Ruddy Gore (28 page)

Authors: Kerry Greenwood

Tags: #A Phryne Fisher Mystery

BOOK: Ruddy Gore

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‘Sole survivor of the Burke and Wills fiasco,’

commented Phryne. ‘And that angel with a sword is Michael Dawson, the iron founder. The broken column is Thomas Fulton – he fell into a mine shaft in Bendigo. Then there are lot of clergymen and then there is that Celtic cross, 281

that’s

John

Templeton,

and

here

poor

Derrimut.’

‘Over there is the Chinese cemetery,’ said Lin Chung. ‘That is the oven to burn offerings. My family are buried here.’ She felt him shiver lightly.

‘I do not like this place, Phryne.’

‘ ‘‘But at my back I always hear Time’s winge´d chariot hurrying near,’’ ’ she quoted, mockingly.

‘ ‘‘And yonder all before us lie, Deserts of vast eternity,’’ ’ he agreed. ‘I know that it is not proper to leave a lady to walk unaccompanied through a cemetery, Phryne, but I am leaving you here unless you find what you are looking for fairly soon. I have nothing against my ancestors, illustrious as they were, but I do not want to be reminded that I shall have to meet them one day. They will not approve of me, I am sure.’

‘It’s all right. Here she is.’

The marble monument was large and imposing.

A sorrowing angel leaned on a broken column –

the symbol of a life cut short. An open marble book with a five-bar stave carved in it stood just at Phryne’s eye-level.

She could not resist. She peered closely and deci-phered the notes from the book.

‘I know that my Redeemer liveth,’ she read, and laid her bunch of flowers down on the grave of Dorothea Curtis.

Sitting back on her heels, she considered Dorothea’s life, and her death. Lin Chung waited silently. Phryne stood up and took a step back and Lin Chung bowed.

282

‘Phryne, can you smell something? A sweet scent,’ he said, as she pulled on her gloves. Phryne sniffed.

‘Yes. And there are none of them in that bouquet, either. It was everlastings and gum tips.’

She laid her hand on his arm and smiled up at him, her green eyes warm with appreciation. ‘She’s pleased with us, I think.’ She drew him away into Tenth Avenue and the exit from the cemetery.

‘Yes, now I recognise it, but it’s fading already,’

he said, turning his back on Dorothea Curtis. ‘The scent of . . . ’

‘Hyacinths,’ said Phryne Fisher.

283

Ruddy Gore Prelims & Ads 1/3/04 1:12 PM Page 284

AN EXCITING NEW SERIES FROM

KERRY GREENWOOD

Earthly Delights

Kerry Greenwood

Introducing Corinna Chapman—baker and reluctant investi-gator.

Baking is an alchemical process for Corinna Chapman. At four a.m. she starts work at Earthly Delights, her bakery in Calico Alley.

But one morning Corinna receives a threatening note saying ‘The wages of sin is death’ and finds a syringe in her cat’s paw. A blue-faced junkie has collapsed in the dark alley and a mysterious man with beautiful eyes appears with a plan for Corinna and her bread. Then it is Goths, dead drug addicts, witchcraft, a homeless boy and a missing girl and it seems she will never get those muffins cooked in time.

With flair, chutzpah and a talent for kneading, Corinna Chapman will find out who exactly is threatening her life and bake some beautiful bread.

‘
Earthly Delights
is a pleasure to read—witty, surprising, and opinionated, with some wonderful one-liners.’ —
The West
Australian

‘Kerry Greenwood’s latest crime novel is heaps of fun . . .’

—
The Age

ISBN 1 74114 236 9

Ruddy Gore Prelims & Ads 1/3/04 1:12 PM Page 285

ALSO FROM ALLEN & UNWIN

The Castlemaine Murders

Kerry Greenwood

Phryne Fisher is back—as smart and sassy as ever.

Phryne Fisher, her sister Beth and her faithful maid, Dot, decide that Luna Park is the place for an afternoon of fun and excitement with Phryne’s two daughters, Ruth and Jane. But in the dusty dark Ghost Train, amidst the squeals of horror and delight, a mummified bullet-studded corpse falls to the ground in front of them. Phryne Fisher’s pleasure trip has definitely become business.

Digging to the bottom of this longstanding mystery takes her to the country town of Castlemaine where it soon becomes obvious that someone is trying to muzzle her investigations.

With unknown threatening assailants on her path, Phryne seems headed for more trouble than usual.

