Reading: Miss Phryne Fisher Investigates

[white_hart]

I've seen quite a lot of mentions of Kerry Greenwood's series of 1920s-set mysteries starring Phryne Fisher over the years, and was finally propelled into buying the first book after Nine Worlds, where one of my favourite cosplayers was the woman playing Phryne in a series of stunning dresses.

The book is pure fluff; Phryne Fisher is rich, clever, charming and confident, and solves crimes (aided by her maid, a couple of Communist taxi-drivers and a rather wonderful Scottish woman doctor) while changing her outfit multiple times a day, taking an awful lot of baths and making everyone fall in love with her. I thought at first that it was going to be too fluffy for me, and the plot is certainly fairly thin, if dramatic, but it grew on me, and I liked the strongly feminist slant; apart from the woman doctor, one of the sub-plots concerns a backstreet abortionist who is exploiting desperate women, and Phryne is an independent, sexually confident woman who is fully aware that she lives in a society where that isn't normally accepted. I don't feel compelled to rush out and buy all the subsequent books, but I wouldn't rule out reading at least a couple more sometime.

Comments

[the_rck]

The TV adaptation which was made in Australia is visually gorgeous and very good on period details and acting. There are maybe a dozen episodes in each of the three seasons.

I prefer the books because I came to them first and because it's very rare for me to find a series like this that I can read without getting too anxious. Phryne is occasionally too over the top perfect and attractive, but why not? I don't think anybody's reading these for realistic drama.

[white_hart]

I don't know if the TV series has been shown in the UK (I don't actually pay a lot of attention to what's on TV). I can imagine it has gorgeous costumes!

I did enjoy it, and I liked that there was never any real threat to any of the female characters - too many detective novels (too many novels full stop, really) get cheap thrills from putting women in danger.

[andrewducker]

First two seasons are on Netflix.

[white_hart]

I watch so little TV I've never bothered to sign up for Netflix or similar, and I was actually quite surprised at Nine Worlds to realise that pretty much everyone else seems to have them. Clearly I should think about rectifying this, though it seems like a lot of money for something I might not use much...

[sally_maria]

It's one of those series I keep thinking I must watch one day - I've liked the fanvids that have been made for Festivids, like this one.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

I've seen some of the TV series and it's marvellous fun, I keep meaning to buy the DVDs.

[mimmimmim.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed it, fluffy as it was. I enjoy the fluffy TV series too (it's on Alibi; dunno if you get that channel).