The decidedly raven-haired Miss Phryne Fisher returns to delve deep into the dark side of Melbourne, Australia. It’s 1929, and girls are going missing. Little, pretty goldenhaired girls. And they’re not just pretty. Three of them are pregnant, poor girls from the harsh confines of the Magdalene Laundry. People are getting nervous. Polly Kettle, a pushy, self-important girl reporter with ambition … reporter with ambition and no sense of self preservation, decides to investigate and promptly goes missing herself.
It’s time for Phryne and Dot to put a stop to this and find Polly Kettle before something quite irreparable happens to all of the missing girls. It’s all piracy and dark cellars, convents and plots, murder and mystery…and Phryne finally finds out if it’s true that blondes have more fun.
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I usually don’t review more than a book or two from a series, but in an over-20 book run of fantastic reads, it’s hard not to. I adore the whole Phryne Fisher series, but some books really stand out, and this is one of them. It’s sort of Spotlight meets Phryne Fisher. Girls have gone missing and the Catholic Church has a part to play in the mystery. Kerry Greenwood really tackles the entire feminist panoply in this book, from sexually-abusing fathers, through white slavers, self-loathing nuns, the distortion of religious power, and the staggering double standard. The subjects are serious and the tone of the book is a little darker than many of them, but still has the ebullient, witty quality of all the Phryne books. This series is my “dessert” and i expect when i run out, i’ll listen to them all again. Highly recommended.
Unnatural Habits by Kerry Greenwood is the nineteenth book in Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. It is 1929 in Melbourne, Australia and the Honorable Phryne Fisher is on her way to a meeting of the Adventuresses Club with Dr. Elizabeth MacMillan (Mac). Along the way, they encounter a woman being attacked by some thugs. After rescuing Polly Kettle, they take her along to the club. It seems that Miss Kettle is a reporter for the Daily Truth working on a story about girls who have gone missing from Magdalene Laundry at Abbotsford Convent. The three young women were pregnant and no one seems to care that they have disappeared. Miss Kettle is determined to stick with her story and soon departs. The next day Phryne gets a visit from DI Jack Robinson who reports that Polly has been abducted and asks Phryne to investigate. Phryne needs to retrace Polly’s steps in order to find the missing reporter. Will Phryne and her compatriots be able to find Polly in time?
Unnatural Habits follows Phryne Fisher on another investigation. I found the mystery to be complicated with multiple parts. It was a little convoluted at time, but it was interesting. I did feel, though, that the story was a little too long. The author could have cut out some of the eating and bathing (we do not need details on every bath and meal) for a more concise story. Unnatural Habits has entertaining characters with Phryne at the forefront. Phryne is smart, sassy, strong, social and so much more. I wish the author had not made Jack so bland. He fades into the background. The author did an amazing job at capturing the time-period (clothes, language, food, cars, entertainment, etc.). While Unnatural Habits is the nineteenth book in the series, it can be read alone. The author provides all the details a reader needs. I am giving Unnatural Habits 4 out of 5 stars. Pick up a copy of Unnatural Habits to go on another adventure with Phryne Fisher and her troupe of family and friends.
By now, I’ve noticed something: every one of Miss Fisher’s books focuses on one aspect of the 1920s life in particular. This one concerns itself with the condition of women, and even more so with the white slave trade that seemed to be going on particularly in that decade (though there’s debate about whether it was as prominent as the media made it to be).
It is a strong novel, with a definite plot (more so than others I’ve read), that touches on the many different aspects of being a woman in that decade. Maybe even a bit too much, since in places, the depiction of the women’s condition takes over the story and follows the mystery only loosely. We learn especially of the difficult position girls who got pregnant out of wedlock found themselves in. It was still a time when a single mother was considered a disgrace her herself, her baby and especially her family. Many girls suffered heavy mistreatment for this.
But I also enjoyed learning about Miss Fisher’s past a bit more in details. Here she remembers her experience in WWI in particular and her miserable childhood in passing. I like it because this creates a character who is more complex than it may seem at first.
I really enjoyed this one.
Love all the Phryne Fisher books.