'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 ...