Away With The Fairies

Phryne Fisher #11

by Kerry Greenwood

It's 1928, and the globetrotting, glamorous Phryne (rhymes with briny) is at home near Melbourne, missing her lover, Lin Chung, who is on a silk-buying trip in China. When Phryne's detective friend, Jack, asks for her help investigating the murder of Miss Lavender, a well-known author of fairy stories, Phryne is glad of the distraction. The investigation leads to a temporary job as a fashion reporter for Women's Choice magazine, Miss Lavender's former employer. Phryne's encounters with the various magazine staffers add considerable zest to the adventure, as does Lin Chung's possible abduction by pirates.

Genres: Mystery, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Crime, Australia, Audiobook

247 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2001

About the author

Kerry Isabelle Greenwood was an Australian author and lawyer. She wrote many plays and books, most notably a string of historical detective novels centred on the character of Phryne Fisher, which was adapted as the popular television series Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. She wrote mysteries, science-fiction, historical fiction, children's stories, and plays. Greenwood earned the Australian women's crime fiction Davitt Award in 2002 for her young adult novel The Three-Pronged Dagger.

Reviews

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

For all that this one is set in a women’s magazine and so obviously brings up echoes of Peter Wimsey’s time in advertising (Murder Must Advertise), it’s still very much its own story. I still don’t really read these for the mystery, just as I don’t really read Sayers for the mystery, but for Phryne/Peter being their amazing selves. There’s also plenty of Dot in this one, and Lin Chung and Li Pen reappear as well.

There’s actually two stories running in parallel here. Somewhat to my surprise, I’ve discovered a bunch of other readers who hate Lin Chung and his relationship with Phryne — I don’t get that, because I love the connection between the two, and the fact that despite that, Greenwood doesn’t force Phryne to change the way she lives. They find their own ways around it. I might be more bothered if Lin Chung starts feeling possessive about Phryne, or Phryne just stops appreciating pretty young men, but for right now, I can’t see a problem.

The two plots do contrast quite a lot — one is relatively safe, while the other is very high stakes, but I didn’t mind. It’s nice to see Phryne dealing with a case that doesn’t result in her being personally attacked, on the one hand, while the other plot ups the danger and means everyone is actually in danger and bad things can actually happen to the characters — and do — which is necessary to avoid the stories just going dead. If it was all high-risk but no actual feeling of danger, it’d quickly go flat.

Originally posted here.

[Catsalive · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favourite Phryne Fisher mysteries & I enjoyed it just as much as my previous reading. It would be such fun to read them all for the first time again.

I really enjoyed Phryne's interactions with all the people working at "Women's Choice" as she investigated Miss Lavender's untimely demise, as well as the renovation of the Worth model & the discussions of early photography with Mrs McAlpin. The secondary characters were well-sketched in.

As a sideline, Phryne is also distressed by Lin Chung's disappearance & is having some very dangerous trouble with part of the Chinese community. We also get to know Li Pen a bit better as he & Phryne cooperate to locate & rescue Lin.

Highly entertaining.

[Marijan Šiško · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ne čitam ove romane redom, nego kako mi koji dođe pod ruku (tj. na Kindle).No pošto je svaki zasebna priča, to i nije neki problem. osim kad odjednom skužim da je Phryne u međuvremenu povećala svoju menažeriju za još jednu usvojenu kćer, psa i -gasp and horror-stalnog ljubavnika. Koji, ili bolje rečeno, čije odsustvo igra značajnu ulogu u ovoj priči. I ching daje dodatnu aromu i definitivno podiže ocjenu, knjiga je bila pravi slatkiš, i zato petica.

[Susan Hirtz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kerry Greenwood writes light, witty, entertaining short novels. They are the equivalent of sitcoms on television and are more enchanting to me. What is particularly charming about this kind of read is the mental relief from the heavier drama of most fiction and much nonfiction these days.
One is free to imagine the setting, people it with the cast of characters, and color in the scenery within the author's guidelines. Ms Greenwood is a past master at plot, characterization, grammar and even researches her timelines thoroughly. Her books mostly take place in Australia, and they draw in the reader to her wonderful world of Auz. Now I really want to go to Melbourne!

