Death Before Wicket

Phryne Fisher #10

by Kerry Greenwood

Phryne Fisher is on holiday. She means to take the train to Sydney (where the harbour bridge is being built), go to a few cricket matches, dine with the Chancellor of the university and perhaps go to the Arts Ball with that celebrated young modernist, Chas Nutall. She has the costume of a lifetime and she's not afraid to use it. Phryne girds up her loins, loads her pearl-handled .32 Beretta, and sallies forth to find mayhem, murder, a bit of black magic, and perhaps a really good cocktail at the Hotel Australia.

Genres: Mystery, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Crime, Australia, Audiobook

232 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Kerry Isabelle Greenwood was an Australian author and lawyer. She wrote many plays and books, most notably a string of historical detective novels centred on the character of Phryne Fisher, which was adapted as the popular television series Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. She wrote mysteries, science-fiction, historical fiction, children's stories, and plays. Greenwood earned the Australian women's crime fiction Davitt Award in 2002 for her young adult novel The Three-Pronged Dagger.

Reviews

[Nicky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m not sure why I didn’t review Death Before Wicket when I read it, in the correct order, before Away With the Fairies. Not that it really requires solid anchoring in the continuity: most of the usual characters are missing from this book, and Phryne is totally out of her usual context. It’s, not coincidentally, not the most engaging of the books.

The worst thing, for me, is that there’s this whole magic and mysticism plot where Phryne pretends to be Isis and breaks a magical/hypnotic hold on a certain young man, and then there’s loads of sex stuff, and cricket. And weird totems and sex magic. That’s really mostly what this left as an impression on me — that and knowing that the cricket was like Murder Must Advertise, and the collegiate setting was Gaudy Night. I don’t recall it stealing any lines from Sayers as Raisins and Almonds did, which is a relief.

I would be worried about the series slumping with this one, if I hadn’t already read ahead by the time I’m writing this. It was definitely the slowest of the series so far, to my mind. I might even, possibly, suggest skipping it…

Originally posted here.

[Andree · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a fan of this one. Way too complicated, way too little fun, and way too much use of the occult, to the extent that parts of this read as supernatural. Which I found problematic, for various reasons.

Also, there is a lot of dialogue around cricket, without any explanation of how the game of cricket actually works. I don't need a detailed explanation, but I'm not sure general familiarity of your audience with the ins and outs of cricket is a good assumption to make. (And, as I recall, Sports Night agrees with me.)

[Maggies_lens · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love this series. But I hated this book. Not sure what was going on in Greenwoods life at time of writing but I assume something very distracting. None of the usual cool, crisp, clean writing with excellent style here. And the scene where Phyrne jerks off a guy in a bar? Where the hell did THAT come from. I'm no conservative but that was just foul and unnecessary to the story at all. The only interesting part were about Dot's sister. Do yourselves a favour and skip this one, don't ruin the series for yourself like I almost did.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

I get that Phryne is supposed to be this nonconformist free new woman. I'm about the most rabid liberal I know. But I'm getting a bit tired of the over the top sex stuff. I mean really, jerking off a college student at a nightclub? And then keeping the handkerchief around your neck as an amulet? Ick.

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is my Phryne Fisher summer. I have been binging on Kerry Greenwood's books as well as the PBS Mystery Series (on Netflix). I am a huge admirer of Greenwood's character--a striking, savvy, smart girl who is more than a teeny bit naughty.

But, a lot of Phryne Fisher's charm was missing in this book:

I missed the elaborate descriptions of her beautiful clothes;

I missed her devoted butler and their household routines;

And, most of all, I missed her repartee with Inspector Jack Robinson.

So, a lot of the sizzle was missing for me. The things that replaced the comfortable Melbourne routines were far from satisfactory. Phrynee is magical enough without dressing as Isis and spewing incantations and there was just too many cricket matches in this short book to keep me interested.

[Renae · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was definitely one of my least favorite Phryne Fisher novels. Greenwood has always had a lot of literary/cultural allusions in her books, but this time she took it so far as to be pretentious, not to mention indecipherable to the common lay reader (even a rather well-read one, such as myself). I felt like this book was dealing with subjects only known to academics, and as the author made absolutely no effort to invite the reader into this world, it was difficult to engage in the text. I was very frustrated by this. In addition, the lack of familiar faces made things less fun than they usually are. It turns out that taking Phryne out of Melbourne isn't a very successful venture.

[Nicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Death Before Wicket takes Phryne away from her home turf of Melbourne, bringing her instead to Sydney — where despite her promises to Dot, several mysteries await. This isn’t one of my favourites, as I found it rather slow and over-sensational; the whole mysticism angle didn’t work for me, particularly not when it actually helped solve the mystery. I did enjoy Dot’s subplot, involving finding her sister and reuniting her family. It shows that she’s a good soul at heart, despite her judgementalness: she’s ready to accept her sister no matter what (although she’s relieved to find that her sister seems to be relatively innocent).

A skippable story, but entertaining all the same. It’s Phryne — it’s rarely boring.

Reviewed for The Bibliophibian.

[Ivonne Rovira · Rating 5 out of 5]

The inimitable Phryne Fisher leaves her usual stomping grounds of Melbourne to come to Sydney for cricket and instead solves two mysteries. Phryne's companion and maid, Dot Williams, finds that her sister Joan, who lives in Sydney, has been missing for a week. The other mystery comes to Phryne via two University of Sydney students, Jocelyn Hart and Clarence Ottery, both the type of slim, handsome young men that Phryne so delights in. How can she say no to their request to investigate the false accusation against a fellow student, Adam Harcourt, a working-class lad attending university on a scholarship?

These investigations take Phryne into Sydney's red-light district, into a Satanic cult, and into the lofty atmosphere of academia -- and it's hard to say which will prove the most dangerous! But the fabulous Phryne sets everything right by the last chapter.

I don't know if it was the new location or the cleverness of the plot -- particularly as concerns the theft from the safe in the Dean's office that is blamed on Harcourt -- but Death Before Wicket has breathed new life into a series that was starting to get a bit stale -- particularly after following the mediocre Urn Burial and the lackluster Raisins and Almonds. Even though all of the issues in Death Before Wicket are happily resolved, the happy ending never seems cloying or forced. The mystery novel was so delicious that I had devoured it in less than 24 hours, staying up late to finish it. It's nice to see Kerry Greenwood get back to her stride.

[Degeorgetown · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just terrible.

This one started out good with a theft and Dot's missing sister for Miss Fisher to find. But there were some really weird scenes that just ruined the book for me.
1. Miss Fisher gets a guy off in a crowded dive bar, then saves his semen to make a protective amulet. WTF.
2. She gets a note telling her to meet under a tree and thinks to herself she won't fall for that. But then she does! She goes to the tree with no protection or back up and gets captured.
3. She's thrown down a well and finds an unconscious man with a head wound. He wakes up to her naked, burning her under clothes. Not sure why she couldn't put her other clothes back on but they have earth shattering sex. You don't stop trying to escape a death trap to have sex with a guy who had a concussion. You just don't. There's being promiscuous then there's being a nymphomaniac.
4. I hated the magic junk so much. I like these books because they open a window to a neat era in history. It pulled me out of the story when all of a sudden magic is real and Miss Fisher is possessed by a goddess. Though her being magic could explain why just about every person who meets her adores her.

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 2 out of 5]

ETA: I decided to re-read this book to see if my opinion of it has changed. It has not. I got fine and sick of all the "occult" babble, characters etc. but I guess as Ms Greenwood is careful to point out on the cover of each and every one of her books that she "lives with a registered wizard", it's less surprising than it might be. Phryne was not herself in this book, and neither was anyone else. Greenwood's worst, IMO. I must remember not to read it again.

ETA 2: For some idiot reason I decided to read it again, and tripped over one of the dreaded novel series problems. We have repeatedly read of Phryne's sister Beth a) dying of diphtheria, or b) living and becoming a "Sapphic" and moving to Australia. Now, somehow Phryne has a whole bunch of brothers (unnamed) who taught her to play street cricket. Wait--wasn't that Dot's story in another volume?

I was dissatisfied with this book, as Ms Greenwood brought far too many things to the table and tried to include them all. It reads like a ragbag full of jumbled scraps and bits instead of a patchwork quilt where everything fits together in a satisfying whole. Too many characters, too many burning issues, too many rants and not enough of a light touch.

Dot's sister has gone missing and Phryne wants to find her. Two university students beg her to find out who emptied the Dean's safe of valuable artifacts and jewels before the accused, a friend of theirs, gets unjustly expelled. And then there's, let's see: black magic, evil miners, a passing nod to Aborigine's rights and violence against women, prostitution, homosexuality, thought transferrence, bohemian artists, "being possessed", and some rather tiresome underground erotica. And, oh yes--cricket. Which is not a sport I know anything about, and didn't learn anything about it here. Yes, I know it's in the title, but I understood the cricket scene in Murder Must Advertise a great deal better. Of course, it's a much better book. By the time I got to the end of Death Before Wicket, I simply felt impatient for it to be over, since I figured out who the baddy was in the first two chapters. Not the best Fisher mystery by far.

