Searching for the murderer of a famous author, sexy, sassy Phryne goes undercover-and is up to her ears in fashion gossip and office politics....
Phryne Fisher is asked to investigate the puzzling death of a famous author and illustrator of fairy stories. To do so, she 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.

Reviews

Phryne Fisher continues to dance the tango and unravel murders in 1920s Melbourne, Australia, in this third installment of the series to be published in the United States. Simultaneous with the Poisoned Press hardcover. Read by Stephanie Daniel. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

"Phryne Fisher isnt really a glossy girl, she's just pretending to be one to solve the suspicious death of an old luvvie who wrote and illustrated fairy stories for a womens magazine. Not exactly riveting reading by todays standards, but this story is set in the 20s when women read articles on how to be virtuous, and never ventured out without a hat or gloves. Greenwood manages to evoke the elegance of the era in this charming tale, which dwells as much on the wardrobe of the heroine as the morbid details of murder and mayhem."  -- "Vogue", June 2001   "Greenwood crafts a passable whodunit, but terrific historic color (complete with a three page bibliography) and the blithe proto-feminist heroine are the real highlights here."  -- "Kirkus Reviews"   "This series is the best Australian import since Nicole Kidman, and Phryne is the flashiest new female sleuth in the genre."   -- "Booklist"   "Kerry Greenwood makes