Kerry Greenwood: Tamam Shud

She was lying on a sun lounge in the shade of her own fernery, sipping at a glass of a rather good Adelaide Hills burgundy, when a telegram was delivered.

It said:

CONGRATS DEAR CHATTE STOP. HAVE REMEMBERED MEANING OF LAST PHRASE IN RUBAIYAT STOP IT MEANS AN INDISSOLUBLE MYSTERY STOP COME BACK SOON TO YOUR LOVING BERNARD STOP.

Phryne picked up The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and opened it at random.

‘Marie!’ called Phryne into the cool house. ‘Marie! Another bottle!’

Andrew, Christopher 2010, The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 , Penguin Books, London.

Bouda, Simon 1991, Crimes that Shocked Australia , Bantam Books, Sydney.

Clegg, Edward (His Honour Judge Clegg QC) 1975, Famous Australian Murders , Angus and Robertson, Sydney.

Coupe, Stuart and Ogden, Julie (eds) 1993, Case Reopened , Allen and Unwin, Sydney.

Feltus, Gerald Michael 2010, The Unknown Man: A Suspicious Death at Somerton Beach , Gerald Michael Feltus, Adelaide

FitzGerald, Edward (trans.) 1965, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam , Ward Lock, London.

Glaister, J Dr 1954, The Power of Poison , Johnson, London

Goldsworthy, Kerryn 2011, Adelaide , NewSouth, Sydney.

Heller, Joseph 2000, The Birth of Israel 1945–1949 , University Press of Florida, USA.

King, Stephen 2005, The Colorado Kid Hard Case Crime , New York.

Lowenstein, Wendy and Hills, Tom 1982, Under The Hook , Melbourne Bookworkers, Melbourne

Miller, James William 1984, Don’t Call Me Killer , Harbourtop Books, Hawthorn.

Munro Hector Hugh (Saki) 1967, Reginald on Christmas Presents in The Penguin Complete Saki , Penguin Books, London.

Mytka, Anne-Marie 1981, It’s A Long Way To Truro , McPhee Gribble, Melbourne.

O’Brien, Bob 2002, Young Blood: The Story of The Family Murders , HarperCollins Publishers Australia, Sydney.

Phillips, John Harber (His Honour Judge Phillips), Criminal Law Journal , Vol. 18 1994, pp108–110.

Pudney, Jeremy 2005, Snowtown , HarperCollins Publishers Australia, Sydney.

Reich, Chana 2002, Australia and Israel: An Ambigous Relationship , Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.

Smith, Sir Sydney 1984, Mostly Murder , Panther Books, London.

On snake venom:

Dr Ken Winkel

Director, Australian Venom Research Unit

Department of Pharmacology, University of Melbourne

On forensic pathology:

Dr Shelley Roberts is a forensic pathologist with 25 years experience.

Websites:

Wikipedia is a good start, and then I suggest you progress to Ask Reddit, where everything that anyone has ever thought concerning Somerton Man will be vouchsafed to you. I have tried to contact persiankitty, who tried the code in the Persian language, and whom I believe has a really good idea, but she did not reply. If you can talk to her, do ask her for the rest of her translation.

And all of the documents in the case, including the police notes and both inquests, are to be found at

www.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/personal/dabbott/wiki/index.php/Primary_source_material_on_the_Taman_Shud_Case

which should tell you all you have ever wanted to know about Somerton Man, except who he was, and why he died. Sigh.

Tamam Shud could not have been written without the devoted assistance and skill of Michael Warby, researcher extraordinaire; David Greagg, duty Wombat and mathematician; anthraxia and other internet geniuses; Jenny Pausacker; Vanessa Craigie; Nick Clenmann; Dr Ken Winkel; the learned forensic pathologist Dr Shelley Robertson; my poor friends, who had GBH of the ear after listening to me rabbit on about Somerton Man for months; and the sterling example of Gerald Feltus, who never let go of the coldest of cold cases.

KERRY GREENWOOD is a crime fiction writer best known for her detective series of Phryne Fisher books, recently made into the television series, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries . She has written a number of plays, is an award-winning children’s writer and has edited and contributed to several anthologies, including one about women murderers called Things She Loves: Why women kill . She lives in Footscray, Melbourne.

A NewSouth book

Published by

NewSouth Publishing

University of New South Wales Press Ltd

University of New South Wales

Sydney NSW 2052

AUSTRALIA

newsouthpublishing.com

© Kerry Greenwood 2012

First published 2012

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be addressed to the publisher.

Author: Greenwood, Kerry.

Title: Tamam Shud: the Somerton man mystery/Kerry Greenwood.

ISBN:

9781742233505(pbk)

9781742241289(epub)

9781742243818(mobi)

9781742246178(epdf)

Subjects:

Dead – Identification – South Australia – Adelaide – Case studies.

Anonymous persons – South Australia – Adelaide – Case studies.

Murder victims – South Australia – Adelaide – Case studies.

Death – Causes – South Australia – Adelaide – Case studies.

Somerton Beach (Adelaide, S.A.).

Dewey Number: 614.1

Design Josephine Pajor-Markus

Cover design Sandy Cull

Map Di Quick

Cover images Somerton Man corpse. Courtesy Gerald Feltus

Printer Griffin Press

All reasonable efforts were taken to obtain permission to use copyright material reproduced in this book, but in some cases copyright could not be traced. The author welcomes information in this regard.

This book is printed on paper using fibre supplied from plantation or sustainably managed forests.