Kerry Greenwood Reading Order: Phryne Fisher and Corinna Chapman
May 28, 2026
Kerry Greenwood is one of Australia’s most beloved crime writers, and her creation Phryne Fisher is one of crime fiction’s great characters — wealthy, stylish, bisexual, fearless, and thoroughly uninterested in the social conventions of 1920s Melbourne. The Phryne Fisher series began in 1989 and now spans 23 novels, making it one of the longest-running Australian crime series in print. The television adaptation Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries brought a new generation of readers to the books and introduced Phryne to audiences in more than 60 countries.
Greenwood also writes the Corinna Chapman series — a contemporary Melbourne cosy mystery featuring a baker-turned-detective — which offers a lighter, warmer counterpart to Phryne’s glamorous investigations.
The Phryne Fisher Series
Set in Melbourne and occasionally elsewhere in Australia during the late 1920s, the Phryne Fisher novels are period mysteries with real social and political edge. Phryne moves through 1920s society with total confidence, investigating murders while also championing the rights of women, workers, and those marginalised by class and prejudice. She is not a detective by profession — she is a very rich woman who finds crime more interesting than society parties.
The series can be read out of order, but reading from the beginning gives you Phryne’s backstory and the establishment of her household: her companion Dot, her adopted daughters Jane and Ruth, her lover Lin Chung, and her police contact Detective Inspector Jack Robinson.
1. Cocaine Blues (1989)
2. Flying Too High (1990)
3. Murder on the Ballarat Train (1991)
4. Death at Victoria Dock (1992)
5. The Green Mill Murder (1993)
6. Blood and Circuses (1994)
7. Ruddy Gore (1995)
8. Urn Burial (1996)
9. Raisins and Almonds (1997)
10. Death Before Wicket (1999)
11. Away with the Fairies (2001)
12. Murder in Montparnasse (2002)
13. The Castlemaine Murders (2003)
14. Queen of the Flowers (2004)
15. Death by Water (2005)
16. Murder in the Dark (2006)
17. Murder on a Midsummer Night (2008)
18. Dead Man’s Chest (2010)
19. Unnatural Habits (2012)
20. Murder and Mendelssohn (2013)
21. Death in Daylesford (2020)
22. Murder in Williamstown (2022)
23. Murder in the Cathedral (2025)
The Corinna Chapman Series
Where Phryne Fisher is glamorous and peripatetic, Corinna Chapman is grounded and domestic. Corinna is a baker who runs her bakery from a converted Melbourne apartment building called Insula — an unusual community of residents who become central to each investigation. The series is warmer and cosier than the Phryne books, with the Melbourne food scene and apartment-block community at its heart.
1. Earthly Delights (2004)
2. Heavenly Pleasures (2005)
3. Devil’s Food (2006)
4. Trick or Treat (2007)
5. Forbidden Fruit (2009)
6. Cooking the Books (2011)
7. The Spotted Dog (2019)
Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries — Books vs. TV
The ABC Australia television adaptation ran for three seasons (2012–2015) and starred Essie Davis as Phryne Fisher. It remains one of the most popular Australian dramas internationally, available on Netflix in many countries.
The show is faithful to Greenwood’s spirit if not always her plots — Phryne’s confidence, sexuality, and politics are all intact. Most episodes are original stories set within the world of the books rather than direct adaptations of specific novels.
A feature film, Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears (2020), returned Essie Davis to the role and took Phryne to the Middle East.
If you’ve watched the show: start the books from Cocaine Blues (Book 1). The television version condenses and combines story elements; the novels are richer and more layered. Don’t worry about the show spoiling the books — the plots rarely overlap.
If you’ve read the books: the show is highly recommended. Essie Davis is as close to perfect casting as Australian television has produced.
Where to Start
For Phryne Fisher: start with Cocaine Blues (Book 1). It is short, sharp, and introduces Phryne perfectly. The series is designed to be read in order but is accessible enough that most books can be read standalone.
For Corinna Chapman: start with Earthly Delights (Book 1). Read in order — the community of Insula develops across the series.
If you only read one: The Green Mill Murder (Book 5) is the fan favourite and works as a near-standalone introduction to Phryne at her best — jazz age Melbourne, a missing man, a dance marathon, and Phryne in her element.