Murder in the Cathedral, Kerry Greenwood

The indefatigable Miss Phryne Fisher returns to solve what may be her most puzzling murder.

Set in Bendigo, Victoria, it was interesting to read the acknowledgements / author's note on this one because it definitely read like the research of location was spot on. From the carpeted steps down to the dining area, the wooden bar, and the rooms at the Shamrock Hotel, through to the differences between All Saints and St Paul's, even down to the original bellows driven pipe organ and the hint that it might be time to consider an upgrade to something more automated, everything felt just right. The tram lines, the Joss House, the mineheads, it all sat comfortably, which should never be a mandatory requirement in fiction, certainly makes a reader familiar with a location feel right at home. And if there was one thing that Kerry Greenwood excelled at, it was making her readers feel right at home. Right from the first clothing descriptions, or the details of sumptuous meals, drinks and, always, the lovers and the attractions of Miss Phryne Fisher, the reader is invited into this world with great goodwill and joie de vivre.

In this particular outing the murder is quite startling, when a difficult Deacon is murdered in the middle of the investiture service for her dear old friend, and now Bishop of Bendigo, Lionel. Even more startling because the victim was seated at the front of the cathedral, alongside fellow Deacons, all eyes on the altar at the time, although there are a few people in the crowded congregation who had a fleeting glimpse of somebody in a black cassock, moving nearby to the victim.

Phryne immediately finds herself working alongside the local, talented and under-appreciated (or more accurately wrong-religioned) young Constable Watson, and Inspector Mick Kelly from Daylesford (followers of this series will recognise him from earlier books), and her faithful, and somewhat discomforted to be in Anglican circles, companion Dot Williams, to solve a very baffling case indeed. It turns out that this is a church riven with politics and personal animosities (which is why her friend Lionel was tapped on the shoulder for the Bishop's role), surrounded by a congregation full to the brim with business scams, blackmail and social scandals the likes of which only the indefatigable Miss Fisher can elbow, wade, cajole and charm her way through. Ably assisted by the local constabulary of course, and Hugh Collins, seconded from Melbourne to join the hunt.

Of course this was a wonderful outing, and the plot here was nicely twisty and complex, with the murder starting out as a mystery with a hat tip to a locked room, and moving on to one of those nicely complicated and very personal stories that wrap up and intertwine a heap of people and their pasts and futures.

It's only after finishing the novel, and reading the acknowledgements and the author's bio that the full weight of where we are with the Phryne Fisher series hit home. Dot's selection of her wedding dress in the Myer Emporium now for a wedding we'll never attend. Lin's wife about to give birth to a baby we'll never meet. Peony and Carnation starting out on a life in Bendigo together we'll never get to follow. And what of Tinker and his ambitions to become a Detective, and Mr and Mrs Butler, and Phryne as she never aged, never gave up, never allowed anyone to get the better of her ever again.

Thanks to the publishers for this final, wonderful MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL and thank you Ms Greenwood for this world.