Poor peregrine Fisher, she can’t seem to keep a job and has just been fired again. This time the Universe intervenes and she receives new of an inheritance. With nothing to lose, Peregrine finds she had an aunt who left her sitting pretty.

With a fabulous house, car, clothes and money, what more could a girl want? The membership to her aunt’s club! But that will require Peregrine to prove herself, and with a club member accused of murder, this may just be the ticket to proving herself.

This was a quick read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is based on a TV show, but being in the US it’s not one I’m fa I already with…but I do like the book! I’m looking forward to. More in this series!

A quick and easy read that I found myself picking up after a long day to unwind. The characters are beautifully written and I came to love them within the first few pages and was rooting for them all the way to the end. At times I wanted to stop reading because I just wanted the experience to go on for longer.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I didn’t like this book. The characters are great. I just didn’t like the story. I think it was the setting. #JustMurdered #NetGalley

Just Murdered is the first book in Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries series, by Australian author, Katherine Kovacic. It is based on the first episode of the TV series written by Deb Cox. Leading a somewhat aimless life, Paregrine Fisher has been dismissed from yet another job when a letter arrives, on the expensive stationery of the Adventuresses’ Club of the Antipodes, mentioning an inheritance. Despite her scepticism, she departs for Melbourne without delay: she has nothing to lose, after all.

Peregrine doesn’t allow the rejection at the door to deter her: she uses her initiative to make a grander-than-intended entrance, to learn she is the heir of a missing aunt she never knew she had. Phryne Fisher, missing in New Guinea, has left to Peregrine her modern house, her baby blue Austin-Healey 3000, and quite a bit of cash. Oh, and a very up-to-date wardrobe. But what Peregrine immediately covets is her aunt’s membership of the Adventuresses’ Club. For that she’ll need to prove herself.

Coinciding with her arrival is the murder of top model, Barbie Jones just prior to the bridal fashion show at Blair’s Emporium, and it seems one of the adventuresses is a suspect. Florence Astor is the progressive fashion designer whose creations Barbie modelled and, while Detective James Steed is methodically conducting his investigation, Chief Inspector Sparrow, apparently an ongoing nemesis of Peregrine’s aunt and the Adventuresses’ Club, has fixated on Florence as the murderer.

Peregrine decides she can follow in Phryne’s footsteps and become a detective, even if Steed doesn’t want her interfering. When he questions her qualifications, Peregrine cites her life skills: “I can pipe pink icing onto one hundred finger buns in five minutes, tease three beehives in an hour, compound enough nerve pills in an afternoon to knock out a mothers’ club, and rebuild a Holden from the wheels up in three days with only four spanners. Among other things.”

When a second body is found in Blair’s, the Chief Inspector rules it suicide, but Peregrine isn’t convinced, and she soon has Steed looking further too.

There are plenty of red herrings and distractions to keep the reader guessing right up to the final reveal, and there’s lots of humour in both the dialogue and the action, as well as a hint of sexual tension between Peregrine and Steed.

While Kovacic ensures that her text is mostly faithful to the TV series, readers who prefer print over TV or movie adaptations will appreciate the level of detail that only a book can provide. This is a very entertaining read and more of this series is definitely welcome.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press.