Meanwhile, Phryne’s lover Lin Chung has his own mystery to solve. Feuding families and lost gold fill his mind until he learns that Phryne herself has become missing treasure.

‘Greenwood is the class act of local crime writing.’ —
Weekend
Australian

ISBN 1 74114 074 9

Ruddy Gore Prelims & Ads 1/3/04 1:12 PM Page 286

Murder in Montparnasse

Kerry Greenwood

The divine Phryne Fisher returns to lead another dance of intrigue.

Seven Australian soldiers, carousing in Paris in 1918, unknowingly witness a murder and their presence has devastating consequences. Ten years later, two are dead . . . under very suspicious circumstances.

Phryne’s wharfie mates, Bert and Cec, appeal to her for help. They were part of this group of soldiers in 1918 and they fear for their lives and for those of the other three men. It’s only as Phryne delves into the investigation that she, too, remembers being in Montparnasse on that very same day.

While Phryne is occupied with memories of Montparnasse past and the race to outpace the murderer, she finds troubles of a different kind at home. Her lover, Lin Chung, is about to be married. And the effect this is having on her own usually peaceful household is disastrous.

‘Phryne Fisher is young, wealthy, beautiful, smart, confident and independently minded . . . and she has a knack for solving murders when she is not sipping a strengthening cocktail or planning another seduction.’ —
Australian’s Review of Books
ISBN 1 86508 806 4

Ruddy Gore Prelims & Ads 1/3/04 1:12 PM Page 287

Away with the Fairies

Kerry Greenwood

Phryne Fisher—dangerous, passionate, kind, clever and seductive. She drinks cocktails, dances the tango, is the companion of wharfies, and is expert at conducting an elegant dalliance.

It’s the 1920s in Melbourne and Phryne is asked to investigate the puzzling death of a famous author and illustrator of fairy stories. To do so, Phryne takes a job within the women’s magazine that employed the victim and finds herself enmeshed in her colleagues’ deceptions.

But while Phryne is learning the ins and outs of magazine publishing first hand, her personal life is thrown into chaos.

Impatient for her lover Lin Chung’s imminent return from a silk-buying expedition to China, she instead receives an unusual summons from Lin Chung’s family followed by a series of mysterious assaults and warnings.

‘Snappy one-liners and the ability to fight like a wildcat are appealing in a central character.’ —
City Weekly
ISBN 1 86508 489 1

Ruddy Gore Prelims & Ads 1/3/04 1:12 PM Page 288

Death Before Wicket

Kerry Greenwood

The sassy Phryne Fisher sets the seamy side of Sydney alight in her tenth adventure.

Phryne Fisher has plans for her Sydney sojourn—a few days at the Test cricket, a little sightseeing and the Artist’s Ball with an up-and-coming young modernist. But these plans begin to go awry when Phryne’s maid discovers her thoroughly respectable sister has left her family for the murky nightlife of the Cross. And Phryne is definitely not the woman to say ‘no’

when two delightful young men come to her on bended knees, begging for her help in finding their friend innocent of theft.

Phryne’s plans for a simple day or two of pleasure are postponed for good.

It all sounds simple enough as Phryne sets investigations into motion, but when greed and fear are the motivating factors, people become ruthless and Phryne finds herself enmeshed in blackmail, secrets, lies and the dangerous influences of deep magic.

‘Pure indulgence . . . a 1920s heroine for the 90s . . . a fast and elegant read.’ —
Who Weekly

ISBN 1 74114 095 1

Ruddy Gore Prelims & Ads 1/3/04 1:12 PM Page 289

Urn Burial

Kerry Greenwood

Phryne Fisher, scented and surprisingly ruthless, is not one to let sleuthing an horrific crime get in the way of an elegant dalliance.

The redoubtable Phryne Fisher is holidaying at Cave House, a Gothic mansion in the heart of the Victorian mountain country. But the peaceful country surroundings mask danger.

Her host is receiving death threats, lethal traps are set without explanation around the house and the parlourmaid is found strangled to death.

What with the reappearance of the mysterious funerary urns, a pair of young lovers, an extremely eccentric swagman, an angry outcast heir, and the luscious Lin Chung, Phryne’s attention has definitely been caught.

Phryne’s search for answers takes her deep into the dungeons of the house and of the limestone Buchan caves. But what will she find this time?

‘Fisher is a sexy, sassy and singularly modish character.’

—
Canberra Times
.

ISBN 1 74114 140 0

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