Phryne's Friends - Dorothy 'Dot' Williams

Phryne first meets Dot in Cocaine Blues when she is taking a walk in the Strand Arcade for a spot of shopping. Dot is standing in the Arcade with a knife concealed in her hands. Phryne noticing the knife steers Dot to a table for a spot of tea and sandwiches and finds out that Dot was planning to kill the son of her former employer as he kept harassing her and when she spurned his advances he got her fired. Phryne placates Dot and having embarrassed the son offers her a job.

Dot is described as being "a plain young women with a long brown plait coiled into a bun at the back of her neck. She always dressed in earth colours. Even her apron was beige. She had a fresh complexion and very kind eyes, but no one would have called her beautiful until they saw her smile"

Dot is devoutly Catholic and much more conservative than Phryne. Dot is an excellent judge of character and her standards of cleanliness and order are well above expectation. The calm way in which she ‘manages’ Phryne belies her personal anxieties – usually to do with having to bend the truth or turn a blind eye – all in the line of duty.

Dot will do almost anything in order to assist Miss Fisher, no matter how terrifying, because loyalty to Miss Fisher comes first. This absolute devotion to her unconventional mistress becomes a source of friction between Dot and her priest and, later between Dot and Constable Hugh Collins when she begins to ‘step out’ with him.

In the first book Dot's surname appears as Bryant although when question on this author Kerry Greenwood stated that this was a mistake and she always intended Dot's surname to be Williams and the error will be rectified in the reprint of Cocaine Blues.