The Blog

Books: Ruddy Gore...

Okay, so I've been doing a lot of BookCrossing lately, and I realised something important: I absolutely hate not being able to remember what book it was in that I read such and such a scene. So, even though I will most likely never meet up with any of the books I've met through bookcrossing again, I thought it might do me good to start writing up reviews of them for later on. Primarily just for my benefit, in case I ever decide that I wish I had a copy of this one or that one, but what else is a blog for. It's a diary of my life, after all, and the books I read are an important part of that life.

So, to get on with it then, the book was "Ruddy Gore", by Kerry Greenwood, which appears to be completely out of print. It's a murder mystery, set in 1920's Melbourne, though I get the impression that the heroine, Phyrne Fisher (what a name) has travelled the globe a lot in the 'series' of books. Of course, nowhere on the book was it written that this was a story about an established character, but I kinda figured that out from the way the author wrote about her, as if all her readers already understood this character's quirks.

The story starts out with our favourite private investigator going to the theatre with a friend. After this night, we never hear from this friend, or any of the other people from that scene again, with the exception of Phyrne's old lover, who hangs around and falls for someone else. This is perfectly okay by Phyrne, as she finds the idea of settling down with a man for the rest of her life repugnant.

Two people are killed on stage, so Phyrne gets to investigate to her heart's content. The blurb makes one believe that the Chinese people in Melbourne are somehow connected to this, but actually, Phyrne just takes advantage of one of them to figure out the last mystery.

Actually, I finally found a page of worth, saying that the book has been reprinted this year. Here's what they had to say: it turns out that this is book the 7th, in particular it's important to the series because of the introduction of Lin Chung, who gets to be her sidekick later on.

I could see how people might get attached to these characters, but really, I found all the actors to be as annoying as the author wanted them to be, and Phyrne is a complete Mary-Sue, down to the bit about having a name from mythology with far too many 'y's in it. Everything she does, she does well and with style, and nothing ever phases her, save for about five minutes after she'd just missed being crushed to death when she did lose control and kiss a handsome man. She even has no trouble adapting to life with a Chinese lover, though every other caucasian person in the book feels the Chinese to be dirty heathens. Phyrne is entirely too self-sufficient to be believable in her role in that period. It just doesn't really work.

However, if you can ignore all that, it was a good afternoon's read.

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