Murder in Montparnasse: 12 (Phryne Fisher Mystery) - Softcover

Set in the 1920s, Australian author Greenwood's U.S. debut introduces the engaging Phryne Fisher, an independent, unconventional PI whose competence and unflappability call to mind Dorothy Sayers's Harriet Vane. Greenwood's language is almost Wodehousian at some points, and she surrounds her sleuth with a diverse supporting cast, including her prudish butler, her Chinese lover and an accommodating police inspector who knows when to look the other way. While the narrative's prime twist stems from an artificial device, and the main villain's identity is too obvious, the charm of the setting and the characters more than compensates.

Seven Australian soldiers, carousing in Paris in 1918, unknowingly witness a murder, with devastating consequences. Ten years later, two are dead...under very suspicious circumstances. Phryne (pronounced Fry-Knee) Fisher's friends, Bert and Cec (sometimes cabbies and sometimes men for hire), appeal to her for help. They were part of this group of soldiers in 1918, and they fear for their lives and for those of the other three men. It's only as Phryne delves into the investigation that she, too, remembers being in Montparnasse on that very same fatal day.

Meanwhile, her lover, Lin Chung, is about to be married. And the effect this is having on her own usually peaceful household is disastrous....