Murder & Mendelssohn

 Murder & Mendelssohn (2013) by Kerry Greenwood

Miss Phryne Fisher, who can swim like a fish, fly airplanes like a pro, drive fast and expertly, and shoot more accurately than a sharpshooter, can also sing like angel. And she finds herself singing with the angels when someone starts killing off the conductors employed to lead a production of Mendelssohn's Elijah. The first victim is Hugh Tregennis, a nasty piece of work who alternately serves out tongue-lashing to the entire choir and tries to get his hands on every female choir member. When he's found dead--bung full of morphine, but choked to death with pages of the musical score--Jack Robinson is on the case and asks Phryne to give him a hand because he "knows nothing of these musical people." 

Tregennis's replacement isn't really any better. In fact, Henry James's temperament seems to be even worse and he has an even deeper supply of biting criticism for the singers. He doesn't last long though. After just a couple rehearsals, he's found dead as well. This time from arsenical poisoning. But the question is how did he come by it? His food and drink seem to have been okay and no one at the final rehearsal gave him anything. Then the man who sings Elijah's part is attacked and only some very quick work saves him from drowning. Can Phryne and Jack figure out who's killing off Australia's musical talent before they work their way through the entire production?

Meanwhile, John Wilson, Phryne's dear friend from her days as an ambulance driver during the Great War, has arrived in Australia in the wake of a brilliant, but disdainful and aloof mathematician y the name of Rupert Sheffield. Sheffield was a code breaker during the war and it seems he has not left danger behind him. Someone has tried to kill him several times and John asks Phryne to help him figure out how to keep Sheffield safe. Because John has fallen for the beautiful man. Phryne doesn't like the way Sheffield treats her friend, but she's determined to help...and maybe even mend the ways of true love in the bargain. 

This was another truly delightful adventure with my favorite grown-up version of Nancy Drew. The plot is very nicely done with plenty of clues. I might almost say too many--because I spotted the killer quite early and, after Phryne and Rupert Sheffield repeatedly show off their deductive prowess a la Sherlock Holmes (in a nice little game of one-upmanship), I was a bit surprised that our detectives (Phryne, Rupert, and Jack) didn't figure it out. If our culprit hadn't spontaneously confessed, I don't know that they'd ever have done so. That's the big snag for this outing. The ending was too flat after such a great build-up. If I didn't love Phryne and all her entourage (from Mr. Butler to Tinker to Bert and Cec to Dot and Jane and Ruth) so much and if Greenwood wasn't such a good wordsmith, the star count would be lower--based on the anticlimactic ending alone.

And, speaking of Sherlock Holmes, I really enjoyed the hat tip to Doyle's creation--both with Phryne and Rupert emulating his deductive observations and with mirroring of the Holmes/Watson relationship in the relationship between Sheffield and Wilson. I was also quite proud of myself for spotting what Greenwood was doing long before her author's note at the end. She also gives a brief nod to a few other classic detectives and it was fun to spot various tropes. Overall, a good read. ★★★★ and 1/2

First line: It was a quiet St. Kilda morning in the summer of 1929.

Last line: Phryne like happy endings
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Deaths = 5 (one suffocated; two poisoned; one drowned; one shot)