Note on July 22, 2014: Now that I've seen most of the Phrynne Fisher series on PBS, I can honestly say it's well done, but not a patch on the entertainment value of the books themselves. While the author had plenty of input on the series, much had to be left out due to time and appropriateness for a visual medium. Nuance is simply not available and irony is often a casualty, so read the book for real value!

[Delitealex · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Phryne gets involved in the investigation of a murdered author. She starts working at the magazine the victim was employed to question the staff.

I quickly got bored with the main mystery and didn't care much about the characters. I did enjoy the secondary mystery of Lin Chang's whereabouts also the loved the familiar characters especially Dot and the doctor. Since I'm skipping around in the series I was surprised with a few of the additions to Phrynes life but definitely plan to read earlier books to find out more.

The information on the pirates felt well researched and made me want to learn more. I also enjoyed the descriptions of the adventuress club and the patrons. One of my favorite things about this series is the information and descriptions of Australia during this time. I really like reading about how Phryne deals with the problems woman had in society during this time.

Overall a good book with great characters but the main mystery could have been better.

I received this book from the publisher via Netgalley for an honest review.

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another fun read from Kerry Greenwood and narrated by Stephanie Daniels. In this one, Phryne takes a job at a women’s magazine - all in the name of investigating a murder, of course. She has to work out which of the magazine’s staff are lying in the stories they tell her, and whether they are lying to cover up something personal or to cover up the murder. She tracks down letter writers to the magazines’s Dear column who were disgruntled with the advice they received and therefore potential murderers and deals with a gang of Chinese pirates - all in a day or two’s work for Miss Fisher!

[CatBookMom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I often forget that this is the book in which Phryne saves Lin Chung from the pirates. One of the best of the series, even if Mrs Opie is a whining PITA.

Slightly longer review at the ebook version https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

[Bea · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5, maybe 4, stars.
I liked this so much better than the TV episode inspired by this book. This was deeper, richer, and more complex. "Away with the Fairies" refers to the murder of a writer who specialized in writing and illustrating fairy stories. There's quite a cast of people, both at the magazine and in the community where she lived. Despite the murder, it's a genteel sort of mystery with little danger but lots of period detail, and quiet investigative work.

Then there's the second mystery involving Lin Chung and his family. That one was darker, more personal, and full of action and adventure, betrayal and greed. It made for an interesting contrast with the other story line, which was so quiet and, well, civil. Lots of good manners, and the occasional lie,whereas Lin Chung's story line was more dangerous and emotionally volatile. It was a good reminder that Phryne is not just some society dame or a flibbertigibbet (though anyone who accused Phryne of that would need to have their head examined) but a strong, passionate devoted woman who takes what she wants, protects what's hers, and has her own moral code.

I enjoyed the contrast between the two storylines, once I got over my initial surprise. I have mixed feelings about Phryne and Lin's relationship, as he is taken and Phryne has other lovers, but I have no doubt that they love each other despite their free-spirited arrangement. I really need to read this series on order to better appreciate their romance and relationship.

"Away with the Fairies" is a meandering story about family, love, devotion, and choices amongst other matters. It mixes light and dark, philosophy and fashion, a sometimes careless approach to life with a passion for doing the right thing, as determined by Phryne. It's history, romance, passion, fairies, war, and frivolity. It was engaging if slow at times and a delightful return to Melbourne of the 1920s.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

*I received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

This was another wonderful mystery featuring the ingenious, wonderful Honorable Miss Fisher!

Phryne, sleep-deprived and grumpy, wakes up one day to find a very nervous inspector Robinson in her parlor. Visibly shaken, her begs her to take a look at his latest crime scene- a scene he can make no sense of, that left him deeply unsettled... A nice old lady, a writer for a women's magazine, was found in her apartment, completely blue. But it wasn't the sight of the dead body that shook our inspector to his very core. Oh no.



