Tag: Melbourne

Death at Victoria Dock

Death at Victoria Dock

by Kerry Greenwood (Poisoned Pen Press, 1992)

audiobook read by Stephanie Daniel (ABC, 2011)

Book cover: “Death at Victoria Dock” by Kerry Greenwood (Poisoned Pen Press, 1992); audiobook read by Stephanie Daniel (ABC, 2011)

Stephanie Daniel’s audiobook reading lends vivid personality to all the characters; Greenwood’s depiction of interbellum Melbourne society suggests considerable research; yet Phryne herself has become more goddess than investigator. She is adored and feared to the extent of encountering too little resistance.

Flying too High

Flying too High

by Kerry Greenwood (Penguin, 1990); audiobook read by Stephanie Daniel (Bolinda, 2011)

Flying Too High by Kerry Greenwood (book cover)

Two fairly straightforward cases (not investigations as such) brought concurrently to heel by the redoubtable Miss Fisher. In prose and plot, this is a simpler novel than Cocaine Blues. Nonetheless it sails along nicely on the strength of its characters and setting.

The Portrait of Molly Dean

The Portrait of Molly Dean

by Katherine Kovacic (Bonnier, 2018); audiobook read by Casey Withoos (Wavesound, 2020)

Kovacic_The Portrait of Molly Dean

What would have been a hardboiled detective story in 1930s Melbourne (the setting of the murder) turns to a more cosy mystery in 1999 (when art dealer Alex Clayton attempts to solve it). Kovacic’s easy narrative style cannot quite bridge the disparity.

 

 

Cocaine Blues

Cocaine Blues

by Kerry Greenwood (McPhee Gribble, 1989); audiobook read by Stephanie Daniel (Bolinda, 2010)

Greenwood_Cocaine Blues

Greenwood evinces as no-nonsense an approach to plotting as does the irrepressible Phryne Fisher to solving mysteries and bucking societal norms. The result is a fast-moving romp through 1920s Melbourne, more worldly than Wodehouse but with a similarly delightful turn of phrase.

 

 

St Kilda Blues

St Kilda Blues

by Geoffrey McGeachin (Penguin, 2014); audiobook read by David Tredinnick (Playaway, 2014)

McGeachin_St Kilda Blues

Though the investigation itself is commonplace, McGeachin immerses his protagonist in the details of history, presenting a time capsule of Australian—in particular, Melburnian—culture in the late 1960s. Stolid ex-WWII bomber pilot Charlie Berlin shows mettle worthy of the character study.

 

 

Macbeth (2006)

Macbeth

dir. Geoffrey Wright (2006)

Wright_Macbeth

Well cast and drawing on the gangster film genre’s rich tradition of murder and betrayal, this dark and stylish Australian production — transplanting Shakespeare onto the Melbourne underworld — makes for a disturbingly good introduction to the plot and dialogue of the Scottish Play.

 

Derelict Space Sheep