Kerry Greenwood

Kerry Greenwood was an Australian writer known for crime fiction, especially the Phryne Fisher series. She wrote mysteries, historical fiction and books for younger readers. Her series began with Cocaine Blues (1989) and later gained wide notice after its television adaptation. She won the Davitt Award in 2002 for The Three-Pronged Dagger.

Kerry Isabelle Greenwood was born in Footscray in 1954 and grew up in the Inner West of Melbourne. She attended Geelong Road State School and later Maribyrnong College. She studied English and law at the University of Melbourne, where she finished degrees in 1979. During these years she worked at a women’s refuge. She later said that the work shaped her sense of duty and care.

Greenwood was admitted as a barrister and solicitor in 1982. She began work as a criminal defence lawyer for Victoria Legal Aid and remained there until moving to full-time writing. After that shift, the author continued as a locum duty solicitor. Work at the Sunshine Magistrates’ Court became a regular part of her legal practice. Her stated aim was “to defend the poor and voiceless”.

She began writing books at sixteen. Her early works remained unpublished. In 1988 she entered one of her eight novels for the Vogel prize. Greenwood did not win, but a judge offered her a contract for two detective novels. This step began her career as a published writer.

Her main work was the Phryne Fisher series, set in 1920s Melbourne. The books ran from Cocaine Blues (1989) to Murder in Williamstown (2022). Her last book in the series, Murder in the Cathedral (2025), was published after her death. Greenwood edited it in March 2025 and wrote that the process was “slow” and full of “muttered incantations”. The series inspired Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, which helped take the books to global readers.

Kerry Greenwood also wrote the Corinna Chapman series, beginning with Earthly Delights (2004). Her other works ranged across science fiction, classical themes and young adult fiction. Her young adult book The Three-Pronged Dagger (2002) earned the Davitt Award.

She received the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2020 for service to literature. She had earlier received the Ned Kelly Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.

Kerry Greenwood died on 26 March 2025 in Melbourne at the age of 70. Her partner, writer David Greagg, later noted that “the end was mercifully quick”.