"Phryne's fans get everything they could possibly want from this installment in the long-running and ever more popular series: a fast-talking, tough heroine; an engaging cast of supporting players; a couple of really nifty mysteries; and plenty of fun." —Booklist Phryne Fisher is on holiday. She means to take the train to Sydney (where the harbour bridge is being built), go to a few cricket matches, dine with the Chancellor of the university, and perhaps go to the Arts Ball with that young modernist, Chas Nutall. She has the costume of a lifetime, and she's not afraid to use it. When she arrives there, however, her maid Dot finds that her extremely respectable married sister Joan has vanished, leaving her small children to the neglectful care of a resentful husband. What has become of Joan, who would never leave her babies? Surely, she hasn't run away with a lover, as gossip suggests? Then while Phryne is visiting the university, the very pretty Joss and Clarence ask her to find out who has broken into the Dean's safe and stolen a number of things, including the Dean's wife's garnets and an irreplaceable illuminated book called the Hours of Juana the Mad. An innocent student has been blamed. So Phryne girds up her loins, loads her pearl-handled .32 Beretta, and sallies forth to find mayhem, murder, black magic, and perhaps a really good cocktail before more crime erupts in Sydney.

Walking the wings of a Tiger Moth plane in full flight would be more than enough excitement for most people, but not for Phryne-amateur detective and woman of mystery, as delectable as the finest chocolate and as sharp as razor blades. In fact, the 1920s' most talented and glamorous detective flies even higher here, handling a murder, a kidnapping, and the usual array of beautiful young men with style and consummate ease. And she does it all before it's time to adjourn to the Queenscliff Hotel for breakfast. Whether she's flying planes, clearing a friend of homicide charges, or saving a child, Phryne does everything with the same dash and elan with which she drives her red Hispano-Suiza.

"Anyone who hasn't discovered Phryne Fisher by now should start making up for lost time." —Booklist Phryne Fisher is doing one of her favorite things—dancing to the music of Tintagel Stone's Jazzmakers at the Green Mill, Melbourne's premier dance hall. And she's wearing a sparkling lobelia-colored georgette dress. Nothing can flap the unflappable Phryne—especially on a dance floor with so many delectable partners. Nothing but death, that is. The dance competition is trailing into its last hours when suddenly a figure slumps to the ground. Phryne, conscious of how narrowly the weapon missed her own bare shoulder, back, and dress, investigates. Phryne follows the deadly trail into the dark smoky jazz clubs of Fitzroy, into the arms of eloquent strangers, and finally into the sky, as she uncovers a complicated family tragedy from the Great War and the damaged men who came back from ANZAC cove.

Phryne Fisher is on holiday. She means to take the train to Sydney (where the harbour bridge is being built), go to a few cricket matches, dine with the Chancellor of the university and perhaps go to the Arts Ball with that celebrated young modernist, Chas Nutall. She has the costume of a lifetime and she's not afraid to use it. When she arrives...