Turns out the venerable Miss Lavender was obsessed with fairies, and the poor sweet man couldn't stomach staying in the extremely female room :D

I thought this made for a lovely beginning. It was very charming and light, the close-knit community of writers and neighbors who are involved in the case made for an eccentric and interesting supporting cast, and even having watched the episode from the TV show Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries I enjoyed it. As always, enough of the plot was altered to make reading the book it was based on enjoyable even if you know a bit of what is about to happen.

But don't worry, things don't stay too light and... pink for long :) Phryne's lover, Lin Chung, has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom, and Phryne is desperate to get him back safely. She will do anything to save him, even take on Chinese pirates... I really liked seeing this furious side of her, it made me love her character even more.

As always, Kerry Greenwood's extensive research has to be applauded. She truly makes the 1920s come alive, and it's a joy to lose yourself in Phryne's world!

[CatBookMom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sept 7/2021 - am somehow recalled to my review. And wish to re-inforce how much I admire this story. So, yet another 5-star review, fwiw. Now I have to go off and reread.
.
.
I forget which of my several, re-reads this commentary relates to, so just deal, OK?
..
When this story begins, Lin Chung and Li Pen have gone on a silk-buying trip to China, which is experiencing civil and military unrest. But they're overdue. Then Li Pen gets back home, after being tortured, with an ominous message about Lin Chung, who has been captured by pirates and is being held for ransom. He is in real danger of being killed, while Phryne herself is attacked several times by Chinese men, all of which brings out the full extent of Phryne's temper and taste for revenge.

While she is searching for Lin Chung, Phryne is asked to solve the murder of a woman who surrounded herself with fairies, so she does some detecting and fashion consulting at the ladies' magazine where the woman worked. As a tip of the bonnet to Dorothy Sayers, there is even a mention of Nutrax for Nerves as one of the advertisers at the magazine.

[Pauline Reid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, I must say, this must be one of the most facinating audiobooks I've ever listened to ... this is full to the brim of little surprises ... we have a few confessions with pleading and crying, a fake ear, a real Raphael Madona, a discussion over which is better - vegemite or marmite, a Fitzroy Cocktail that gets you digbatted, I discovered that
Phryne Fisher likes German china, everything was served with gingernuts and tea instead of scones and tea, find out that there is quite a bit of wit with a dog called McTavish, the terrior, who can sniff out Catholics, trots and likes to bite stockings, enjoyed the quote

".... a very well dressed lady with shoulder blades you could have used to cut cheese..... "

and also

"what say they? let them say." (but it's the cadence that it was said

and hints of flowers

".... Miss Lavenders cottage always smelt strong, all those different scents, roses, almonds ... "

and also there is singing... "roll me over, in clover" sung by a Cantonese person on a ship and yes, there are even pirates!
.
Well as you can see it's quite an active audiobook and I'm definitely giving this a 5 star review/recommendation. You will like this if you like cozy murder mysteries, and Agatha Christie books.

[Abbey · Rating 5 out of 5]

BOTTOM LINE: #11 Phryne Fisher, Investigator, Melbourne Australia, 1928; historical PI/thriller. When a sickeningly sweet children’s author gets herself killed in her pinkly infested fairytale house, Phryne goes undercover as a fashion writer at the magazine that made the author’s stories famous. A solidly plotted murder mystery, with lots of suspects, beautifully crafted settings and characters, and well-researched historical bits, this entry in the long series has “something extra!”.

Phryne can’t quite keep her mind on the case because her lover Lin has been captured by pirates off Macao, and held for ransom, which his influential family seems surprisingly unwilling to pay. Phryne isn’t about to let him down, though, and the rescue mission she mounts is glorious stuff, gently restrained yet great fun in the best Bulldog Drummond tradition. And her personal turmoil at Lin’s predicament adds a lovely edge to the story, making this one of the very best in a series that is always very entertaining, and remains one of my favorites.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another delightful adventure with the Hon. Miss Fisher. The murder mystery is light on the gloom-and-guts and more focuses on the diverse cast of suspects. Though the mystery is intriguing enough, I feel the real strength of Greenwood's writing is in her characterization and humor. A treat!

