Greenwood, Kerry: Away with the Fairies

Okay, finished Kerry Greenwood's Away with the Fairies. It was very good, but I still think Phryne is a snob. But she is a likable snob. I look forward to reading more of her books.

Here is the cover synopsis:

It's the 1920's in Melbourne and Phryne is asked to investigate the puzzling death of a famous author and illustrator of fairy stories. To do so, Phryne takes a job with the women's magazine that employed the victim and finds herself enmeshed in her colleagues' deceptions.

But while Phryne is learning the ins and outs of magazine publishing first hand, her personal life is thrown into chaos. Impatient for her lover Lin Chung's imminent return from a silk-buying expedition to China, she instead receives an unusual summons from Lin Chung's family followed by a s series of mysterious assaults and warnings.



This is the 14th book of the series. I hope I can get my hands on the others. Found out that some are in paperback in the US, they are just as much as hardback though, not much difference in price... in that case I'd just by the hardback, LOL.

Very good series.

here is my favorite quote:

"...someone was going to suffer, someone was going to be really, really sorry for doing this, before Phryne let them die.

Horror and weakness vanished. No one in her immediate circle had ever seen Phryne really angry and ordinariy she kept this killing rage, a legacy from her Celtic ancestors, a close secret. In this state, she knew, she was literally capable of anything, and not since she had interrupted a couple of her schoolmates torturing a dog had she lost it. Then it had taken the combined efforts of three teachers to hold her and prize the remains of the stable rake from her grasp. She had never regretted learning in that way what a really good rage can do, although---as usual---she had been expelled. She had taken the dog with her, and was willing to bet that those two girls would be very chary of even looking unkindly at a dog ever again. After they got out of the infirmary, of course. "

This passage conveys something more than the cool and aloof exterior you grow accustomed to in the rest of the story. But I really liked it cause I could identify. I can remember as a child getting angry about something, but knowing full well if I ever acted on it, I would be in a heap of trouble. I never could think of a reaction to someone antagonizing me other than physical violence, which I was sure not to do.

Anyhoo... look into this book and the others in the series. "Cocaine Blues" is the first.