One day, Corinna Chapman, high profile accountant and banker, walked out on the money market and her dismissive and unpleasant husband James, threw aside her briefcase, and doffed her kitten heels forever. Now she is a baker with her own business, Earthly Delights, in Melbourne, Australia, living in an eccentric building on the Roman model called Insula with a lot of similarly eccentric people. … people.
She and her cat Horatio are quite content with this new life until a junkie falls half dead on her grate, a gorgeous sabra stalks along her alley telling her that she is beautiful, and threatening letters accusing her of being a scarlet woman begin to arrive. Then suddenly Goths, lost girls, fraud, late nights, nerds, and beautiful slaves complicate life for Corinna. And she still needs to get her bread out for the morning rush….
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Kerry is better known for her Phryne Fisher mysteries and I enjoy those too but Corinna is a grumpy baker who lives in my home town of Melbourne…carbs and crime, what’s not to love?
I love this series by Kerry Greenwood. Great fun, wonderful characters and fabulous bread and muffins!
So, I loved Corinna. Takes no crap from her horrible ex, quit her boring job for something she loves, and is an overall nice and mostly open minded person. Daniel was awesome and his Jewishness was fabulous, and I liked all the other characters in here as well.
What I did not like: honestly, how many times do you have to use the word junkie? That is a terrible word when people are suffering from a mental health disorder. And it was in the book over and over and over. Additionally, I felt the book was overly pretentious regarding the building and all the “fun” little details about the gods and how each apartment or shop was named for so and so. It really made the first few chapters obnoxious for me. Also, I thought what they had on the letters for Mistress Dread was unnecessary and rude. Lastly, the blood stuff was really gross.
This is the first in the Corinna Chapman series and is sheer delight. The plot is clever and fast-moving. The characters are well-drawn, and there are so many little details that bring the setting to life — details about the bakery, the baking process, the unusual apartment building, the street people, the food, the stores nearby… I could go on and on. Highly recommended.
Greenwood is best known for her Phrynne Fisher books, but her Corinna Chapman mysteries are even more fun. Set in a Melbourne bakery with a full-figured heroine and a soulful hero, the mysteries are intriguing but the characters and setting are what really set these books apart.
A librarian friend recommended this to me, and I’m now reading the second book in the series already because I enjoyed it so much. Corinna is baker with a bakery named after a Heironymus Bosch painting. The building she lives in has all kinds of residents, and Corinna’s narration has a brisk, almost abrupt clip to it as she tells you very frankly about everyone including herself. I haven’t read her Fischer series, which I know is more popular (I have watched the show), but I’m all for grumpy, unapologetic, smart and but also loyal and good-hearted characters.
cosy-mystery, ex-military, law-enforcement, wannabes, amateur-sleuth, Australia, murder, situational-humor, verbal-humor
I read the last book in series first, and now want to know everything about the quirky characters, the very retro apartment building, and the Mouse Police! Great plot with lots of unexpected twists and suspense. The depiction of the drug scene and small group efforts to help are so very timely, so too the alternative Goth scene, pedophiles, and the positive aspects of Wicca. But it’s also very funny. I loved it!
Louise Siverson is absolutely amazing as the voice performer!
Melbourne tales about Corinna a baker turned sleuth who delights in food, her offbeat friends and solving mysteries. A new very different series from the author of the femme fatale Phryne Fisher.