NB (SPOILER if you haven't read earlier books!): Though this is Book Eleven, it's the second Fisher mystery I read (due to trouble securing a copy of the official #2) and I found it easy enough to slip back into the characters and mystery. The most blatantly incongruent (compared to where we left off with Book One) plot points involve the fact that we find Phryne has adopted two girls (I assume they featured in earlier mysteries?) and she has given up galavanting with random young men in favor of devotion to her lover, Lin Chung, whom I also assume features in earlier books.

[Maureen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is set in 1920s Australia and features an independent woman amateur detective. Lately I've been reading the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear (1920s Britain, independent woman detective) and this book didn't benefit from the comparison. The language was often distractingly sloppy. I had a hard time keeping track of the suspects and I think the thin character descriptions played a big part. Overall, I was disappointed and happy to finish the book so I could move on to something I would enjoy more.

[Jazzy Lemon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent adventure, although I don't think that the term 'postnatal depression' existed at the time amongst the ordinary people, the Americans called it the baby blues, but women suffering postpartum depression at the time were deemed to be 'hysterical' and prescribed extensive bedrest and opiates.

[Marlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published at Reading Reality

It feels as if Mr. Butler, Phryne Fisher’s butler and general factotum (particularly as portrayed in the TV series) , must be the direct ancestor of Summerset, Roarke’s majordomo in the In Death series. Or at least that’s what got me picking up Away with the Fairies, the next book in my Phryne Fisher series read, as I searched for comfort reading in the anticipation and wake of Hurricane Irma.

The murder victims in Secrets in Death and Away with the Fairies are also surprisingly similar. Both are women who operated in the gray areas that surround respectable journalism for their times. And both of them had an unhealthy interest in other people’s secrets, and the power that came with possessing those secrets and being willing to use that power.

And that’s what ultimately got both of them killed. It also makes neither of them a very sympathetic victim.

The victim is so unsympathetic in Away with the Fairies, that the case of Miss Lavender’s death isn’t even Phryne’s primary concern during the story. Instead, her sometimes desultory and often parceled out investigation into Miss Lavender’s seemingly unremarkable life and slightly puzzling death serves as a distraction to keep Phryne from her growing concern over her missing lover, Lin Chung.

His trip to China to purchase silks for his family business has gone on much longer than he planned, and Phryne’s dreams of his body being food for rapacious vermin are a disturbing message that something is very, very wrong. A message that is confirmed when Phryne receives Lin’s severed ear and a request for ransom from the pirates who have captured him. Phryne marshalls her best resources, in this case Bert and Cec, to find out everything that can be found about South Sea piracy, and prepares to rescue Lin, even if she must take on the pirates herself.

She’s more than capable of defeating them, single-handed if necessary. Just as soon as she knows where to hunt them down.

But Miss Lavender’s death niggles at her. The more she and her agent, in this case the resourceful Dot, discover, the more motives she finds for the woman’s death. It seems to have been inevitable that someone would finally bump her off, the question is, who managed to do it?

Escape Rating B: This was my second hurricane book. I was having no luck concentrating on anything more serious, or anything where I wasn’t already intimately familiar with the world within. As much as I love to really sink my reading teeth into good and deep worldbuilding, this just wasn’t the time.

When I’m looking for comfort read, I always turn to Phryne, and am swept away – if not quite as far away with the fairies as the victim in this case.

A bit of the story in Away with the Fairies reminded me fondly of Murder Must Advertise from the Lord Peter Wimsey series. Just as Wimsey infiltrates an advertising firm to investigate a murder, Phryne inserts herself into the ladies magazine where the victim and many of her suspects work. While Phryne never pretends to be anything other than who she is, she does conceal her profession as a detective until someone else lets that cat out of its bag.

Just as in yesterday’s Secrets in Death, the victim is a nasty piece of work – albeit on a much smaller scale this time around. She was always poking her nose into other people’s business, and using the knowledge gained to elicit small rewards and small revenges. It is amazing that she lived as long as she did, considering that her life was spent in two relatively small worlds where everyone knew her and ended up disliking her at best and fearing her at worst.

