Murder in Williamstown

By: Kerry Greenwood

Narrated by: Wendy Bos

Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Accustomed to both murder and dalliance, Australia's favourite detective, the inimitable Miss Fisher, returns in a case that will test her tact and judgement to the full.

When the redoubtable Miss Phryne Fisher receives threatening letters at her home, she enlists the unflappable apprentice Tinker to investigate. But as the harassment of Phryne threatens to spin out of control, her lover, Lin Chung is also targeted.

Meanwhile, Dot begins to fear that her fiance, newly promoted Sergeant Hugh Collins, has gone cold on setting a date for their wedding. Phryne's clever daughters, Ruth and Jane, begin their own investigation into suspiciously dwindling funds when they are sent to help at the Blind Institute.

None of this is quite enough to prevent Phryne from accepting an invitation to a magnificent party at the house of the mysterious Hong. When the party is interrupted by shocking tragedy, Phryne gathers all of her unerring brilliance to track down the miscreants. With some unlikely assistance, Phryne is in a race against time to save a pair of young lovers from disgrace and death.

©2022 Kerry Greenwood (P)2022 W. F. Howes Ltd

Kerry Greenwood fan

I have read/listened to every Kerry Greenwood book I have been able to find. I was so pleased to find Murder in Williamstown. Wendy Bos voice is wonderful. I highly recommend reading all of the Phryne Fisher books, preferably in order as the stories grow on each other. I also highly recommend Ms Greenwood’s Corinna Chapman series.

So excited for another book.

This was another great addition to the Miss Fisher series. Thank you for continuing to write her stories.

Why after 21 books do they change narrators

Narrator has a breathless delivery that makes it hard to follow. The story is ok but seems to lack the normal style of all the previous stores. The characters seem to act out of there usual way.

Murder in Williamstown

Yet another fun Miss Fisher murder mystery book. I had a lot of fun listening to this book.

Great story ruined by poor narration

One of the best Miss Fisher stories with a number of fascinating mysteries interwoven together with solutions provided by other characters in the stories. But such poor narration especially compared to Stephanie Daniel who was marvelous and really brought Phryne and friends to life. Maybe I’ll just read the books from now on and keep Daniel’s great narration in my head. She really is the voice of Phryne and friends.

Narrator Stephanie Daniel is missed!!

I love this series, but I've been completely spoiled by the narration of Stephanie Daniel, who sadly passed away. It must be a challenge to replace such an iconic voice, but it feels like they didn't even try. While this narrator has a pleasant voice, she doesn't even try to give each character their own personality. As a result, every character sounds the same, so it becomes a monotonous ramble. I find myself drifting off and not even knowing what's happening in the story by the time I pull my attention back to it. The colorful charm of Miss Phryne is lost in a beige blah and it makes me sad. I have to teturn-- I'll just read this one on my own.

Missing Stephanie Daniels

This was an average experience. I’m not sure the story was as flat as I received it because I was constantly mourning the sparkling, ebullient narration of Stephanie Daniels. I found this narration to be dull and forced by comparison and so the story felt the same way.

Always a pleasure

Phryne is always a breath of fresh air. I prefer listening to her stories with the appropriate Australian accent. Wonderful to spend time with a dear, old friend.

Terrible narration.

No modulation in tone and voice. Couldn't tell one character from another or the narration or accent. Very sad when compared to the late Stephanie Daniel.

Disappointing

I’m not entirely sure how much of my disappointment with this book is due to the book itself or the new narrator. The late, great Stephanie Daniels is a hard act to follow, but the book itself is not up to the standards of her earlier books. There was an 8-year break after Mendelssohn, and a significant decline in quality. Phryne just isn’t fun anymore. I felt in this one that she really was being quite insufferable. She seems to think she can do no wrong and that it is her right to interfere in everything, no matter how remote from her, and pass judgment like she is a god!
Also, the continuity errors were particularly egregious in this one. There have often been some continuity errors in this series, but usually they are only mildly annoying and the story makes up for it.
Here, she uproots an entire university that was previously located in Sydney (Death by Wicket) and moves it to Melbourne! And for no good reason—any man would have done. Also, I don’t think that Camelia’s original origin story is at all consistent with her family as depicted in this book.
Again, for no good reason. And while I like Tinker, his living in a shed because he wants to has always seemed dubious to me, and the part of the story involving him read like a mystery written for children. Ditto for Ruth and Jane.
Ruth and Dot were relegated to completely traditional female roles; Dot in particular was quite diminished—she was previously a quite interesting and complex character, perhaps more complex than anyone else—here she is relegated to worrying if her fiancé still wants to marry her and being shocked about the relationship between Phryne, Lin Chung and Camellia. I don’t think she did or said anything interesting in the entire book! She was basically just a maid!
In general the entire book was just more boring than any of this series. If this was your first Phryne Fisher book, I recommend going back to the first 20–this one is atypical, sadly.