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Phryne Fisher is bored with her rich and pampered life. While she has everything a person could possibly want, she feels stifled by the society she is forced to keep. Then several circus performers working with Farrell's Circus approach her. They fear that someone is trying to destroy the circus and their livelihood. There have been a string of accidents and now Mr Christopher, one of the performers, has been murdered. The police have arrested someone they believe to be the killer. The circus performers do not agree. Miss Parkes was a former performer and while she did kill her husband, as he was abusive, she had no reason to kill Mr Christopher. Phryne decides to go undercover as a bareback rider and try to discover the truth. While Phryne has plenty of adventures during her time in the circus, she does very little investigating. Yet, somehow her presence is enough to bother someone. She must reveal the killer before they claim another victim. BLOOD AND CIRCUSES provides a glimpse into Phryne Fisher's character not seen in previous books in the series. This book shows Phryne's insecurities about her life and her situation. By giving up all of her creature comforts of being a rich woman and going to live with a circus and with the performers who do not know her or have any reason to like her, Phryne steps outside of her security net and is forced to take a look at herself. But rather than take this opportunity to become a stronger individual and become more confident in her ability to deal with the world, she begins sleeping her way through the men willing to like her. While this is typical behavior for Phryne, her sexual promiscuity is shown as a cry for approval and a desire for people to like her rather than mere personal gratification. I do not have much sympathy for her actions, but this added depth to Phryne's personally does improve the book and provides an explanation for her behavior. As this review indicates, I do not like Phryne Fisher and have a lot of problems with her behavior. But even though I do not like her, I still find myself reading the books in the series to see what trouble she gets into next. This morbid curiosity implies that there is still something appealing about this book and this series regardless of my own opinions of the characters.
Reviewed by Sarah Dudley, March 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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