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'I must say Jack, I have been in some awful company before - I have dined with torturers and Apaches and strict Plymouth Brethren and politicians - but I never met such vile company as those people. Each in his or her own way, they were frightful.'Melbourne, 1929. The year starts off for glamorous private investigator Phryne Fisher with a rather trying heat wave and more mysteries than you could prod a parasol at. Simultaneously investigating the apparent suicide death of a man on St Kilda beach and trying to find a lost, illegimate child who could be heir to a wealthy old woman's fortune, Phryne needs all her wits about her, particularly when she has to tangle with a group of thoroughly unpleasant Bright Young Things.But Phryne Fisher is a force of nature, and takes in her elegant stride what might make others quail, including terrifying s ances, ghosts, Kif smokers, the threat of human sacrifices, dubious spirit guides and maps to buried pirate treasure .