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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Jun 2004, 276 pages
Paperback:
Mar 2006, 266 pages
Join Phryne Fisher, the feminist sleuth who always gets her man, on a tightly plotted maze of thrilling adventure set in 1920s Australia.
Always enticing in divine twenties fashion, Phryne, one of the most exciting and likeable heroines in crime writing today, leads us through a tightly plotted maze of thrilling adventure set in 1920s Australia.
Seven Australian soldiers, carousing in Paris in 1918, unknowingly witness a murder and their presence has devastating consequences. Ten years later, two are dead...under very suspicious circumstances.
Phryne's friends, Bert and Cec (sometimes cabbies and sometimes men for hire), appeal to her for help. They were part of this group of soldiers in 1918 and they fear for their lives and for those of the other three men. It's only as Phryne delves into the investigation that she, too, remembers being in Montparnasse on that very same day.
While Phryne is occupied with memories of Montparnasse past and the race to outpace the murderer, she finds troubles of a different kind at home. Her lover, Lin Chung, is about to be married; and the effect this is having on her own usually peaceful household is disastrous....
BookBrowse notes:
Chapter One
The extremely active existence we lead does not leave us leisure to devote the necessary care to the upkeep of our bodies.
- Auguste Escoffier, Ma Cuisine
The sun glared off the shop windows, the wind blew fine sand which stung the eyes. It was both chilly and sunny, a thoroughly uncomfortable combination only found in the less successful ski slopes and in Fitzroy Street, St. Kilda on this particular day in 1928.
The Hon. Phryne Fisher blinked, wiped her eyes, wished she had brought sun goggles and wrapped her sables more closely about her thin frame. With her fur coat, fur hat and Russian leather boots she looked like one of ...
The year is 1928, the setting St Kilda - a fashionable town close to Melbourne,
Australia, with many flashbacks to Paris in 1918. Phryne Fisher (pronounced Fry-knee, to rhyme with
briny) is faced with two puzzles - the disappearance of a young woman about to marry a much older man and the death of two ex-soldiers that have been written off as accidental, but are anything but. When clues lead to Paris during WWI, Phyrne (who served as a volunteer ambulance driver towards the end of the war) finds memories from her past coming back to haunt her with a vengeance.
The first Phryne Fisher mystery , Cocaine Blues, was published in
Australia in 1989, and there are now a total of 14 books in this popular series;
but this, the 12th in the series, is the first to be available in the
USA. Although this book is a complete story in its own right, I
can't help feeling a little short changed coming into the series at this point
because by now Phryne is surrounded by a broad compliment of dubious friends,
professional acquaintances, adopted family, animals and general hangers-on; each
of which, I feel sure, will have had a leading role in one or more earlier
books.
Nevertheless, if you enjoy a good mystery, I recommend you browse Murder in
Montparnasse. As Library Journal writes, 'a most charming, sexy, independent, and candid heroine; clever, literate dialog; and closely woven plotting will win immediate fans for this debut series.'
On a lighter note, let me leave you with a few of Phyrne Fisher's sayings, and encourage you to browse this fun book for yourself.
It is acceptable to kiss and tell, more acceptable to kiss and not tell, but entirely improper to tell and not kiss.
Smile sweetly and carry a hatpin.
A man in the kitchen is worth two in a dance-hall.
If you liked Murder in Montparnasse, try these:
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Published 2019
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by Jane Harper
Published 2019
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Dry, when a hiker goes missing, secrets and betrayal among friends are exposed, and Agent Aaron Falk will find out what happened.
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
The Stone Home
by Crystal Hana Kim
A moving family drama and coming-of-age story revealing a dark corner of South Korean history.
Harvard is the storehouse of knowledge because the freshmen bring so much in and the graduates take so little out.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
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