Phryne Fisher

Created by Kerry Greenwood
(1954-2025)

Imagine Honey West as a flapper with a Lulu bob, green eyes, Cupid’s Bow lips,  legs up to here adorned with diamanté garters, a voracious sexual appetite–and a clue.

In a popular series of novels by Australian author Kerry Greenwood, society gal and flapper turned private eye PHRYNE (pronounced Fry-knee, to rhyme with briny) FISHER prowls around jazz-era Melbourne, Australia, getting into all sorts of mischief, both sexual and otherwise, bouncing along from marvelous mansions and the swankiest of night spots to the lowliest of dives, armed only with a come-hither look, a pearl-handled .38 and a diaphragm.

But she’s no bimbo.

Sure, she likes sex (Boy, does she like sex!) and she’s certainly not above using what she’s got to get what she wants, but she’s also got a shrewd eye for detail, a cunning mind and some awesome detective skills, all fueled by a steely determination to put things right.

Of course, her sexual appetites were tuned way, way down when The Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries (2012-15) was produced for television, but in casting Essie Davis, the Australian producers may have just lucked onto the most sexually charged female private eye in television history since Anne Francis took on the role of Honey back in the sixties.

That, and the scrumptious production values (plus an author still pumping out original source material) kept the show going for three seasons, attracting a more-than-decent following — or at least a decent enough following to inspire fan conventions, a Kickstarter campaign to finance a feature film, Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears (the first of a proposed trilogy) and even a special edition of Clue.

But there’s more.  Ms Fisher’s MODern Murder Mysteries, a series of TV movies, made its debut on the Seven Network in Australia in 2019, featuring the adventures of  Phryne’s niece, the thoroughly modern Peregrine Fisher in 1960s Australia.

And due to debut in 2020 was a so-far untitled re-boot, set in 1930s Shanghai, filmed in Mandarin, and starring popular Chinese actress Yili Ma as Miss Fisher (or whatever her name will turn out to be). It’s slotted to be the first-ever Mandarin-language adaptation of an Australian TV drama, but due to COVID-19, I’m not sure if it made it on air or not.

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 since written several novels for both children and adults, several plays, and has edited and contributed to several anthologies, but of course she’s best known for the Phryne Fisher series, and she says she has no plans of having Miss Fisher hanging up her pearl-handled pistol anytime soon. In 2003 Kerry won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Australian Association.

UNDER OATH

• “Greenwood’s books about Phryne Fisher are so short and sleek they almost read themselves. More my wife’s speed than my own, but their tight format and swift pace had some of the DNA of the mystery pulps.”
  — J.C. Hocking (April 2025, Rara-Avis)

NOVELS

• Cocaine Blues (1989; aka “Death By Misadventure”)
• Flying Too High (1990)
• Murder on the Ballarat Train (1991)
• Death at Victoria Dock (1992)
• The Green Mill Murder (1993)
• Blood and Circuses (1994)
• Ruddy Gore (1995)
• Urn Burial (1996)
• Raisins and Almonds (1997)
• Death Before Wicket (1999)
• Away With the Fairies (2001)
• Murder in Montparnasse (2002)
• The Castlemaine Murders (2003)
• Queen of the Flowers (2004)
• Death By Water (2005) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
• Murder in the Dark (2006)
• Murder on a Midsummer Night (2008)
• Dead Man’s Chest (2010)
• Unnatural Habits (2012)
• Murder and Mendelssohn (2013) | Buy the book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
• Death in Daylesford (2021) | Buy this book | Kindle it!

SHORT STORIES

• “On Phryne Fisher”
• “Hotel Splendide”
• “Marrying the Bookie’s Daughter”
• “The Vanishing of Jock McHale’s Hat”
• “Puttin’ on the Ritz”
• “The Body in the Library”
• “The Miracle of St Mungo”
• “Overheard on a Balcony”
• “The Hours of Juana the Mad”
• “Death Shall Be Dead” (February 1992, Mean Streets #5)
• “Carnival”
• “The Camberwell Wonder”
• “Come, Sable Night”
• “Taking the Waters” (2017, Bound by Mystery)
• “The Boxer” (2022, The Lady with the Gun Asks the Questions)
• “A Matter of Style” (2022, The Lady with the Gun Asks the Questions)
• “The Chocolate Factory” (2022, The Lady with the Gun Asks the Questions)
• “The Bells of St. Paul’s” (2022, The Lady with the Gun Asks the Questions)

COLLECTIONS

• A Question of Death (2008) | Buy this book | Buy the audio 
  An illustrated anthology, collecting stories, essays, a glossary of Aussie slang, and even a few cocktail recipes.
• The Lady with the Gun Asks the Questions (2022)  | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
  Fifteen short stories, including four new ones.

