Murder in Williamstown

By: Kerry Greenwood

Narrated by: Wendy Bos

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

The younger ones get involved.

As always, I just adore her stories. I love her open-mindedness, her lack of preaching, her sense of right and wrong, her humor, her portrayal of women, and the way to be a good human being in this universe. All while having a protagonist who, defies the bounds of convention and is ultimately comfortable with herself.

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.

Hood

I guess this is the last book in the series and so sad. But it is as really good with murder and suspense as usual

A lovely addition to the series, although I miss the old narrator. 

The narrator is not the unparalleled Stephanie Daniel, but she has most sadly passed beyond the word of earthly narration. So we must find it within our selves to new voices for our beloved characters. This rendition sadly lacks the utter confidence and effervescent Britishness of her work, but when viewed for its own merit as opposed to in contrast it is not a bad reading. (I do remain however ever prejudiced on the subject).

The story is excellent. And I could not recommend it more highly to anyone who enjoys mystery and adventure and strong minded characters, and a story which you can take utter confidence in turning out well and maintaining a sense of positivity and philosophical groundedness throughout.

What Were They Thinking

I am currently debating whether to return this book or not. The switch of narrator is completely distracting. It is so bad that it is hard to get the sense of the characters and story. It makes it feel like a completely different author. If I finish it, and decide not to return it, I will not buy any more in this series if they do not go back to the original narrator.

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.

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.

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.

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.