Death at Victoria Dock

Phryne Fisher is a likeable, charming and vibrant individual. She's kind and generous to those she meets, smart and logical when faced with problems or obstacles and adventurous in her dislike of boredom. She is brave and tenacious and brutal when faced with injustice.

A few deaths of distant relatives were all that stood between her life of poverty and her ascent into luxury at the age of 12 and she never takes her wealth and social standing for granted. The result of which is a kind and generous soul who is always willing to speak up for the victims, the downtrodden or the underdogs and one who relishes fine food, fine clothes and the myriad of pursuits open to her. Her open mindedness leads to an unique and vibrant cast pulled from show more all walks of life.

Being an Aussie and a proud Melbournian - the Melbourne setting was a highlight. Recognising the street names and places was fun. And Melbournians will understand the delight in recognising how strange our weather is to outsiders.

As far as the genre goes, I don't know if I'd really say it was crime or historical. I mean it is a historical period but it felt kind of modern. The crime was good but it was interspersed with character relationships. There was romance but none of it was meaningful or relevant. It was too lowbrow to be literary and too much reality to be chick lit. It's an odd mix that was an enjoyable read but likely not for everyone.

It's also fairly different from the tv show (and she's a lot younger in the books) but the main elements are present - like Phryne's love of clothes, her humour, confidence and loveable charming personality.

Character wise, I love them all! Phryne, Dot, Dr Elizabeth MacMillan, WPC Jones, Inspector Robinson, Bert and Cec, Mr and Mrs. Butler, Jane, Ruth, they were all fantastic and had me giggling throughout. And I adore the way women are portrayed in this series. I love that all the female characters are strong willed and fierce and able to look after themselves - even when it doesn't always seem like it. I also really like how the cops aren't written as useless or inept - but rather unable to significantly help without someone willing to speak up and testify.

Well this was intense. There was things happening all over the place. Unfortunately unlike the last book where I could push my issues aside fairly easily, this book I could not. I didn't like Peter. I hated the whole anarchy storyline. It was just too political for my tastes I think. I didn't much like most of the characters involved either which likely didn't help.

What I did like was the plot about the missing girl and Ruth and Jane's deviousness in finding out extra details. I loved the tattoo guy being cowed because Phryne goes in and is happy to reveal her skin in order to be tattooed. I liked getting to see more Bert and Cec and their confidence in leaving Phryne to do what Phryne does best without their help. I also loved the developing romance between police detective Hugh Collins and Dot. I loved the the ways they both foiled the criminals - Hugh taking the car part so they couldn't be chased, Dot breaking down the gun to cause it to jam at the crucial point of time.

Overall it wasn't as strong as the other books - but honestly it probably was just me not liking the content all that much. 3 stars. 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

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 becomes involved with the anarchist movement in 1920's Austrailia, when her windshield is shot out and a young man ends up dying in her arms. At the same time that she is determined to find his killer, she is hired by a wealthy father whose daughter has disappeared. The two plots do not intersect, and the anarchist thread is the more interesting, with its glimpse into the group's struggles and conflicts at the time. As usual, Phryne is elegantly flamboyant, well-dressed, and enjoying her love life. Having watched the tv series I can see how this sets the stage for future relationships. An enjoyable undemanding read.

The fabulous Phryne Fisher returns in the fourth installment of Kerry Greenwood’s delightful series, and she remains as clever, just, and chic as ever. When Phryne alights from her Hispano-Suiza only to have a handsome young anarchist die in her arms, she launches into an investigation at Melbourne’s wharf.

With the help of a new friend, a handsome communist wharfie named Peter Smith, and of her stalwarts — fellow “red-raggers” Cec and Bert, her intrepid maid Dot Williams, and adopted daughters Ruth and Jane — Phryne not only solves the Victoria Dock murder but more. Every Phryne Fisher novel is a gem. Highly, highly, highly recommended.

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