Flying Too High

Man, this was a weird read and not exactly as cosy as I would expect for a cosy mystery.

After busting a cocaine syndicate, Phryne Fisher is now fully established in business as a private detective at 221B The Esplanade in Melbourne, Australia. Her reputation amongst the high-society ladies in Melbourne grows as she is beset by Mrs McNaughton, who asks for her help to intercede between her son Bill and her husband William, who both have awful tempers and are often at each other's throats - she believes Bill intends to kill his father. Indeed, when William McNaughton's body turns up with a crushed skull one day, Bill is the prime suspect. Then, there is the case of little Candida Alice Maldon who vanishes when out buying sweets.

The writing was generally all right, if a little too descriptive at time where I felt the need to skim over certain passages even though this was just a 200+ page book. This was particularly so during the last couple chapters, when we just want to know the ending of the mysteries, but there were still so many unnecessary details and sequences and conversations between the characters.

This book was clearly written with a very feminist agenda. Almost all the female characters in this book are somehow outstanding or independent or just better. There's Phryne, obviously, and then there's Dot, Amelia McNaughton, Candida Alice, and the briefly mentioned WPC Jones, Klara, and that lady in the Egyptienne gown whose name escapes me right now. It's not to say that all the male characters in this book were bad, but it's clear that there was some agenda going on here.

Phryne's promiscuity continues in this book, which I have no problems with, but I found it a little odd and slightly disturbing that she quite immediately seduces Paolo, whom she knows is Amelia McNaughton's lover. Although she had already gotten it from Amelia that she doesn't mind or care that Paolo sleeps with his models, Phryne had never actually talked about sleeping with him when she was talking with Amelia, and it seems *very* strange to go directly from a conversation with a woman you've just met and who you've just started to sympathise with and admire, to interrogate her lover but end up seducing him on a whim and sleeping with him. I also didn't really quite like Amelia's relationship with Paolo anyway, and was shocked that Phryne said that "he loves her truly" to Bill. He basically just looks at Amelia as if she was another sculpture to be captured, and loves her body for its proportions and how it "won't sag" like other women's. What?! That was super gross and disturbing. I was even grossed out by how, at the very ending of the story when Amelia picks up the rocks on the ground, Paolo tells her not to because she'd "spoil her fingers". Oh my god.

What is even more disturbing is this underlying theme of paedophilia in this book. I've always thought that the Phryne Fisher books were a damned spot darker and grittier than the TV series, but this really caught me by surprise. First, we have William McNaughton having sexually and physically abused Amelia McNaughton as a *child*, even though he is her biological father. Then, we have the child molester (aka paedophile) Sidney Brayshaw who basically thought about kidnapping Candida at first because he had wanted to probably do unspeakable things to her, but for some reason was deterred just because she had vomited on him at first. And what I found most disturbing of all is that Phryne actually agreed to send to him Klara, a lesbian who dresses up as a pre-pubescent girl to satisfy paedophiles who are about to be executed, in exchange for his silence regarding Mike's involvement in the kidnapping. What?!?! I don't mind darker themes, and I know these are realities that happened during this time period in the 1920s which aren't usually dealt with in books written in that era, but I felt like these were just too casually peppered into the story and never quite dealt with as seriously as they should be.

Thoughts regarding the ending:

For most mystery novels of this genre, there's usually some kind of twist at the end, or at the very least the culprits are one of the characters that we've been following through the entire novel, which gives you some sense of satisfaction, like you *could* have figured it out along with the detective in the novel. Not in this one though. We find out that William McNaughton's death is a complete accident because he tried to chase away some kids playing on his estate. Then we also find out that Candida was just randomly kidnapped by three people who we have never met and will never meet after they each go on their respective paths when the kidnapping is foiled by Phyrne.Not only that, but one would expect that if two mysteries were presented in the same book, they would somehow be related to one another, and that we would discover the connection near the end when the resolution takes place. But here, we are once again foiled by this book. The mysteries have almost nothing to do with each other, aside from the fact that Candida's dad, Henry Maldon, is a fellow pilot in the same flying club as Bill McNaughton. Otherwise, no characters in one mystery figure at all in any kind of significance in the other mystery.Lastly, the mysteries wrapped up far too cleanly and unrealistically. For the main mystery of the Willian McNaughton death, Phryne lets Amelia McNaughton arrange some party for the street children that she takes under her wing, she explains the answer to the mystery there - that Mickey, one of the children, had let go of a rock on a rope while they were playing in the trees on the McNaughton estate, and that rock had swung down and smashed William's skull. Mickey bursts out into tears, but is simply stoppered by Bert who "thrust a huge toffee apple into the gaping maw". After that, everyone is just happy and nothing happens to anyone because the death is ruled as an accident. Mickey goes on partying with everyone else as per normal.What?!This is considering that this party was also attended by the detective-inspector in charge of this case, and his subordinates!!! Everyone is just happy to take that solution and have absolutely no repercussions for anyone. We're expected to just be happy that no one is going to take the fall for the murder simply because McNaughton is such an odious man and deserved to die. WHAT?! I mean, I know that Sherlock Holmes had some endings where the victims were truly horrible people, but even then there was always some consequences for their murderers, somehow.Then when it came to Candida's kidnapping - I was truly bewildered that Phryne basically gave one of the kidnappers money, asked him to leave the place and start a new life somewhere else. Sure, he was one of the compassionate kidnappers and actually helped to protect Candida rather than hurt her, but come on wasn't there a better way to wrap this up than simply just letting him walk away into the night?! And it was really convenient that his wife got double-crossed and shot by their accomplice (and pedophile) Sidney Brayshaw.

A quick and fun read. I'm going to keep reading this series.

Difficult...
I like that there are so many competent women in here. I like Phryne.
I don't like the fact that she's underweight.
I don't like the... I don't know what to call it. Racism? Like, you get better pasta, olives, olive oil and mushroom in Australia than in Italy. Or the “quaint” Australian idiom “picaninny dawn”.