[Nichola · Rating 3 out of 5]

The more I think about this book, the less I like it. And that is tragic because it is a cosy mystery involving cricket. Usually these are my favourites but for some reason this didn't work.

I think the sex scenes were unnecessarily absurd. Firstly in the back of a cafe and then at the bottom of a well after a man wakes up from being hit on the back of his head. Just ridiculous. Also I found the obsessive descriptions of Phryne as gorgeous a bit tedious. We know. She's lovely. She knows she is lovely. Move on.

And finally the use of hypnosis as an explanation for the crime really really bugged me. Its like blaming a mental illness. *rolls eyes*

One last things, too many generic white men. I know we are supposed go compare them but it was almost entirely impossible to find much likeable about them individually except for the old cricket made retiring gentleman. He was adorable.

Overall really quite disappointing. I might need a break before I read the next one.

[notyourmonkey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyable little academia-set mystery, but it turns out my ability to give a shit about Cricket Games In Posh-Set Mystery Novels Between The Wars is limited to one, and that vacancy has already been filled. Thankfully, flipping through those pages rapidly had little to no bearing on the rest of plot. But still, yergh. No faster way to kill the action than to put a detailed description of a sporting event that has zero effect on the plot in the first quarter of your book.

[Anastasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Death Before Wicket by Kerry Greenwood is the 10th book in the Phryne Fisher Mystery series. Phryne is holidaying in Sydney to attend the cricket and is asked to look into a safe burglary at the University and to find Dot's sister who has gone missing. Another interesting book in the series, although the usual supporting characters are missed. It just doesn't seem as fun without them. Otherwise it was still entertaining and Phryne still came out on top, although she seemed to miss all the others just as much as we did.

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I do love and would definitely recommend the Phryne Fisher series and have read almost all of them but if you are planning to add this one to your collection - give it a miss.

The narrative is typical of the series but in this case the conclusion of the mystery was implausible and unsatisfactory and the side or B story annoyed me personally but I won't spoil the ending if you are going to make the mistake of reading.

[Neeroc · Rating 1 out of 5]

As much as I've enjoyed Phryne's sexual liberation, however unrealistic it may be, the sleeping with anyone vibe of this book was over the top for me. I'm fairly sure she could have gone away for a week without needing to find a man, any man. The supernatural bent didn't do it for me either.

[Marijan Šiško · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phryne changes scenery. Involving herself in unsavory university politics, and shady underworld of The Capital, even taking the role of a goddes, she is brilliant as ever. And Ms. greenwood once again manages to prove how deep her work is immersed in the historical period it uses as setting. Bravo!

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up. An intricate and convoluted set of mysteries and with no murders, for a change. The passages about the various cricket games went completely over my head (as I have only the slightest experience of how the game is played) and took up way too much room while not appreciably adding to the tale, but otherwise it was fun to see Phryne interacting with a new setting and characters even as I missed the usual crew.
Popsugar Reading Challenge 2020: A book that has a book on the cover

[Les Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do like the Phryne Fisher books a little too much sex for me but the stories are so well written I read on instead of closing the book as I would with most books.

[Highlyeccentric · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a delightful romp, albeit one which had me madly cross-referencing historical USyd figures to see who was fictional and who wasn't. (And seething about the fact that the Hours of Juana the Mad are an actual book with known provenance, which was definitely never held - let alone lost - in Sydney.)

In points entirely typical of the Phryne Fisher books, you can expect parties, cocktails, side characters with a penchant for witty banter, extravagant costumes, and at least one (1) sex scene. This book sees Phryne going to Sydney to answer a call for help from two undergraduates, concerned that their colleague may be expelled. Along the way she gets entangled with practitioners of the occult, a notorious brothel madam, entirely too many professors, and assorted debauched poets. I particularly appreciated Christopher Brennan's accurate-to-type bit part appearance as a drunkard poet, A++ work there. A sub-plot involving two different wives and mothers pulled by circumstances into the sex trade is well handled, interesting, and a good supplement to the main theft/attempted murder plot.

