Review: Cocaine Blues

Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the first book in a long series of adventures with Miss Phrynne Fisher, an Australian private eye. It's set in the 1920's and Miss Fisher is a wealthy, fashionable young woman, considered "fast" by many, who has headed to Melbourne to investigate the odd illness of a family friend's wife. She befriends a young woman, Dorothy, who becomes her lady's maid as well as two taxi drivers who pull her into a secondary investigation. One investigation involves the cocaine trade while the other involves an illegal abortionist. This series is the basis for a PBS series, Miss Fisher's Mysteries, which I've watched for quite a while. I am quite pleased to report that while there are some plot point differences between the televised version of this novel and the book, they are minor, and the TV characterizations are spot on with the book. I enjoyed the original and really appreciated the sly observations and comments about society at the time, which aren't as apparent in the televised version.

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