"A cast of Dickensian characters runs amok in this story of intrigue, murder, and misadventure. [Flannery] leaves it to our imagination how much of his personal experiences might have woven themselves into this entertaining and irreverent romp." -- The Australian "Flannery has had ample fun writing The Mystery of the Venus Island Fetish and readers can share that with him." -- The Sydney Morning Herald "[Flannery] lets rip with a brilliantly daft romp that, alongside a predilection for suggestive surnames, mines the mind-sets and manners of pre-war Australia to perfection." -- Australian Book Review "Part Indiana Jones-style adventure, part satire on the way museums are run . Great fun." -- Australian Women's Weekly "There's a wonderfully quirky array of characters wandering through this delightful period mystery that will not only give you insight into 1930s Sydney, but will also win you over with its warmth and humor. A wonderful read.

" -- Surf Coast Times (Australia) "You don't have to be a museum insider to enjoy the fun Flannery pokes at anthropologists of an earlier era." -- Publishers Weekly "Flannery, who was formerly the director of the South Australian Museum, makes an already electric tale even livelier with his knowledge of artifacts, digs, and desperate measures taken by cash-strapped museums. The novel is filled with the kind of detail only an expert can bring, like the fact that you can tell ancient Roman statues from Greek ones because the Romans made the second toe the longest. This is a fun, intriguing mystery debut." -- Booklist "D eftly channels humorous English writers of the early postwar era (think P.G. Wodehouse or Kingsley Amis) in a hilarious romp set in and around a natural history museum." -- Bookpage "A fantastic mystery, lots of action, and laugh-out-loud humor.

A real find for readers who love misadventure and fantastical tales." --Suspense Magazine.