The Honourable Phryne Fisher is on her way home, driving past Victoria Docks in Melbourne, late evening when a shot shatters her windshield. She stops, to find a man wearing an anarchist tattoo, lying on the road, bleeding. He dies before she can get medical help. Along with her companion and maid, Dorothy 'Dot' Williams, and her friends, Bert and Cec, she attempts to solve the mystery of who shot and killed this man. Along the way she meets and is attracted to an anarchist with a strange past, who goes by the name of Peter Smith. Phryne and her friends assist Inspector Jack Robinson of the Melbourne Police to solve the murder, encountering, in the process, a bank robbing and an abduction.
Characters
Recurring characters
The Honourable Miss Phryne Fisher: a wealthy private detective
Dorothy 'Dot' Williams: Phryne's maidservant and social secretary
Bert (Albert Johnson) and Cec (Cecil Yates): cab drivers in Melbourne who occasionally act as investigative assistants to Phryne
Mr and Mrs. Butler: Phryne's butler and housekeeper, respectively
Jane (née Graham) Fisher and Ruth (née Collins) Fisher: Phryne's Adopted Daughters
Dr. Elizabeth Macmillan: An older woman with pepper and salt hair who is a doctor at the women's hospital and one of Phryne's best friends.
Detective-Inspector Jack Robinson: Phryne's favourite police detective
Constable Hugh Collins: Young Catholic Constable who has taken a shine to Dot.
Other characters
Peter "Smith": Latvian revolutionary and now Phryne's Lover.
Nina Gottstein: One of the Latvians, but she's in love with a hulking, but sweet Australian.
Bill
Karl
Kasimov
Mr. Waddington-Forsythe - An older man of about 60 with 14-year-old twins (son and daughter). His first wife died 7 years previous, and his new wife is only 25 and expecting.
Alicia Waddington-Forsythe - A 14-year-old school acquaintance of Jane and Ruth's who is missing. Mr. Waddington-Forsythe hires Phryne to find her.
Paul Waddington-Forsythe - Alicia's twin brother. He is arrogantly beautiful and far too attached to his young step-mother.
Christine Waddington-Forsythe - 25-year-old secret keeping wife and step-mother who both Waddington-Forsythe men are devoted to, and who Alicia hates.
Mother Superior - Anglican Nun who Alicia turns to for help
Critical reception
Reviewing the book for the Historical Novel Society Patrika Salmon stated: "Phryne is the woman we'd all like to be: debonair, independent and brilliant, the Australian private investigator who never turns a hair...It’s a wonderful read, and a delightful glimpse of 1920s Melbourne. I’m glad the early books are being republished and look forward to adding them to my bookshelf."[2]
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