Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries






Kerry Hammond joins us today to tell us about Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries...


I recently heard the most wonderful news and wanted to share it with Mystery Playground readers. The green light has been given to film a third season of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. What? Who is Miss Fisher you ask? What mysteries is she involved in? If you’ve never heard of Phryne (fry-knee) Fisher, you’re in for a real treat. I haven’t loved a strong female lead so much since I discovered Amelia Peabody.
Phyrne Fisher is a character created by the wonderful Australian writer Kerry Greenwood.  The series contains 20 books so far and Miss Greenwood is still going strong. Phryne is a wealthy 20 something woman living in Melbourne, Australia circa the late 1920s. She is strong willed, beautiful, smart, witty, stylish, and fearless.   She can drive a car, fly a plane, shoot a gun, and solve all kinds of cases. She doesn’t suffer from self-consciousness, doesn’t feel the need to get married, and has as many lovers as any man of her day. In short, she’s absolutely wonderful.

 
The television series stars Essie Davis as Phryne Fisher, and is filmed in Melbourne, where the books take place. The location alone is a nice change to the period shows that always seem to be filmed in London, and the props and costumes perfectly portray the jazz age. Essie Davis is a talented Australian actress who is perfect for the part. She brings to life the feminist protagonist of the book pages, and the supporting cast of characters add another dimension to an already entertaining show.
It seems that the TV version creates new and original adventures for Phryne rather than just adapting each book in the series to make it an episode. To me, this is a bonus, since I discovered the TV series before reading any of the books. Now I know that I can read all 20 books in the series and not feel that I am just experiencing the same stories all over again. Hopefully Miss Greenwood will continue to write, and the Australian Broadcasting Company will continue to film, this unique series.

You can currently purchase Seasons 1 and 2 (formatted for American DVD players) on Amazon or Acorn, or you can stream the shows on Netflix.
 

6 comments:

  1. I too adore this series and the books. So excited. I've watched the first season practically in a day!

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  2. I just watched the first 3 episodes on netflix ... LOVE IT! And when I came back to my computer this evening I find that Poisoned Press has "Cocaine Blues" as their $0.99 special. Thanks for introducing me to this series :)

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  3. i have not heard of this series. it is on BBC America or PBS? or is it only available thru netflix?

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  4. Marcy it's technically ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company) and only through Netflix or purchase (my library purchased it and that's how I saw it). PBS or BBC may pick it up at some point, but I haven't seen it happen yet.

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  5. Carrie, that is karma at its best. It was just mean to be!

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  6. this series, with its wonderful attention to detail, intriguing plots, delightful characters, beautiful costuming and sets, and touches of all too human humor, is just a wonderful treat, and frankly, I would pay for Netflix even if this were the only series I wanted to watch there. Each episode is as satisfying as a lovely dessert. Thank you for covering it and hopefully stimulating more people to watch and enjoy this excellent series.

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