Death in Daylesford

April 5, 2021
Set in 1929, Greenwood’s charming 21st Phyrne Fisher mystery (after 2014’s Murder and Mendelssohn) takes the well-to-do Australian sleuth from Melbourne to the country district of Daylesford, where a retired army captain has opened a spa to treat WWI vets suffering from shell shock that he hopes Phyrne will support financially. In Daylesford, Phyrne witnesses what first appears to be a tragic mishap. Kenneth McAlpine, the spa’s bouncer, is demonstrating his prowess at tossing a log the size of a medium-size telephone pole, when it slips out of his hands, flies through the air, and fatally strikes a bystander, farmer Donald MacKay. After confronting the officious local sergeant with evidence that someone used a blowpipe to shoot McAlpine in the neck with a sliver of steel in a deliberate attempt to murder MacKay, Phyrne investigates. Humorous prose (a police officer’s stubble is described as looking “as if he had just gone three rounds with a cheese-grater and been defeated on a technical knock-out”) remains a series strength. Greenwood’s many fans will be delighted.