Description (from cover): “The elegant Miss Phryne Fisher returns in this scintillating collection, featuring four new stories.

The Honourable Phryne Fisher–she of the Lulu bob, cupid’s bow lips, diamante garters, and pearl-handled pistol–is the 1920’s most elegant and irrepressible sleuth.

Miss Phryne Fisher is up to her stunning green eyes in intriguing crime in each of these entertaining, fun, and compulsively readable stories. Whether sniffing out the whereabouts of a priceless pilfered book, an heirloom locket, or a missing eight-year-old girl, Miss Fisher proves herself move than equal to the task–and always fashionably attired. With the ever-loyal Dot, the ingenious Mr. Butler, and all of Phryne’s friends and household, the action is as fast as Phryne’s wit and logic.”

My Thoughts:

I was so happy to learn that there was a new Phryne Fisher mystery out and when I had the chance to request an advance reader copy through Netgalley, I didn’t even read the description, just clicked that I wanted to read it. To my disappointment, this is not a new book in the series, but a collection of short stories featuring our favorite detective Phryne Fisher. Apparently, there was a collection of short stories published previously by Greenwood and this book features those same stories, with some edits, and four new ones. While not exactly what I was hoping for, this story collection was fun to read nonetheless.

Phryne Fisher’s murder mysteries have become famous in their own right. The novels in the series are widely acclaimed and there is a television show, a movie and new there is even an a spin-off television show based all on Miss Fisher’s characters. A collection of short stories was well received by this reader, however, some of the stories were a little short and did not explain how Phryne reached her conclusions. I think any book featuring Phryne Fisher is a good read, but I was disappointed that this was not a new novel in the series.

I did like that the stories were short and I could read one when I had a few minutes at lunch or when I had some down time. The stories did feature some of the other beloved characters that we have come to love throughout the series, but overall there wasn’t a lot of substance to the stories that really contribute to the series as a whole. The author does write an introduction at the beginning of this collection, which outlines how she came up with the idea of Phryne Fisher as a character and for the novels in the series. Unfortunately, that probably was one of the more interesting parts of this collection.

Overall Rating: 3 stars

Author: Kerry Greenwood

Series: Phryne Fisher Short Story Collection

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Publication Date: May 17, 2022

Pages: 272

Genre: Historical Mystery

Get It: Amazon

Disclaimer: This book was given to me by the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for my honest review. I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.