Murder and Mendelssohn: A Phryne Fisher Murder Mystery

Murder and Mendelssohn is the landmark 20^th in the series, which is perfect beach or bedtime reading. It is the second to appear since Phryne launched her television career last year and the publication coincides with the screening of the second series on the ABC, although the cover illustration is one of Beth Norling’s gorgeous twenties-style drawings, not the TV tie-in editions produced with glossy photographs of Phyrne’s avatar, actor Essie Davis.

The different cover design is only one symptom of the changing Phryne phenomenon. Miss Fisher must be one of the most delicious roles any actor could be offered and there’s no doubt Davis has made it her own.

Her success makes it hard for even established readers to enjoy their own imaginings without her getting into our heads. Reading Murder and Mendelssohn between watching iView episodes was a little disconcerting.

But doing so also highlights the essential experience of reading a detective novel and shines a light on what books do best. The television programs are fun, sexy and lovely to look at. The plots are little more than excuses. There are plenty of period elements in clothes, music and architecture but the social context is necessarily reduced to broad-brush signposting.

The plots are not exactly complex or riveting in the books either but they work a little better spun out at sufficient length – and this one is quite chunky. The historical settings do get a much better workout in the books and the post-war setting adds shades of light and dark, moments of pathos as well as humour.

Murder and Mendelsohn begins with the murder of an unpopular choir conductor so, as the title suggest, much of the setting is occupied with music and Greenwood paints a thorough and engaging picture of the process of choir rehearsal, as well as the personalities that populate this particular choir.

Much of the novel is set in the Scot’s Church on Collins Street or the Windsor Hotel, both familiar landmarks to Melbourne readers.

There are also elements of the post-war spy novel and recollections which throw us back to Phyrne’s sombre wartime experiences.

The sex, which is always good in Phyrne novels, is spiced by a flirtation with the world of the ‘invert’, the hidden homosexuality of the period.

As always, we read on not so much to find out whodunit as to spend more time with (or being, in our heads) Phyrne, sipping cocktails , nibbling croissants, driving too fast, bedding many men and wearing the most fabulous outfits.

And, as always, Greenwood provides us with well-written escapism that delivers just what we expect.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5