Her signature eccentricity about drawing and writing about fairies never felt fully explained or fully realized. It certainly made her stand out, and it also provided her with a modest living as a writer and illustrator, but it was so excessive that it felt as if it needed a bit more explanation, especially when combined with Phryne’s discovery that the profusion of fairy paraphernalia that overwhelmed the public areas of her apartment was not replicated in her private spaces, which were neat, orderly and most of all, uncluttered.

Having recently re-watched the first season of the TV series, the difference between the TV and literary versions of this story stand out even more clearly. The subplot revolving around Phryne’s concern for Lin Chung and her subsequent rescue of him are completely scrapped in the TV version for the weaker and much less compelling murder investigation. And even though I understand why, the story definitely loses something in translation. The story is much stronger in the book. Miss Lavender’s case was too slight and inconsequential to carry the whole story, and it’s better here where it doesn’t.

But I am always happy to visit with Phryne. And I look forward to reading Murder in MontparnasseMurder in Montparnasse, the next time I need a comfortable little murder. To read about, that is.

[Fran · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fantastic. Phryne Fisher is to our family now what J. B Fletcher was in my home in the 90s. Phryne is a rich, intriguing character and the mystery was filled with twists, romance and, of course, fairies. Recommend.

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first Phryne Fisher novel, and I must admit that when I read on the first page that the victim was "extremely dead", I was rather alarmed; I'd been told by my eighth-grade Creative Writing teacher that such things were already "extremely cliché" a good forty years ago. Ms Fisher's domestic staff named Mr and Mrs Butler didn't help matters, and when I met the policeman named "Jack Robinson" I was prepared to abhor la Fisher and all her works.
However, a night of insomnia kept me reading, and I discovered a much more likeable mystery than I had feared. While at first Ms Fisher is the teensiest bit unbearable, considering herself an authority on fashion, food, how to manage dogs and children and just about everything else, with her penchant for throwing money at all her friends' problems--well, what ELSE do titled rich girls do?--she soon morphs into a bizarrely amusing mixture of Modesty Blaise and Lord Peter Wimsey. The Blaise comes out in her character when dealing with the kidnap of her Chinese lover by pirates, with the help of a Shao Lin monk, while her Wimseycal side appears in dealing with the mystery surrounding the death of the cadaver that appears on the first page, revealing several twists along the way.
Incredible? Yes, certainly, but that's what period cosies are all about, even when they are written by modern madams who aren't above sending up three classic authors at once. It was an amusing read, even though the language is a bit stilted in spots--Fisher never once does anything as prosaic as "smoking a cigarrette"--no, no--she always puffs a gasper. Strewth, as the ever helpful Bert and Cec (pronounced, I imagine, Ceese as in Cecil) would say! Read this with your tongue firmly planted in your cheek, and you'll be all right, even through the belaboured puns.

[Shomeret · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are a reader who despises fairies, I would like to reassure you that there is little on the subject of fairies in this book. The murder victim was an author and artist who was obsessed with them, but the fairies weren’t available for an investigation.

So Phryne decided to become a fashion columnist at the magazine where the victim worked, Women’s Choice. She’s an excellent fashion columnist, by the way. Yet I liked the editor even more. She reminded me of Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown. Her motto was “any woman can”, not just exceptional women. Any woman can achieve her dreams. Her magazine was speaking to the “flappers” of 1920’s Australia who wanted to hear that message since they were already living it.

Yet the murder investigation is upstaged by another plotline involving pirates. Phryne’s favorite lover, Lin Chung, had gone to China on a silk buying expedition, but hadn’t returned. It begins to look like he's being held by South China Sea Pirates.

I consider Away With The Fairies one of the best Phryne Fisher novels I’ve read so far. It had suspense, romance, heroism and feminism which are all characteristics I like to see in any novel.

For my complete review see http://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2014/...

