Carolynn

I recently read or listened to the entire series of Phryne Fisher books by Kerry Greenwood in chronological order. I highly recommend doing it in order. I own about half of them and got the others from my library. Some were books and some were audiobooks on Audible.com or on CD. I think that listening to the books adds a great deal to the stories, since they are performed so well. The performance adds depth and definition to the characters and gives you a better feeling for the setting and the story line. As the first book in the series, listening to Cocaine Blues sets you up for visualizing the characters in other books, even if you are just reading them. Doing a mixture of both kept the characters fresh in my mind and helped define their personalities.

The Phryne Fisher mysteries are fun to read and give you a lot of background on Melbourne and other parts of Australia in the 1928+ era. The descriptions of clothes, food, settings, and activities are very interesting, and enhance what are good, light mysteries. There are recipes for cocktails, which is entertaining even if you do not plan to try them and adds to the story.

It was not a bad story line, but may simply be a genre and setting in which I have little interest. As a short story, the end was too predictable, especially since the main characters pretty clearly delineated what would happen from the beginning of it. I would have preferred more character development, and a different dénouement.

I would not choose to listen to another story by this author, but it is interesting to listen to or read new authors. The story was written and read in a way that made the futuristic material seem believable and simply part of the story, rather than something outside of one's experience.