Kerry Greenwood Flying Too High

Flying Too High

Kerry Greenwood

Poisoned Pen, July 2006, $22.95, 166 pp.

ISBN 1590582873

In the three months that the Honorable Phyrne Fisher has lived in Australia, she has made a name for herself as an investigator who always solves her cases. She solved a case for a woman who travels in high society circles and that woman gives Phyrne's business a glowing recommendation to her friends. Her latest client Mrs. McNaughton is afraid that her son will kill her husband because he refuses to lend his son money to go on an airplane adventure. At the airport Phyrne talks to Bill McNaughton and tells her about her mother's fears and he tells he was never intending to kill his father. Bill's friend Jack Lawton is amazed as he watches Phyrne fly Bill's plane with much skill.

The next day Phyrne learns that Mr. McNaughton has been murdered and Bill has been arrested. When he is released on bail he hires Phyrne to find the real killer. While she works that case Candida Maldon is kidnapped and held for ransom. Jack convinces the family to hire Phyrne, who she devises a plan using Bill's plane to find and retrieve the kidnapped girl. Solving Bill's problem is a piece of cake in comparison.

Kerry Greenwood is one of Australia's most talented mystery writers. Her heroine is a woman who would be at home in the twenty-first century but since she lives in the 1920's she is careful to project a proper image while still doing what she wants. The wily, spunky heroine somehow makes the audience believe she is smart enough to easily solve two cases in a matter of days while the exotic locale will please armchair travelers.