Murder in the Dark by Kerry Greenwood

Phryne Fisher lives in Jazz-Age Australia. A wealthy, beautiful and glamorous woman, she has a mind as capable of detection and solving mysteries as Sherlock Holmes, and finds herself drawn into mysteries among her set and the people she knows very often.

It's close to Christmas, and Phryne and her two adopted daughters are getting ready for the Holiday, along with the other residents of the house, including the Butlers, servants who act as Butler and cook and the maid and companion Dot, along with a cat named Ember, a dog named Molly and a canary.

Phryne is going to a party after Christmas, called the Last, Best Party and given by a brother and sister named Templar. Phryne's lover, Lin, doesn't like the Templar's since some of their hangers-on nearly drowned one of his cousins in London by throwing him in the Thames, and the cousin couldn't swim. So he objects to going along to the party. Phryne simply tells him that she will go without him, and find some temporary company while she is there. He has no objection to this.

But even before the party, Phryne finds herself recieving death threats telling her that if she goes to the party, she will find herself being killed. Phryne is made of sterner stuff than to be run off by mere threats, so she ignores them. But on Christmas Day, a present is left for her which turns out to be a coral snake. She is nearly bitten by the deadly, poisonous thing, and is saved by Ember, who kills it with a swipe of her claws and a deep bite.

Now, nothing could turn Phryne away from the party, and when she arrives, she is approached by Gerald Templar, one half of the Golden Twins, who tells her he is being threatened in a series of notes sent by an unknown sender. They first began arriving in Paris, where the Templars were last, and now again here. The notes call him a fraud and threaten exposure. He isn't a fraud and can't imagine what the notes could be about, but he wants Phryne to find out who sent them.

But not only is Phryne's life at risk, but so is Gerald's, and one of his attendants, a young boy named Tarquin, who Gerald adopted from an orphanage, goes missing during the party. Just as a similar attendant of Isabella's a young girl named Marigold, went missing shortly after they arrived at the site of the party. Phryne quickly finds Marigold where she had been stuck in an outhouse. She would have died without the water tap she could drink from. Phryne keeps her rescue a secret as she investigates and enjoys herself at the party.

But can she discover the assassin out after Gerald and keep herself from getting killed in the process? In a party filled with the Golden Twins, polo players, a goat woman, goats, horses, ponies, artists, hash-eaters and hangers-on, Phryne will have to discover all the twisted secrets hidden in this gay group of partiers before the secrets cause death and mayhem. But with a noted assassin hiding among the revellers, and a spy on his trail, will Phryne be able to unravel the threads before someone ends up dead?

I love the Phryne Fisher mysteries, which positively exude an aura of Jazz and coolness. Phryne is the ultimate woman of any time, rich enough to do as she likes without being ordered about by men, and well able to take care of herself when it comes to fights or finding clues and investigating. She also has a very open sex life, to put it mildly, which her steady lover, Lin, doesn't seem to mind. In short, she can always find someone to dally with, and this adds spice to her stories.

But even if she is a sort of fantasy dream-woman, her adventures are quite firmly set in place and time, and the Jazz Age flapper sort of woman she is navigates shark-filled waters with wit and confidence. These mysteries fairly crackle with wit and cool elegance, and even when Phryne is deathly afraid and seems over her head, she keeps her wits about her and is able to turn the tables on her assailants.

One thing that readers might find objectionable in these stories is the sheer amount of drug use that goes on in them, from hash-eating to marijuana smoking and drinking. Wine and other beverages flow freely, but all of Phryne's vices are in eating, drinking and smoking regular cigarettes (Sobranie brand, in fact). But she doesn't pass judgement on those who do other sorts of drugs save to note the aftereffects of such use, and she never does those drugs herself (doesn't partake of the Hash Brownies, doesn't eat hash or smoke Marijuana, and notes that hash users have rough voices from indulging in their addiction).

So, if you are looking for a detective who lives in the somewhat glamourized world of the late 1920's in Australia, this is the series for you. But be warned that the drug use prevalent at that time is a free and open part of these books. It's not endorsed, but it's not strongly spoken out against, either.