2.5 stars... ( )

I know that it's an impossible ask, but I found the lack of answers in this book to be frustrating. Really, true crime writers should not rake over old cases unless they are bringing something new to the discussion. Otherwise, they are just repeating decades-old newspaper stories.

I didn't think the Phryne Fisher short story tacked onto the end made the book any better either. ( )

The definitive book on the the "Somerton man mystery" or "Tamam Shud case" is by G. M. Feltus (The Unknown Man: A Suspicious Death at Somerton Beach). So this is not that. This is a "take," really, on the mystery by Australian mystery writer Kerry Greenwood, famous there as the authoress of the Phryne Fisher set of mysteries and the inspiration for a TV show called Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, all set in the Australia of the 1920s.

Okay. But then, to add to her take, is a memoir of her father, who worked as a "wharfie" in Adelaide around the time of the Tamam Shud mystery and a little autobiography of her own connection to Adelaide. As such, it is interesting enough, the case is described in general terms, but then there are digressions on Greenwood's life and family that, to me at least, distract from the story. There are just a few images of the mysterious dead man and the indecipherable code. There are two, short, superficial analyses: one on the code, one on the autopsy. This is all followed by a Phryne Fisher short story with the Tamam Shud mystery as the case, with a convenient (and somewhat unsatisfying) solution.

The description of the case I thought generic and superficial. Better stuff can be found online. The intrusions of the memoir I found sweet enough, but unhelpful and unenlightening when it came to the case at hand. As to the Phyrne Fisher short story, if that is a taste of all the stories, I don't fathom the appeal. Compared to, say, Rex Stout or Colin Dexter (much less Agatha Christie or Arthur Conan Doyle) I found the prose wanting, rather unintelligent and unsophisticated, same too with the story. Others might like it, but I found it unappealing.

All-in-all, a not un-nice diversion, but not essential when it comes to the Tamam Shud mystery. Get it cheaply if you can. ( )

Great read about an extraordinary mystery that for once really justifies the hoary old adage "truth is stranger than fiction". Greenwood, whose Phryne Fisher books I love, doesnt add much new to the mystery, but her whimsical writing really brings the poignant story of this unknown man to life. Only minor gripe is her rather self-indulgent working of her father into the story, I really couldnt see how it added anything. But a great book nonethless ( )

In TAMAM SHUD: THE SOMERTON MAN MYSTERY, Kerry Greenwood has taken the opportunity to look back. At a case that continues to remain unsolved since the body of a man showed up on a beach in Adelaide in 1948. At the traces of the investigation that remain. At a much loved father. And finally, at some of her own crime fiction, written around the same case. This approach is undoubtedly going to make this book quite a polariser. It's obvious that some readers will love it, and some readers will loathe it. I suspect both of those camps are going to take up their position with comparable passion.

Obviously the case of the man on Somerton beach is fascinating. Not only does he remain completely unidentified, his cause of death is still unknown. Part of that could be because investigative techiques in those days were not as fully supported with DNA, high tech communications, advanced forensic and medical techniques and so on, but partly it could also be because the man, whoever he really is, did such a good job of obscuring his identity. He simply arrived in Adelaide, deposited a suitcase with items that also didn't help in identifying him in a luggage storage locker, and appeared on the beach dead.

The story was originally told to Greenwood by her much loved father. A story weaver in his own right, it doesn't take a lot of thought to work out where Greenwood got her ability, the book is very much a meandering through her memories of him, his time in Adelaide, a bit of the facts as they are known about the case itself, some speculation and a reprint of a crime fiction short story featuring Greenwood's well known character Miss Phryne Fisher. I suspect the speculative aspects are going to drive some readers nuts, although I found them interesting and certainly very thought-provoking.

I must admit I found the tone, and the nature of TAMAM SHUD interesting and enjoyable. Greenwood has a particular way of telling a story which can be quite engaging, and whilst there's absolutely and utterly nothing new that can be proven about the Somerton Man by this book, there also seems to be absolutely and utterly nothing wrong with casting a little light on a true, real-life mystery, and posing a few what-ifs.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/tamam-shud-somerton-man-mystery-kerry-gre... ( )