There's something slightly odd about the central plot premise, which, without giving too much away, involves in part a rivalry between a professor of Egyptology and a professor of anthropology over the allocation of funding (archaeological research, or work with indigenous australians). The anthropologist is carefully characterised as someone who genuinely respects his indigenous hosts, and opposes mining on their sacred lands (nice contemporary reference there), which... is fair enough, given that the historically more LIKELY situation would make unpleasant reading, and cosy crime relies on most characters being essentially likeable. The Egyptologist, though, is portrayed as particularly interested in Egypt because there he can pursue relationships with younger men, and... the gross colonialisms of that are not interrogated. There's a lot of deflecting going on, essentially.

In short, a good read, but not one that exhibits the best of Kerry Greenwood's ability to navigate historical diversity and the racial politics of 1920s Australia.

[Ashleu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Originally posted at Nose in a Book

In her 10th novel Phryne goes on a trip! To Sydney! It was nice to leave Melbourne for awhile, and there was a cricket back story and even a story involving Dot, Phryne’s companion. Yet this story could not be saved for me. It was dry, it was dull, it was boring. I missed the usual pizazz that is Phyrne Fisher in this story. Part of her is still there, but at the same time she changed a lot from the previous stories. Maybe that is because her lover, Lin Chung isn’t there and she obviously missed him.

I wanted to like this book. Really, I did. I tried to like this book. I love Phyrne Fisher (evidence here.) I love the fact it takes place in 1930s Australia. I love the fact this book series is fun and quick. However, Death Before Wicket, was rough. I can try to blame the fact that I was sick while I listened to most of this. A number of factors could go into the fact that this book just wasn’t my favorite Phyrne.

I did give it two stars however cause it is Phryne, and the writing is strong.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book really gets 3 1/2 stars. As one of the longer Phryne Fisher mysteries, there are a number of crimes Phryne must investigate. She moves out of Melbourne for the time being & goes to Sydney to investigate the disappearance of a sacred papyrus, jewelry, and an indigenous axe from the university there. To compound the problem, Dot's sister has gone missing & is suspected to be involved in (gasp!) prostitution.

This one is a little different from the others because the occult plays a role in solving the crime and some of the characters seem like they would be better suited in a Grimm fairy tale. Phryne is still spunky & strong, but a gal's got to be when one meddles in the underworld.

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Always a pleasure to listen to Stephanie Daniels narrating a Phryne Fisher mystery. This one involved some cricket, which is certainly not one of my favourite sports, so the parts of the book spent watching cricket matches were rather tedious, but thankfully not too long.

[Malaraa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Entirely too many descriptions of cricket for my taste, and the whole black magic thing seemed a little overwrought and overdone. Every long series has a few books that just don't work for someone's tastes, and this was one of those for me.

[Tory Wagner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Death Before Wicket by Kerry Greenwood is the 10th in a series featuring amateur detective Phryne Fisher. As the title implies, there is much discussion of cricket, a sport for which I have no familiarity. I found myself quickly scanning those scenes, but enjoyed the parts that dealt with the mystery. I'm not sure of the exact time period, but it appears that the British Empire is still in existence. Phryne is in Australia and becomes involved in a mystery surrounding a theft at a local college. Not sure I would read another in this series, but I'm sure there are others who would enjoy it.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

As this is only my second Phryne Fisher mystery, I will say that it had more humorous writing (which I thoroughly enjoyed), was a little harder to follow (a bit too many side characters, but also my lack of cricket knowledge), and was a bit more explicit (sexually). I really enjoy this author’s writing style, settings, and characters, so while I was quite curious to see how each case unraveled, I was also sad to leave this world. Excited to read another Phryne story! But perhaps once she’s back in Melbourne 😌

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

We were about ready for a change of scenery, and Sydney was it! Again, Ms Greenwood has done her homework and has combined the world of cricket and absent minded professors with that of ceremonial magic from the Golden Dawn to Crowley’s Thelema. Some scenes might seem a bit squicky to some reviewers that are coming across ceremonial magic for the first time, but she kept it pretty constrained, and it fits well with the plot. This might be my new favorite for the plot, but not for the choice of romantic partners.

[Jazzy Lemon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phryne and Dot plan a short holiday, without any murders! Icecream and a walk along the seafront? Well, things never go to plan when Phryne is around and she ends up investigating a theft of some very valuable papyrus and searching for a missing person.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great mystery solved by Phryne!! She was on vacation and didn't want to solve any crimes but...gets talked into helping out!!

[Tracy Smyth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable read

[Lisa Brantly · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 disappointing. Got the whole set at a great price, and enjoyed the TV series and first ones so much,,, but am reconsidering the rest of the series...