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just love Phyrne Fisher. I don't think there were a lot of women like her around 1928. This is a woman you do not want to mess with. She is constantly throwing out verbal threats and sometimes she even has to act on them. (People can be so foolish!) She also has a big heart, doesn't take any crap, has lots of money and is willing to give it out to anyone who needs it or anyone who help the case she is involved in at the moment.

This latest one has two mysteries going on. The first is her "lover" Lin Chang has gone to China to purchase a new shipment of silk and she hasn't heard from him in weeks. She's very concerned. The second is a middle aged woman who is quite eccentric and has been murdered. This case takes her into the magazine/newspaper/publishing world. The rag she is helping by writing some fashion articles has mostly women. And, believe me, these women can argue about the nit pickiest things. HA!!

Two mysteries, one she works with the police, and the other, she works alone. Her most favored way to work things. She gets away with a lot more that way.

Always a great read, Phyrne Fisher is a hero and well beyond her time.

Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phryne’s answer to Murder Must Advertise, and loaded with references to Sayers’ work (Nutrax Nerve Food, you say? smuggling clues in magazine copy, really?) — but also very much a novel in its own right, as Phryne goes above and beyond any of the on-screen heroism displayed by Lord Peter by rescuing her lover, Lin Chung, from pirates. Yep, pirates. As ever, it’s the usual mix for a Miss Fisher novel: a bit of mystery, some very fashionable clothing, some sex, a murder or so, and daring rescues featuring guns and requiring Phryne to get her kit off.

It kind of sounds formulaic when I put it that way, but it doesn’t feel that way when reading. It remains a ‘cosy’ mystery despite the guns and murder, even when it’s not a reread, because you know Phryne’s going to fix things in the end, with only minor damage to those around her. (Though I admit to being sceptical that Lin Chung’s replacement rubber ear is that realistic.)

The mystery part of it is fairly staid in comparison, though I do love the engagement with then-current politics (i.e. the mild background commentary on Mussolini).

[Jeanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so glad I started this series. Miss Fisher is keeping me safely at home. I so enjoy her style. She can outsmart everyone.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most exciting Miss Fisher mysteries for sure! The two intertwining storylines were perfectly balanced and kept the story moving very quickly. The rescue of Lin Chung was a lot of fun. Also the Adventuress Club, we need one of these in every city!!
Really enjoyed the feminist element of her working at the women's magazine, particularly the conversations she has with Mrs. Charlesworth the editor:

Mrs. Charlesworth: "'Not that one woman can do it'--because a woman, like a man, can do anything provided she sacrifices everything including her life, to that one idea--but that 'Every woman can do it.' Every woman can be educated, can have a career, can be the breadwinner for her family, can run a household, and go into parliament or medicine or the law, and when there are enough of us as doctors and lawyers and parliamentarians, when there are many women in public life, then Man cannot ignore us. We will take our rightful place."

[Inga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rounded this one up to 5, because we get to meet Phryne´s rage! You would always suspect there could be more going on underneath her cool, collected, pristine surface, and this was a thrilling revelation about her character to me. (The regular crime plot was enjoyable as well, but a deeper look into Phryne felt like a door opening and I loved that we gained this extra level.)

[Gail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phryne dips into magazine publishing as she looks over the murder of an advice writer and painter of fairies, and worries over her lover Lin Chung who has gone to troubled China to buy silk for the family business. Good read. I liked it.

[Crissy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this Phryne involving an intriguing murder and a daring rescue from pirates...All the characters doing what they do best.
I especially enjoyed the Women's Choice magazine scenes and the editor Mrs. Charlesworth's discussion of their feminist philosophy: "Not that one woman can do it, but that every woman can do it."

[Sarah Zama · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is my least favourite novel in the Miss Fisher series so far. I had so many issues with this story.

I found the story quite boring, stretched out, diluted with entire chapters that added nothing to it. The mystery and the adventure about Lin Chung did nothing for one another. Could have been two different novels. I found it distracting that they existed in the same book. And to be honest, the story didn’t manage to get me involved in neither. I found Chung’s plot quite unrealistic and Mrs Lavander’s plot uninteresting.

