Phryne Fisher is called in to investigate the mysterious death of a famous author and illustrator of fairy stories. Seductive flapper and brave gal about town, Phryne Fisher, is called in to investigate the mysterious death of a famous author and illustrator. Working undercover in a women's magazine, Phryne's personal life is thrown into chaos when she is summoned by her lover's family.
In investigating the poisoning of a young man in a bookshop at the eastern Market, and the wrongful arrest of one Miss Sylvia Lee, super-sleuth Phryne Fisher is plunged into a word of Jewish politics, alchemy, poison and chicken soup. Stopping only for a brief, but intensely erotic dalliance with the beautiful Simon Abrahams, Phryne's stealth and wit ultimately solve the crime - and all for the price of a song...
The redoubtable Phryne Fisher is holidaying at Cave House, a Gothic mansion in the heart of Australia's Victorian mountain country. But the peaceful surroundings mask danger. Her host is receiving death threats, lethal traps are set without explanation, and the parlour maid is found strangled to death. What with the reappearance of mysterious funerary urns, a pair of young lovers, an extremely eccentric swagman, an angry outcast heir, and the luscious Lin Chung, Phryne's attention has definitely been caught.
Running late to a gala performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore, Phryne Fisher meets some thugs in dark alley and handles them convincingly before they can ruin her silver dress. She then finds that she has rescued the handsome Lin Chung, and his grandmother, who briefly mistake her for a deity. Denying divinity but accepting cognac, she later continues safely to the theatre where her night is again interrupted by a bizarre death onstage. What links can Phryne find between the ridiculously entertaining plot of Ruddigore, or the actors treading the boards of His Majesty's Theatre?
Phryne Fisher is doing one of her favorite things --dancing at the Green Mill (Melbourne's premier dance hall) to the music of Tintagel Stone's Jazzmakers, the band who taught St Vitus how to dance. And she's wearing a sparkling lobelia-coloured georgette dress. Nothing can flap the unflappable Phryne--especially on a dance floor with so many delectable partners. Nothing except death, that is. The dance competition is trailing into its last hours when suddenly, in the middle of "Bye Bye Blackbird" a figure slumps to the ground. No shot was heard.
