Some more thoughts about the Phryne Fisher universes

The main characters of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries

After having fun with Historical Women, Female Archaeologists and actually a lot of Ancient Egypt, I thought it was about time that I went back to Phryne Fisher.

As is probably quite obvious from this blog, I love Phryne. I think she is such a wonderful character and both TV and book series are amazing. There are some differences between the two media though which I discuss from time to time in the series of entries I have chosen to call Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries -TV vs books. This entry will be part of that series, but instead of talking about a certain book and its TV counterpart, this one will discuss a more general trend I have noticed that is different.

Up until this point, I have only read five of the Phryne Fisher books and, after a short hiatus, I have just started with the sixth (Blood and Circuses). There are a lot of books that I still have to read, but I think I can still discuss this and there is a chance I have reasons for returning to the subject further on.

In the TV series, Phryne creates a sort of family that more or less provides her with stability in life. Only one of these people is related by blood to her (Her aunt Prudence.). They are a bit mismatched with communists, policemen and strict Catholic girls for example, but they turn out to work extremely well together and also with Phryne. (This is a subject for a different entry though, so I will not go into it so much.) Besides these nine people making up Phryne's family, there is not much consistencies to Phryne's friendbase. People come and go and we hear they have a past with Phryne and some of them might be "old friends", but we tend not to hear about them either before or after Phryne and Jack have solved the case they are part of. There are a few exceptions to this. Most of them related to the over-arching plotlines of each season like Murdoch Foyle in season one and Phryne's father Henry Fisher in season three. In season two we also get to meet Jack's ex-wife Rosie Sanderson who is introduced already in season one (when Jack is still married to her), but is only talked about then. These characters are in more than one episode, because their plot stretches out for more than one episode. Another exception is Lin Chung. He is in two different episodes with two different plots although his part is sort of the same (being Phryne's lover). From what I have gather he is a much more of a recuring character in the books, but I have not got to him yet, so I have to leave it for the time being. (I cannot think of any more minor characters that are in more than one episode. Please help if you come up with someone!)

On the contrary, the books reuse a lot of characters and also plot points. Phryne still builds a family around herself containing mostly the same people. There is no aunt Prudence, but Mrs Butler and Ruth. The latter I will get back to in a bit. Detective Inspector Jack Robinson has a different role in the books and is not as close to Phryne as he is on TV, but I think he still can be classified as a family member. Not least since one of the few times he is mentioned in Death at Victoria Dock is in the context of having given Jane and Ruth a record player.

Then Phryne also has friends who she surounds herself with on a more distant level. She still calls them when she needs them to help her out on a case and she seems to meet up with them from time to time. These characters are reused and we also get to hear how some of the minor characters (both friends and others) do after their plot has been finished. For example Bobby Matthews who we encounter in the very beginning of Cocaine Blues and who we later hear from in Murder on the Ballarat Train in relation to Eunice Henderson and her mother. There are also a couple of characters that I have a small feeling will return later on, but I will not tell you whom since I do not trust you not to spoil me.

'I feel a bit shaken, but I'm all right, Dot, don't fuss. This is not the same as that other time. I didn't see this man die.'

~ Phryne Fisher, The Green Mill Murder, Kerry Greenwood

There are also some mentions of past cases and not just in a recap sense, but more woven into the plots of other books. For example when Dot asks Phryne how she is after hearing Phryne has encountered another murder in The Green Mill Murders. This is a reference to Phryne being shocked and upset by the death of Yourka in Death at Victoria Dock.

Hugh: "Miss Fisher's gone on holiday again Sir."
Jack: "Hm. Anyone dead yet?"
Hugh: "Only one so far Sir..."

~ Murder under the Mistletoe

Jane and Ruth, Murder on the Ballarat Train

I do understand the need to simplify things for the TV adaptation, but the reuse of characters in the books makes book-Phryne's universe feel more real and thriving. In the TV series it sometimes feels as if you either die or kill someone if you do not belong to Phryne's inner circle. The TV series is very good at reusing clothes and accessories though and also in how they are worn. The men, like Jack for example, have a pretty limited range of clothing, but they can vary small things like ties, which makes the male clothing a bit less uniform. When it comes to the minor characters however I would love to see or hear more about many more of them. A lot of them are actually very interesting and some of their stories are left more or less unresolved.

To take Ruth for example because she is probably the most important character from the books that is not important in the show. She is in the Murder on the Ballarant Train and just like in the book she lives (and slaves away) in the same boarding house as Jane and they are really close.The police finds her grandmother in the end of the episode and she goes away to live with her. But if she and Jane were so close, why would she not come around to the house to see Jane? And would she not fit into the group of flower maidens Phryne trains in Queen of the Flowers? I do not think Jane would stop seeing her and/or that Phryne would not let her. So why can she not appear as Jane's best friend?

I do not expect every minor character to turn up again or Phryne to have any sort of contact with that we get to hear. Some of them are just so fantastic that I find it sad. Besides, we do not even get to know if Jack and his police men were able to catch Lydia Andrews and destroy the cocaine trade after the events in Cocaine Blues.