Aah, another Phryne Fisher mystery. This one is mine, mine MINE I tell you!! *chuckle* This one has Lin Chung in, definitely one to savour soon.

Registered in the race to 3 million books for BC 5th birthday today.

BOB:
The redoubtable Phryne Fisher is holidaying at Cave House, a Gothic mansion in the heart of Australia's Victorian mountain country. But the peaceful surroundings mask danger. Her host is receiving death threats, lethal traps are set without explanation, and the parlour maid is found strangled to death. What with the reappearance of mysterious funerary urns, a pair of young lovers, an extremely eccentric swagman, an angry outcast heir, and the luscious Lin Chung, Phryne's attention has definitely been caught. Her search for answers takes her deep into the dungeons of the house and into the limestone Buchan caves. But what will she find this time?

Being offered as a book-ring, Australia only.
Participants:
AmberC - Darwin
Sally906 - Darwin
L1nda - Newcastle
Lisagt - Sydney
KLL - Perth

and back to me.

As always another mystery solved by the clever Phryne. I think her secret lies in the fact that she was once one of the working classes struggling under the poverty line, and then became one of the landed gentry so has come into contact with all types of folk, and knows so many types of etiquette and guilt complexes that she knows what to expect of all the people she meets.

An eerie setting to this one, a house full of a completely motley bunch - staff and guests - in the middle of the fog covered cut-off-by-the-river countryside of Victoria. And caves to boot. Some interesting love affairs and some semi-steamy action too.

Missing from this is Det Jack Robinson and Bert and Cec, oh and Mr & Mrs B. All the action is away from home.
I enjoyed this but dont know what I will do once I have read the whole series!!

Update: I just got an email the day after I wrote this that a new Phryne book is on it's way before Christmas - "A Question of Death" - although it's a treasury of pictures, recipes and short stories, rather than a novel.

RELEASE NOTES:

Dazzled the postal staff with fluoro wrapping on Monday! Off to AmberC.

Flouro wrapped book arrived safely in my letterbox today. It is the only bookring I have at the moment and will be the next book I read.

Another good Phryne mystery. Some things, such as why such a motley lot of guests had been invited, weren't explained, but overall a good story.

I will pass this along to Sally next time I see her.

Picked up at meet-up today :)

Not the best of her books - but still a pleasant way to pass an afternoon:
http://sally906.blogspot.com/2007/12/finished-291207-genre-murder-mystery.html

RELEASE NOTES:

Mailed off to L1nda today

Arrived safe and sound, hopefully I'll get to it next week

What a wonderful, fun read. I love Phryne!! I felt like I was in a game a cluedo trying to work out who did what, very Agatha Christie with more charm.

Thanks for sharing this book.

I've pm'd Lisagt for her address.

Mailed today 31/1/2008

Thank you for sending this on L1nda. I also enjoy reading about Phryne's adventures!

As always Phyrne saves the day but it seemed to take a long time getting there. I agree with Sally906 ~ not one of the best BUT still what a wonderful setting and motley cast of characters.
Now on to KLL in WA. Thanx Littlemave.

Received in the mail today! I've got a couple of rings I need to finish before this, but I'll get onto this ASAP :-)

Sorry it took me a while to get to this - so many books and so little time! This was the first Phryne Fisher mystery I've read (I have read one of Kerry Greenwood's YA before, which I was so-so on) and I joined the bookring because I was curious about them. I *like* murder mysteries in general (particularly of the Agatha Christie type) and I'd had a couple of friends mention Phryne Fisher favourably in the past.

I have to say, however, I wasn't *that* taken with the book in the first half. Phryne seemed just a little bit too superhuman to be completely realistic and some of the characters came over as caricatures, rather than *characters* (Miss Cray and Mrs and Miss Fletcher, particularly). There's also a scene where Phryne goes to pick up a book (The Mysterious Affair at Styles) by one of her favorite authors, which I thought was a bit of a lame in-joke - and only served to remind me how much more I enjoy Agatha Christie compared to Kerry Greenwood! *However*, I did think that the second half of the book definitely picked up. Phryne became a bit more human and I found the final scenes in the cave were quite gripping!

I note that a couple of other readers have said that this is not the best of the Phryne Fisher books, and it appears that a lot of the 'usual' characters are missing. I actually have another one in my possession now too, thanks to bookcrossing, so I'll definitely read that one at least too and see how I go on from there :-)

It seems that I'm the last person on the list so I'll pm Littlemave now to organise it's return. Thanks for having me on the ring!!

This is now packed up and will be in the post back to Littlemave tomorrow. Thanks again!

Arrived safely and surprisingly un-dog-eared back home today.
Thanks all. =)