Kerry Isabelle Greenwood is an Australian author and lawyer. She has written many plays and books, most notably a string of historical detective novels centred on the character of Phryne Fisher. She writes mysteries, science-fiction, historical fiction, and children's stories, and plays as well. She is unmarried but lives with a "wizard", the mathematician and author David Greagg. Greenwood earned the Australian women's crime fiction Davitt Award in 2002 for her young adult novelThe Three-Pronged Dagger.
In 1982, Greenwood was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria, and worked full-time as a criminal defence lawyer for Victoria Legal Aid until becoming a professional writer. Since that time, she has remained a locum duty solicitor for Legal Aid, practising in the Sunshine Magistrates' Court. She began writing books at sixteen, but remained unpublished. In 1988 she entered one of her eight novels for the Vogel prize; although not successful, one of the judges offered her a contract for two detective novels. In the 2020 Australia Day Honours Greenwood was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia.
Books
Phryne Fisher historical mysteries
Corinna Chapman mysteries
Delphic Women
Cassandra
Electra
Medea
Spinouts (with Michael Pryor and Catherine Randle)
The Broken Wheel,Whaleroad,Cave Rats and Feral are prequels to the Stormbringer trilogy. Characters in Stormbringer refer to events in those books, but are otherwise independent.
The Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteriestelevision series was filmed in and around Melbourne in 2011 and premiered on ABC1 on 24 February 2012. A second series was commissioned in August 2012 and filming began in February 2013 and aired starting 6 September 2013.
Awards and nominations
Aurealis Award for Excellence in Australian Speculative Fiction, Young Adult Division, Best Novel, 1996: joint winner for The Broken Wheel
Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award, Book of the Year: Younger Readers, 2002: honour book for A Different Sort of Real : The Diary of Charlotte McKenzie, Melbourne 1918–1919
Davitt Award, Best Young Fiction Book, 2002: winner for The Three-Pronged Dagger
Davitt Award, Best Young Fiction Book, 2003: nominated for The Wandering Icon
Davitt Award, Best Adult Novel, 2003: nominated for Murder in Montparnasse : A Phryne Fisher Mystery
Ned Kelly Award for Crime Writing, Lifetime Contribution, 2003
Ned Kelly Award for Crime Writing, Best Novel, 2005: shortlisted for Heavenly Pleasures : A Corinna Chapman Novel
Ned Kelly Award for Crime Writing, Best Novel, 2005: shortlisted for Queen of the Flowers : A Phryne Fisher Mystery
