is vividly realized and Phryne is an independent woman who sets her own course and lives by her own moral code. Phryne's maid Dot gets a nice part in this one when she is kidnapped and has to use her own ingenuity to prevent a future show more crime.

Fun historical mystery engagingly read by Stephanie Daniel who does a great job with all the characters and with the pacing of the story. show less

Phryne is out driving later at night in the docks area, when suddenly someone shoots out her windscreen. When she gets out of her car to assess the damage, she finds a wounded young man. He dies in her arms, and as she holds him she notices a tattoo that ties him to anarchists.

Ticked off about the blood stains she gets on her clothes, the damage to her car and the death of the young man, she decides she will find out who and why this all happened. The thing she isn't expecting is how dangerous it becomes as her investigations take her to some of the seamier parts of her world; tattoo parlours, spiritualists and Anarchists. Assisting her are her usual helpmates; Dot, the Butlers, Bert and Cec, along with a new connection named Peter show more Smith. Smith is involved with the revolutionaries and can provide access and information...among other things.

Phryne has also been hired to help find a missing 14-year-old girl named Alicia May Waddington-Forsythe. Her father is concerned and feels that his new wife is also. The girl attends the same school as Phryne's two adopted daughters, which gives Phryne a connection to what the girl is like and what may be the reason for the run-away. As Phryne investigates she uncovers quite a bit of 'dirty laundry.'

I am enjoying this series and looking forward to the other books. In fact I have the next two sitting on my night stand now! show less