As I have enthused about Miss. Fisher’s Murder Mysteries quite recently in Flying too High I’m sure the general mood of the series is quite fresh in your minds. But just to remind you, Miss. Fisher is a daring lady detective flashing her wit and intelligence all over 1920’s Australia. Well dressed, elegant but with the strong memory of her humble beginnings in life, Miss. Fisher is set to apply a unique skill set to winding narratives and men and women of all different means. Miss. Fisher is a dynamic and three dimensional character, one who will scale rooftops and stowaway on the back of cars, but who will also elegantly move through social circles without causing too much of a stir (unless she wants to).
In this one Miss. Fisher seduces and ravishes a ‘beautiful young man’ a number of times, who is quite innocent and almost passive in his unabashed inexperience. She is determined to uncover a murder and deliver her own band of unorthodox justice. She has a sing-a-long with some students. She helps a couple of molested young girls and of course, like every good murder mystery, there is unusual twist of a criminal hypnotist.
Murder on the Ballarat Train – Kerry Greenwood
Dot and Phryne are on the train to visit some family of her family, when Phryne wakes to an unpleasant smell and a uncomfortable fogging of her senses. Miss. Fisher is no ordinary woman and sleeping gas or chloroform seem to have a lessened effect upon her *raises eyebrows* than her companion Dot. Because of her strengthened resolve, she somehow fumbles for her gun and does the only sensible thing she could do under the circumstances: she shoots the window and gulps in the fresh air. Now knowing Dot is safe, she investigates the rest of the dark carriage and discovers all but one of the occupants are safe and alive. Mrs. Henderson a difficult and elderly woman seem to have been snatched from the carriage itself and her daughter is unconscious and badly burnt by chloroform.
Miss. Fisher then does the thing she has been waiting her entire life to do and pulls the cord of the train to bring it to an abrupt halt.
Convinced of foul play Phryne near enough drags some officers to investigate a water tower near by where they find Mrs. Henderson both strangled and brutally stomped upon. While searching the carriage for more clues a young girl is discovered who is not on the passenger list. She has no clue who she is, why she is there or where she is going. Her memory seems blocked by something which is presumed to be trauma, Phryne dubs her with the name Jane until her own returns to her and takes the girl into her care.
Phryne also takes Miss. Henderson into her care, who shares her dysfunctional family life with her difficult mother and revealed her hidden career as an author of romantic fiction. While recovering from her burns Miss. Henderson reveals that many would have motive to murder her mother as she was a most unpleasant woman but none more than her. The family is broke and the house is full of heirlooms that are gathering dust and there would be nothing to gain from Mrs. Henderson’s death but personal satisfaction.
This novel is liberally sprinkled with blatant casual sex and is a little less cosy than the last two novels in that respect. Jane adopts a stray kitten who delivers some wonderful justice just at the right moment. Bert and Cec are of course the wonderful heroes they are solving half the mystery of Jane, while Phryne is using other methods to smooth through social circles.
This is really a series that has a lot of social justice about it. Murder on the Ballarat Train is quite a quick read comparatively but it tries not to waste it’s pages. I felt this one was a little briefer than the other two but no less enjoyable. So far in the three novels I’ve encountered there has been drug trade, child molestations and trafficking, illegal abortions and prostitutes. This is a series with a healthy dose of grit to combat some of the more wonderful comic elements which is a delicate balance that on the whole works very well.
The more of these I read the more I begin to realise it is that careful balance I enjoy the most about these novels, they are fun and sometimes lighthearted but they also deal with disturbing things that make my skin crawl. They are a very clever execution of a well loved genre and are very easy to read. So far this series has really surprised me with it’s execution and likability and I hope it continues to.
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