Description

"While memories of the Titanic linger among the ship's passengers, readers are treated to descriptions of sumptuous meals and snippets of Maori lore, along with a tantalizing mystery. Those who long to revel in a glamorous if imperfect past will be satisfied." —Publishers Weekly

The nice men at P&O are worried. A succession of jewelry thefts from the first-class passengers is hardly the best advertisement for their cruises. Especially when it is likely that a passenger is the thief.

Phryne Fisher, with her Lulu bob, green eyes, cupid's bow lips, and sense of the ends justifying the means, is just the person to mingle seamlessly with the upper classes and take on a case of theft on the high seas—or at least on the S.S. Hinemoa—on a luxury cruise to New Zealand. She is carrying the Great Queen of Sapphires, the Maharani, as bait.

There are shipboard romances, champagne cocktails, erotic photographers, jealous swains, mickey finns, jazz musicians, blackmail, and attempted murder, all before the thieves find out—as have countless love-smitten men before them—that where the glamorous and intelligent Phryne is concerned, resistance is futile.

About the Author

Kerry Greenwood was born in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray and after wandering far and wide, she returned to live there. She has degrees in English and Law from Melbourne University and was admitted to the legal profession on the 1st April 1982, a day which she finds both soothing and significant. Kerry has written three series, a number of plays, including The Troubadours with Stephen D’Arcy, is an award-winning children’s writer and has edited and contributed to several anthologies. The Phryne Fisher series (pronounced Fry-knee, to rhyme with briny) began in 1989 with Cocaine Blues which was a great success. Kerry has written twenty books in this series with no sign yet of Miss Fisher hanging up her pearl-handled pistol. Kerry says that as long as people want to read them, she can keep writing them. In 2003 Kerry won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Australian Association.

Praise For…

 “Cleverly plotted and one of one of Greenwood's best in this long-running historical series.”

 –Library Journal of Murder on a Midsummer Night

“Phryne's devoted following will rejoice as she glides through dangerous situations and survives the sizzling summer in inimitable style.”  –Kirkus Reviews of Murder on a Midsummer Night

“Phryne on the rampage makes for fine entertainment all on its own, but Greenwood effectively combines her inimitable heroine's antics with thought-provoking details about the struggles of women in the 1920s, forced to adjust to the loss of the unprecedented independence they had enjoyed during the war. This series is the best Australian import since Nicole Kidman, and Phryne is the flashiest new female sleuth in the genre.”         –Booklist Starred Review of Away With the Fairies