(20) The Honourable, Miss Phryne Fisher: Lady Detective by Anne M Carson

The Hotel Windsor, Melbourne Australia When Phyrne farewells thrift, she welcomes haute-couture—a whole suite at the Windsor to house her capacious wardrobe and a ladies’ maid (Dot, rescued from the street) to tend it. Only her first day in Melbourne and already she’s bought a flamboyant satin and fur ensemble from a city courturière. She’s […]

The Detective’s Chair (6) by Anne M. Carson

Comrade Chief Inspector Chen Cao Shanghai Police, China Comrade Chen is permeable to poetry. Ineffable feelings assail him—the waft, the glimpse—how poems unfold is how crimes. Self-professed romantic, he wishes poetic justice upon crimes. 1990s; Shanghai teeters between an open door and fear of the bourgeois West. Lit major, published modernist poet, Chen is yanked […]