Miss Lavender, a writer at 'Women's Choice' magazine, is found dead under mysterious circumstances. The owner and manager of the magazine, Mrs. Charlesworth is convinced someone is out to destroy the magazine and asks Phryne to investigate. Phryne is a former pupil of Mrs. Charlesworth and quickly agrees to help. When Phryne asks her why she left teaching to undertake such a risky endeavor as publishing a women's magazine, Mrs. Charlesworth, a quiet but determined social reformer, tells her that she would she would print a 100 recipes just so she could slip in one article about women's health or education. Miss Lavender was the author of the magazine's most popular fictional series 'The Blue Fairies' so her death is a blow to the magazine. Phryne has Dot work at the magazine as the temporary advice columnist 'Agony Aunt,' an assignment that Dot proves to be quite adept at. Pretty quickly after the investigation starts, a staff member who was attempting a bit of blackmail is also murdered. The side story of Lin Chung reappearing in Phryne's life with the sad story of how his grandmother will not allow him to marry Camelia, a woman who came from China to marry Lin as prearranged by the grandmother. This side story is only mildly interesting but it does show to good effect Phryne's basic kindness and tolerance. A mild nitpick I have with this episode is that a too obvious clue is given too early in the episode. There's also a series continuity issue since Phryne has apparently forgotten that she speaks Chinese. But these small quibbles are more than offset by the episode as a whole with it's well done and interesting background setting of the magazine office. Special acting kudos go to Deborah Kennedy as Mrs. Charlesworth who does a wonderful job with the role. As often in the series, Dot gets some of the best lines. At the end of the show, Mrs. Charlesworth offers Dot the permanent job as the 'Agony Aunt.' Phryne tells Dot that it's quite all right for her to take the job if she wants to try something different. To which Dot replies "You're different enough for me Miss." A thoroughly enjoyable episode.
Review of Away with the Fairies
