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7 Mysteries to Solve While You Wait for the Return of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries

by  | February 3

It’s hard to believe it’s been more than four years since mystery fans last got a new dose of the splashy Australian TV series Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, yet here we are. Luckily, our hunger for more of the indomitable Miss Phryne Fisher is finally about to be satiated, because our favorite flapper and amateur sleuth is set to make her big-screen debut in Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears!The fan-funded film, which will launch a whole new set of adventures, releases in Australia this February before making its way to a limited number of U.S. screens in early March and then landing on the Acorn TV app on March 23.

The last we saw of Phryne, she was heading to England to rescue her ne’er-do-well father, but based on news reports and this thrilling trailer, her latest murder investigation will take her from the parlors of Mayfair in London to the Negev Desert in Israel. While trouble may still be hot on her heels, so is, it would appear, Phryne’s ever-faithful friend (and love interest), Inspector Jack Robinson.

For those of us chomping at the bit for more of Phryne & Co., it can be hard to wait out these final weeks before the film is released. While nothing can quite compare to Miss Fisher’s particular brand ofjoie de vivre, you’ll be thinking the heroines of these books are the bee’s knees all the same!

A Curious Beginning

A Curious Beginning

by Deanna Raybourn

Deanna Raybourn’s Veronica Speedwell is everything you could want in a sleuth: inquisitive, bold, and proficient with a sharpened hatpin when the situation calls for it. She may be a scientist first, but there are certain rules she must follow as a lady of the upper classes in 1887 London. However, even a lady cannot be expected to follow the rules after her attempted abduction. Dive into the first book of this mystery series, A Curious Beginning, as Veronica attempts to navigate the trials and tribulations of London’s high society—and foil a kidnapping plot at the same time.

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An Unsuitable Job for a Woman

An Unsuitable Job for a Woman

by P.D. James

P.D. James is one of the most iconic authors of the mystery genre, and you can clearly see how she came to be such a household name when you meet her detective Cordelia Gray. In the book that started it all, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, our intrepid heroine must uncover the truth behind a young man’s assumed suicide. While investigator might be a so-called unsuitable job for a woman, it’s a position Cordelia was born to hold.

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A Conspiracy of Bones

A Conspiracy of Bones

by Kathy Reichs

It may be pure coincidence that Kathy Reichs’s latest Temperance Brennan novel is releasing just days before the Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears movie, but it sure is fitting. The tough-as-nails forensic anthropologist, who uses her unique skill set to help solve homicides, is back in action in A Conspiracy of Bones despite some pretty big risks to her health. She may still be getting back to full strength after recovering from neurosurgery for an aneurysm, but there’s no way she can ignore the photos that someone’s sending her of a corpse with missing face and hands, especially when only she can identify the man. For all their differences, Tempe and Phryne share an inability to resist the siren’s call of a new case.

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A Study In Scarlet Women

A Study In Scarlet Women

by Sherry Thomas

Many have thought “What if Sherlock Holmes were a woman?” Few, however, have executed the idea of that concept as perfectly as Sherry Thomas in her Lady Sherlock series, which begins with A Study in Scarlet Women. When suspicions surrounding a string of murders fall on Charlotte Holmes’s father and sister, it will be up to the amateur sleuth herself to unmask the real killer—and try not to become a social pariah at the same time.

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The Secret Life of Anna Blanc

The Secret Life of Anna Blanc

by Jennifer Kincheloe

If you were to try to create a Venn diagram between Jennifer Kincheloe’s heroine Anna and Phryne Fisher, there would be a lot of overlap. While The Secret Life of Anna Blanc  takes place in 1907 Los Angeles, rather than 1920s Australia, the novel follows (stop me if you’ve heard this before) our self-proclaimed detective as she asserts herself in a stodgy, upper-class family. Soon Anna’s love of crime novels becomes part of her reality when she uses a fake identity to become a police matron (a female police official responsible for looking after the detained women and children in a precinct). Anna, much like Phryne, uncovers more than she bargained for—and certainly gets involved in some things the protective men in her life would not approve of.

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The Infinite Blacktop

The Infinite Blacktop

by Sara Gran

More noir than cozy, The Infinite Blacktop centers on female private investigator Claire DeWitt. This book tracks Claire from her teen years discovering a love of crime to her early days as an investigator through to present day, when she’s on the hunt for her would-be murderer. Although not as gently mannered as Phryne Fisher, Claire lacks none of her spark.

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Cocaine Blues

Cocaine Blues

by Kerry Greenwood

Finally, of course, what better way to bide your time waiting for more Phryne Fisher than to head to the source material itself? Perceptive fans will remember that the pilot episode of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries is titled “Cocaine Blues” and follows much of the plot of this first novel. You’ll find everything you loved about the show present in this series—sleuthing, fab fashion, and of course, the fantastic Miss Fisher. However, reader, be warned: the long-suffering but loyal Jack Robinson is not single in the book series as he is in the television show on which it is based, which may impact some readers’ enjoyment.

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Photo Credit // Every Cloud Productions

Categories // Bookish Lists • Movies

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By day, Jennifer Proffitt works in marketing for a non-profit in Brooklyn. By night, she spends her free time writing and reading romance novels and talking about pop culture. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her cat, whom she likes more than most people.
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