Kerry Greenwood - Flying too High

'Where do we start, Cec?'
'At the beginning mate,' replied Cec easily. 'At the beginning'.

~Flying too High, Kerry Greenwood

The second of the books about Phryne Fisher was never made into a TV episode and I can somehow see why. Some themes of the book, like Phryne's interest in airplanes and flying (even the chase with the airplane) and the Western interest in Ancient Egypt at the time following the discovery of king Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922.

In the book Phryne investigates a murder of a quite terrible man, Mr McNaughton and also the kidnapping of the little girl Candida. The book is not bad per se, but I have to admit that it left me feeling slightly awkward.

One of the kidnappers (Sidney) is a known child-molester (the term pedophile was probably not in use in 1928) and I think this was glossed over a little too much. Just like the fact that Amelia McNaughton had been molestered by her father. I can see the point in making Mr McNaughton abuse his daughter (Amelia's age at the time is never told, but I got a feeling she was quite young.), but there is really no reason to make Sidney a pedophile.

Sidney is kind of a flat character and has little to redeem himself and while the other kidnapper, Mike, gets more of a back story and actually grows and changing during the course of the book, Sidney (and the female kidnapper and Mike's wife Ann) stays pretty much in the same place. This is not exactly unusual when it comes to depiction of pedophilia in popular culture.

Do not get me wrong! Pedophilia is probably as worse as it gets, but the background is often deeply tragic with the pedophile himself having been sexually abused as a child. This is seldom depicted in popular culture wherefore the pedophile more often is treated as a total monster.

One thing I came to think about is how similar Amelia is to Lydia Andrews from Cocaine Blues. Both of them have been sexually abused by men they live in close proximity to. There is also some implications that Phryne also has been in this position.

'I know,' observed Phryne quietly. 'But it happens to a lot of women. You and I are fortunate in that we have found lovers who could coax us out of our shells.'

~Flying too High, Kerry Greenwood

This is a theme that will certainly be explored more later (It is in the TV series.) but it is interesting that Phryne encounters women who she can relate to even though they are still pretty different from her. These three women have different ways of dealing with the abuse. Lydia pretty much "turn to the dark side" becoming the King of Snow, Amelia gets kind of submissive and Phryne gets pretty much totally wild and reckless. Amelia and Phryne have the fortune of encountering different types of men that show them the good side of love and sex, while Lydia is pretty much stuck in a destructive relationship to her husband. Amelia also takes her grief and anger out in painting him.

One thing interesting with the plot of the kidnapping is the similarities to the kidnapping plot of Astrid Lindgren's Kalle Blomkvist och Rasmus. A subject I have brought up before. While travelling in the car with her kidnappers, Candida thinks about if it is possible to use "The Grimms fairytale method" (a.k.a. throwing out bread crumbs on the way like Hansel and Gretel) and later on, Phryne uses it in her way to get the rescue team to Candida. Eva-Lotta, the daughter in the books about Kalle Blomkvist is the daughter of a baker and uses the buns she always carries in her pockets and a poster she has snatched to help Kalle and Anders find a way to her, Rasmus and the Professor as they are kidnapped.

Then there is the matter of Mike in Flying too High and Nicke in Kalle Blomkvist and Rasmus. They are both rather unwilling kidnappers. In fact, Nicke even gets offended when Eva-Lotta and Rasmus use the term against him. They are both also very lovely towards children (even if Nicke gets fed up with Eva-Lotta from time to time) and helps them flee. The kidnapping plot in Flying too High does not flow as well as the one in Kalle Blomkvist och Rasmus. It seems a little more forced and as said above and I wonder if it was necessary to make Sidney a pedophile. Still I cannot help that I still have a soft spot for the book as well. This might be because Phryne is still Phryne though.



Cover of Kalle Blomkvist and Rasmus did I borrow from here and the one of the covers of Flying too High can be found here and here