Kerry Greenwood: The Green Mill murder

Niin vain kävi, että ehdin lukemaan jo viidennen romaanin Kerry Greenwoodin dekkarisarjassa, jossa selvitellään rikoksia 1900-luvun alun Australiassa: The Green Mill murder (Poisoned Pen Press, 2007; ISBN 978-1-59058-407-1).



Lyhyeen 192-sivuiseen romaaniin on jälleen mahtunut uskomaton määrä monenlaista tapahtumista. Phryne Fisher seikkailee niin maalla kuin ilmassa, ja vaikka tapahtumat ovat melkoisen uskomattomia onnistuu kirjailija pitämään kokonaisuuden jotakuinkin kasassa. Jonkinlainen tauon paikka näiden kirjojen lukemisessa voisi olla paikoillaan, mutta toisaalta sarjan seuraava teos odottaa kirjapinossa jo lukemista.

Phryne Fisher is doing one of her favorite things --dancing at the Green Mill (Melbourne's premier dance hall) to the music of Tintagel Stone's Jazzmakers, the band who taught St Vitus how to dance. And she's wearing a sparkling lobelia-coloured georgette dress. Nothing can flap the unflappable Phryne--especially on a dance floor with so many delectable partners. Nothing except death, that is.

The dance competition is trailing into its last hours when suddenly, in the middle of "Bye Bye Blackbird" a figure slumps to the ground. No shot was heard. Phryne, conscious of how narrowly the missile missed her own bare shoulder, back, and dress, investigates.

This leads her into the dark smoky jazz clubs of Fitzroy, into the arms of eloquent strangers, and finally into the the sky, as she follows a complicated family tragedy of the great War and the damaged men who came back from ANZAC cove.

Phryne flies her Gypsy Moth Rigel into the Autralian Alps, where she meets a hermit with a dog called Lucky and a wombat living under his bunk....and risks her life on the love between brothers.