Reading Order
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Start with Miss Phryne Fisher Investigates and continue through all 22 books in the listed reading order.
Start Here
Start with Miss Phryne Fisher Investigates
Book 1 by Kerry Greenwood • Published 1989
Introduced here under its UK title, this first Phryne Fisher novel sends the newly rich, sharply observant flapper back to Melbourne to look into a suspected poisoning and a cocaine ring, uncovering abortionists, corr...
Complete List
Phryne Fisher reading order
Ends with Murder in Williamstown
- 1
Book 1:Miss Phryne Fisher Investigates
Kerry Greenwood • 1989
Introduced here under its UK title, this first Phryne Fisher novel sends the newly rich, sharply observant flapper back to Melbourne to look into a suspected poisoning and a cocaine ring, uncovering abortionists, corr...
- 2
Book 2:Flying Too High
Kerry Greenwood • 1990
In 1920s Melbourne, Phryne is hired to prevent a hot tempered aviator from killing his father over a business feud, then must solve the father’s murder and a child’s kidnapping, using both her flying skills and her ta...
- 3
Book 3:Murder on the Ballarat Train
Kerry Greenwood • 1991
A country train trip turns deadly when chloroform knocks out the passengers and an elderly woman vanishes. Phryne, Dot, and an amnesiac girl piece together a case involving family greed, abuse, and a murder disguised...
- 4
Book 4:Death at Victoria Dock
Kerry Greenwood • 1992
Driving home past the docks, Phryne’s windscreen is shattered by gunfire and a young Latvian man dies in her arms. Her hunt for his killer pulls her into anarchist politics, bank robbers, and a missing schoolgirl, wit...
- 5
Book 5:The Green Mill Murder
Kerry Greenwood • 1993
A dance marathon at Melbourne’s fashionable Green Mill ends when a competitor drops dead at Phryne’s feet and her squeamish partner disappears. Tracking the missing man leads her from smoky jazz clubs to remote mounta...
- 6
Book 6:Blood and Circuses
Kerry Greenwood • 1994
Restless and bored, Phryne agrees to go undercover at Farrell’s Circus, where sabotage, animal deaths, and a sideshow worker’s murder threaten the show. Life under the big top stirs old memories as she juggles circus...
- 7
Book 7:Ruddy Gore
Kerry Greenwood • 1995
A gala performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s *Ruddigore* is interrupted when an actor dies onstage and a theatre ghost seems to stalk the cast. Phryne’s inquiries lead backstage, into Chinatown, and through the city’s...
- 8
Book 8:Urn Burial
Kerry Greenwood • 1996
On holiday at Cave House, a Gothic mansion in Victoria’s high country, Phryne finds death threats, lethal traps, and a parlour maid strangled in a locked room. Strange funerary urns, an eccentric swagman, and family r...
- 9
Book 9:Raisins and Almonds
Kerry Greenwood • 1997
When a young man is found poisoned in a Jewish bookshop at the Eastern Market, Phryne is drawn into Yiddish politics, alchemy experiments, and community tensions. Clearing the shop owner’s niece means untangling secre...
- 10
Book 10:Death Before Wicket
Kerry Greenwood • 1999
Planning only cricket and parties in Sydney, Phryne instead ends up searching for Dot’s missing sister and exonerating a scholarship student accused of stealing exam papers. University intrigue, black magic, and a sin...
- 11
Book 11:Away with the Fairies
Kerry Greenwood • 2001
A famous illustrator of fairy stories dies after receiving threatening letters, and Phryne takes a job at a women’s magazine to investigate. Office rivalries, poisoned tea, and attacks connected to Lin Chung’s family...
- 12
Book 12:Murder in Montparnasse
Kerry Greenwood • 2002
Years after seven Australian soldiers witnessed a suspicious death in Paris, two have died in apparent accidents. When Bert and Cec fear they are next, Phryne revisits her own memories of wartime Montparnasse while ju...
- 13
Book 13:The Castlemaine Murders
Kerry Greenwood • 2003
A family outing to Luna Park’s Ghost Train ends with a mummified, bullet riddled corpse falling at Phryne’s feet. The trail leads to the goldfields town of Castlemaine, old Chinese clan rivalries, and lost gold, while...
- 14
Book 14:Queen of the Flowers
Kerry Greenwood • 2004
As Queen of the Flowers for a seaside festival, Phryne is meant to polish a group of wayward debutantes. When one girl vanishes and another turns up dead, the case entangles circus folk, brothel owners, and Phryne’s o...
- 15
Book 15:Death by Water
Kerry Greenwood • 2005
Posing as a wealthy passenger on a luxury liner, Phryne is asked to catch a jewel thief targeting a particular family. A suspicious death at sea turns theft into murder, and she must probe behind elegant facades befor...
- 16
Book 16:Murder in the Dark
Kerry Greenwood • 2006
Invited to a decadent Christmas house party thrown by eccentric twins, Phryne finds threatening notes, cruel pranks, and a missing guest. Snow, secrets, and a labyrinthine country estate make for an atmospheric invest...
- 17
Book 17:Murder on a Midsummer Night
Kerry Greenwood • 2008
Two cases collide when Phryne probes the apparent suicide of a young antiques dealer and searches for an illegitimate heir to a dead man’s fortune. Bohemian artists, spiritualist circles, and family shame tug her betw...
- 18
Book 18:Dead Man's Chest
Kerry Greenwood • 2010
A seaside holiday in Queenscliff is spoiled when Phryne arrives to find the hired house without servants and strange clues left behind. Rumours of rum runners, a missing butler, and film folk in town lead to a sun soa...
- 19
Book 19:Unnatural Habits
Kerry Greenwood • 2012
When a young reporter disappears while investigating missing girls from a reformatory, Phryne follows the trail into brutal Magdalene style institutions, brothels, and shipping lanes. The case exposes hypocrisy around...
- 20
Book 20:Murder and Mendelssohn
Kerry Greenwood • 2013
A choir preparing Mendelssohn’s *Elijah* becomes a murder scene when its conductor is found dead. Phryne navigates feuding musicians, espionage hangovers from the Great War, and an old flame from intelligence days, wh...
- 21
Book 21:Death in Daylesford
Kerry Greenwood • 2020
Phryne, Dot, and the girls escape to the spa town of Daylesford, only to find a retreat for shell shocked soldiers shadowed by a string of drowned men. Rural politics, secretive locals, and the scars of war complicate...
- 22
Book 22:Murder in Williamstown
Kerry Greenwood • 2022
In this later Phryne Fisher novel, a trip to the working waterfront suburb of Williamstown lands Phryne in the middle of dockside tensions, murky politics, and a suspicious death near the harbour. Wharf labourers, shi...
Quick Answers
Phryne Fisher FAQ
What is the best order to read the Phryne Fisher series?
The recommended reading order is the numbered order shown on this page, starting with Miss Phryne Fisher Investigates.
How many books are in the Phryne Fisher series?
There are 22 books currently listed in the Phryne Fisher series on GurusReads.
Where should I start with the Phryne Fisher series?
New readers should start with Miss Phryne Fisher Investigates, the first book in the reading order.
Is the Phryne Fisher series complete?
Based on the publication years we have, the series appears likely complete and spans releases from 1989 to 2022.