Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Flying Too High by Kerry Greenwood

The second in the classic Phryne Fisher series from Kerry Greenwood, featuring the irresistible heroine Phryne. Whether she's foiling kidnappers, seducing beautiful young men or simply deciding what to wear for dinner, Phryne handles everything with her inimitable panache and flair.

Danger, excitement and love - this is how the glamorous Phryne Fisher is determined to live her life in her second enticing adventure.

Walking the wings of a Tiger Moth plane in full flight ought to be enough excitement for most people, but not Phryne Fisher, amateur detective, woman of mystery, as delectable as the finest chocolate and as sharp as razor blades.

In this, the second Phryne Fisher mystery, the 1920s' most talented and glamorous detective flies even higher, handling a murder, a kidnapping and the usual array of beautiful young men with style and consummate ease - and all before it's time to adjourn to the Queenscliff Hotel for breakfast. Whether she's flying planes, clearing a friend of homicide charges or saving a child from kidnapping, she handles everything with the same dash and elan with which she drives her red Hispano-Suiza.

Finally!! I am up to reviewing books that I have read this year!

This is the second in the Phryne Fisher series after Cocaine Blues and once again she is completely embroiled in mysteries. This time there are two - the death of a successful business man whose son has been accused of being the murderer and also the kidnap of a young girl.

Phryne is a completely exuberant character -as an example, in the first few pages of the book she goes walking along the wings of a Tiger Moth aeroplane for fun.

During this book we get to meet a few more of the people who I suspect are going to become regulars in the series, including her new housekeepers, as well as some that we met in the last book like Dot, her maid. Phryne has moved out of the Hotel Windsor and into her own home, and her new servants must get used to the quite liberal lifestyle that Phryne indulges in, including a handsome young doctor, and a passionate Italian sculptor.

Once again, Kerry Greenwood has done an excellent job of portraying the setting of the latter days of the 1920s, and the times of an exuberant, independent woman living life to the fullest! There were also the familiar settings of Melbourne and Geelong as an added bonus!


Rating 4/5

2 comments:

  1. This sounds wonderful---as over-the-top (in a good way) as Indiana Jones at his best, yet with a decidedly feminine flair. At least, that's the impression I get from your review!

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  2. That's definitely the case - she lives an over the top life!

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