The Green Mill Murder

I keep trying to tell myself that I won't compare the books and the TV show, but I'm finding that utterly impossible because there are so many times where I'm just confused about why they changed something in the show.

The storyline here is entirely adaptable, and I think it would've been far more impactful in the way that it was setup here than it was in the show. At the very least, I can see how some of the changes that were in the show could've been made to create a much more impactful in the story here... but I can't see how the complete alteration of what happened works, especially after reading this. (I've never hated that episode, and I think the story is fine, but it always felt so out of place in a lot of ways.)

To be less vague, there are again two cases. This is a common feature of Phryne Fisher mysteries; there are usually at least two cases (or maybe three, with the third being a small case that is the thread between the two). In this one, you had the death of a man in the middle of a jazz club where there were (at the beginning) no witnesses; then, because one of the men is wanted for that murder, his mother charges you with both finding him (because he's done a runner) and then also finding his long-lost brother (who everyone else has been told is dead).

In the book, the mother is a very conniving kind of person. She doesn't really care about either of her sons, and it effectively comes across like she's trying to do everything she can to get access to the money and wealth that the family has. I actually kind of like this storyline because of how Phryne responds to it, but I also think it would've been stronger with the change made in the TV show (where both sons live, rather than one being manipulated to killing his long-lost brother but then dying to an accident).

While I think the race-swapping of Nerine is a good idea (who is a Black woman in the show, which is definitely appropriate for jazz singers abroad in the 1920s and offers at least some — albeit, not much but at least it's more than the book does — commentary on interracial relationships, some aspects of racism, and the global recognition of jazz and core performers), I think her story is stronger in the book than the show was. The whole premise of why her to-be fiancé did what he did is completely different, and I think also him escaping is more impactful to the story than showing him being arrested and put into prison (not because I think a murderer should escape consequences but because the potential commentary surrounding his escape is actually more interesting than the Perfect Solution). I also think, for Nerine, it's better that she finds out her long-lost husband (who she asks Phryne to find so she can divorce him and marry someone else) has been long-dead and that she's been free of him for many years (which has also saved her from being married to a murderer who would later betray her).

The book also doesn't end with Nerine lamenting his arrest and singing loudly outside the prison, which has always been a scene in the show that grated my nerves. This man killed someone because of his jealousy for her (in both), and I think it's strange to have her grieving like that rather than the kind of grief she shows in the book (which is that she's still sad and crying, but he's out of the picture, and she does not like who she learned he was).