While normally Phryne’s aptitude is tempered skilfully with very human emotions of doubts and sympathy, here she looked like a superhero who does everything right and can dare anything because she knows it will turn right in the end.
Really didn’t like this. I would have expected more subtlety and more sensitivity from this character. I’ve seen it done before and don’t see why this novel failed.

But I disliked most relationships here, and especially Phryne’s relationship with Chung. I am sure that if it were a male character who saves his lover, and she does nothing but thank him with her own body for nights on end and afterwards he demands her family to keep her as a mistress even after she gets married with another, readers wouldn’t be very happy about it – and rightly so. I really don’t think that, because roles are reversed here, this makes it acceptable.

I also found the ‘Italian thread’ handled with laziness and largely based on stereotype(I’m Italian, it’s my history and culture we are discussing here), which honestly made me wonder how accurate is the depiction of other ‘guest’ cultures in the series, like for example Lin Chung’s.

I’m sorry, but while I really enjoyed other novels in the series, I found this one very very disappointing.

[Ashleu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally posted at Nose in a Book

I love Phryne (Fry-knee) Fisher. If I lived in the late 1920’s/early 1930’s, I would want to be her. She is fun, fancy and loves life. She also is in love with Lin Chung, or better yet finally admits to her love of him for various reasons. Don’t get me wrong, this is a murder-mystery through and through, but Greenwood puts just the right about of romance into the story. Plus, Lin Chung never once tries to change Phryne, his old-world grandmother does, but Lin Chung accepts her the way she is: a rarity in 1928.

Back to Away With The Fairies, this is the 11th book in the Phryne Fisher series (previously reviewed here and here) and like the 10 before it there are are two story lines. The first storyline in this mystery is the fact that a well-known mystery author has died and Phryne takes a job at the local paper where the author worked to get to the bottom of it. The second storyline involves Lin Chung and the fact that he has gone missing. Do you see why Phryne figures out how much she loves him?

Both story lines are thrilling and could have easily been two separate books; however, with the way that Greenwood rights the two meshed together perfectly. The Lin Chung storyline carries over into the murder-mystery because Phryne is legitimately worried. Thankfully Phryne has help with the assistance of Mr. Butler, Dot–her maid, and her two drivers. She trusts everyone in her life and because of this they all help her to solve the mystery and Lin Chung’s disappearance (those darn pirates!)

So yes, once again my love of Phryne continues.

[Ivonne Rovira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Australian author Kerry Greenwood has outdone herself with the 11th novel in the Phryne Fisher series, Away with the Fairies. Suspenseful throughout, the novel deals with two unrelated mysteries: the murder of the twee Marcella Lavender and the disappearance of Phryne's lover, Lin Chung, while on a trip to his native China.

Miss Lavender wrote the agony aunt column for a magazine called The Women's Choice, which championed a more progressive role for women in society, as well as writing and illustrating a children's feature called "Hilda and the Fairies" for the same magazine. ("Hilda and the Fairies" was just as saccharine as you might imagine.) Phryne consents to act as temporary fashion editor to determine whether one of Miss Lavender's co-workers might have had cause to kill her. Phryne finds out that most of her co-workers -- and neighbors -- had reason to want the interfering biddy dead.

Meanwhile, Phryne also manages to track down Lin. Can Phryne come up with a daring rescue plan? You'll have to read to find out, but, if you're smart, you'll bet on the fabulous Phryne to get her man back! With the help of Phryne's devoted and dependable lady's maid and companion, Dot Williams, and her red-ragger dock worker friends, Cec and Bert, Phryne manages to solve both mysteries with her usual cleverness and aplomb.

Away with the Fairies has got to be one of the best books in the series. I devoured the novel in less than two days. You won't be able to put the book down either.

[Bridget · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know, between pirates and the women's magazine cast something about this one was extra enjoyable. I think maybe I just like the ones where Phryne's relationship with Lin Chung is a bit more centered. I also like her growing family, because I am a sucker for pretty much any and all found family stories.