[Phryne Fisher 13] • The Castlemaine Murders

1920's Australian sleuth Phryne returns with a flourish to solve a horrifying crime which takes her from a funfair ghost train to an abandoned mine in the old gold fields....Phryne Fisher, her sister Beth, and her faithful maid, Dot, decide that Luna Park is the place for an afternoon of fun and excitement with Phryne's two daughters, Ruth and Jane. But in the dusty dark Ghost Train, amidst the squeals of horror and delight, a mummified bullet-studded corpse falls to the ground in front of them. Phryne Fisher's pleasure trip has definitely become business. Digging to the bottom of this longstanding mystery takes her to the country town of Castlemaine where it soon becomes obvious that someone is trying to muzzle her investigations. With unknown threatening assailants on her path, Phryne seems headed for more trouble than usual. Meanwhile, Phryne's lover Lin Chung has his own mystery to solve. Feuding families and lost gold fill his mind until he learns that Phryne herself has become missing treasure.

Kerry Greenwood is the 2003 winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Crime Writers' Association of Australia. Kerry Greenwood was born in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray and after wandering far and wide, she returned to live there. She has degrees in English and Law from Melbourne University and was admitted to the legal profession on 1 April 1982, a day which she finds both soothing and significant. Kerry has written twenty novels, a number of plays, including The Troubadours with Stephen D'Arcy, is an award-winning children's writer and has edited and contributed to several anthologies. In 1996 she published a book of essays on female murderers called Things She Loves: Why Women Kill. The Phryne Fisher series (pronounced Fry-knee) began in 1989 with Cocaine Blues which was a great success.