TELEVISION

• MISS FISHER’S MURDER MYSTERIES
  (2012-15, ABC [Australia])
  Based on characters created by Kerry Greenwood
  Writers: Deb Cox, Drew Proffitt, Chris Corbett, Shelley Birse, Michael Miller, Liz Doran, Ysabelle Dean, Josephine Martino, Kelly Lefever and Elizabeth Coleman.
  Directed by Tony Tilse, Kate Dennis, David Caesar, Clayton Jacobson, Emma Freeman and Daina Reid
  Producer: Every Cloud Productions: Fiona Eagger and writer/producer Deb Cox
  Starring Essie Davis as PHRYNE FISHER
  With Nathan Page as Detective Inspector Jack Robinson
  Hugo Johnstone-Burt as Constable Hugh Collins
  Ashleigh Cummings as Dorothy “Dot” Williams
  Richard Bligh as Mr. Butler
  Travis McMahon as Bert
  Anthony Sharpe as Cec
  Miriam Margolyes as Aunt Prudence
  Tammy McIntosh as Dr. Elizabeth “Mac” Macmillan
  and Ruby Rees-Wemyss as Jane
  • Series One | Buy on DVD | Buy this Blu-Ray
  • Cocaine Blues” (February 24, 2012)
  • Murder on the Ballarat Train” (March 2, 2012)
  • The Green Mill Murder” (March 9, 2012)
  • Death at Victoria Dock” (March 16, 2012)
  • Raisins and Almonds” (March 23, 2012)
  • Ruddy Gore” (March 30, 2012)
  • Murder in Montparnasse” (April 6, 2012)
  • Away with the Fairies” (April 13, 2012)
  • Queen of the Flowers” (April 20, 2012)
  • Death by Miss Adventure” (April 27, 2012)
  • Blood and Circuses” (May 4, 2012)
  • Murder in the Dark” (May 11, 2012)
  • Memses’ Curse” (May 18, 2012)
  • Series Two | Buy on DVD | Buy this Blu-Ray
  • Murder Most Scandalous” (September 6, 2012)
  • Death Comes Knocking” (September 13, 2012)
  • Dead Man’s Chest” (September 20, 2012)
  • Deadweight” (September 27, 2012)
  • Murder A La Mode” (October 4, 2012)
  • Marked For Murder” (October 11, 2012)
  • Blood At The Wheel” (October 18, 2012)
  • The Blood of Juana the Mad” (October 25, 2012)
  • Framed for Murder” (November 1, 2012)
  • Death on the Viner” (November 8, 2012)
  • Dead Airr” (November 15, 2012)
  • Unnatural Habitsr” (November 22, 2012)
  • “Murder Under the Mistletoer” (December 22, 2012)
  • Series Three | Buy on DVD | Buy this Blu-Ray
  • “Death Defying Acts” (May 8, 2015)
  • “Murder and the Maiden” (May 15, 2015)
  • “Murder and Mozzarella” (May 22, 2015)
  • “Blood and Money” (May 29, 2015)
  • “Death and Hysteria” (June 5, 2015)
  • “Death at the Grand” (June 12, 2015)
  • “Game, Set & Murder” (June 19, 2015)
  • “Death Do Us Part” (June 26, 2015)

TELEVISION SPIN-OFFS

• MS. FISHER’S MODERN MURDER MYSTERIES
  (2019, Seven [Australia])Inspired by characters created by Kerry Greenwood
  Created by Deb Cox & Fiona Eagger
  Writers: Deb Cox, Samantha Winston, Chelsea Cassio, Jo Martino
  Starring Geraldine Hakewill as Peregrine Fisher
  With Joel Jackson as Det. James Steed
• UNTITLED CHINESE MISS FISHER PROJECT
  (2020, Shanghai 99 Visual Company)
  30 42-minute episodes
  Writers: Jin Weiyi
  Directors: Deng-ke
  Creative consultants: Fiona Eagger and Deb Cox
  Starring Yili Ma as (MISS FISHER)?
  Also starring Weiguang Gao

FILMS

• MISS FISHER AND THE CRYPT OF TEARS
  (2019, Every Cloud Productions)
  Premiere: Soon
  Based on Characters created by Kerry Greenwood
  Writer: Deborah Cov
  Directed by Tony Tilse
  Starring Essie Davis as PHRYNE FISHER
  Also starring Nathan Page, Ashleigh Cummings, Miriam Margolyes, Jacqueline McKenzie, Rupert Penry-Jones, Hugo Johnstone-Burt

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

• Miss Fisher Con
  Established in 2016, this annual convention, hosted by the Adventuresses Club of the Americas, celebrates all things Phryne.
• They Come From Lands Down Under
  Eyes at Work in Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.