Earthly Delights: a Corinna Chapman Mystery [Paperback]

Kerry Greenwood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 10, 2008

Corinna Chapman was once a high profile accountant and banker. Now she is a baker working in her own business, Earthly Delights, in Flinders Lane, Melbourne, Australia.
Corinna is living in an eccentric building on the Roman model called Insula. She is quite content with her cat, Horatio, and her shop until a junkie falls half dead on her grate, a gorgeous sabra stalks along her alley and tells her that she is beautiful, and she starts receiving threatening letters accusing her of being a scarlet woman. Then it is Goths, lost girls, fraud, late nights, nerds, and beautiful slaves. Life for Corinna has suddenly become interesting. And she still needs to get her bread out in time for the morning rush....

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A buxom baker and a handsome man of mystery solve a series of crimes.

Corinna Chapman has left her driven husband and high-pressure job to open Earthly Delights, a bakery in Melbourne. A unique Roman-style apartment house provides lodgings for her, her cat Horatio and a diverse bunch of neighbors that includes Meroe the Witch, retired professor Dionysius Monk, the Pemberthys and their spoiled dog, a Dutch lady gardener, some computer nerds and sylph-like aspiring actresses Goss and Kylie, who help in the bakery. A series of threatening letters addressed to Corinna and the other ladies in the building soon escalate to spray-painted death threats, the first on the wall of a nearby shop owned by androgynous dominatrix Mistress Dread. Corinna's life changes dramatically when she meets Daniel Cohen, an attractive man who works nights on the Soup Run delivering food to the city's homeless, and hires the homeless junkie Jason, who has an amazingly light hand with muffins, to help clean the bakery. She wonders if her ex, who's hatched a scheme to buy her apartment house and tear it down, could be the poison pen. At length, she and Daniel get to the bottom of the threats, discover who's killing off junkies with hot-shots and have a sexy adventure at the local Goth club with a vampire named Lestat.

Poles apart from Greenwood's popular heroine Phryne Fisher (The Green Mill Murder, 2007, etc.), but equally delightful."--Kirkus

About the Author

Kerry Greenwood is the author of more than 40 novels and six non-fiction books. Ms. Greenwood has received the Ned Kelly Lifetime Achievement Award from the Crime Writers’ Association of Australia. When she is not writing she is an advocate in Magistrates’ Courts for the Legal Aid Commission.

Product Details

• Paperback: 239 pages
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press (June 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590585143
• ISBN-13: 978-1590585146
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #678,794 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it!!!!!, August 8, 2010

By 

Kim "Book Fetish" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Earthly Delights: a Corinna Chapman Mystery (Paperback)

I found Earthly Delights at a local book store and read it on a rainy summer Sunday. It was wonderful. The mystery was solid, the writing was good and the characters are captivating. Actually the characters are the best thing about the book. You really like Corinna and her neighbors. (I would love to live in that building.) I ordered the 2nd book (Heavenly Pleasures) that night and liked it so much I am currently waiting for the next 3 books to arrive. If you love a good mystery, great characters and bread (did I mention Corinna is a baker) you will love this book!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Kneads the Australian cover, January 14, 2010

By 

Rampaging Hippogriff (Melbourne) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Earthly Delights: a Corinna Chapman Mystery (Paperback)

An enjoyable first book in a cosy detective series. Too many mystery/crime novels set in modern Australia are hard core/violent/just plain realistic. This series has a charmingly eccentric setting, a likeable main character, and many cats.

Set in an idealised but recognisable Melbourne, and looking at the benefits and problems involved, our heroine lives in an amusing apartment building with suitably eccentric residents. While looking at crime and poverty in a modern city, there is still proper attention paid to the important things such as baking, cooking, eating, and spending time with friends and cats.

The covers of the American editions are awful. Why did the publishers feel the need to change them? The original Australian covers are in bold colours with simple pictures, these ones look like they're set in some northern English inner city terrace, there is no sun or light or anything. Some of the Australian covers are available on amazon uk, so get them instead.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful!, November 13, 2009

By 

Queen's Jester (Road Warrior) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Earthly Delights: a Corinna Chapman Mystery (Paperback)

The product description captures the story dead on. My initial response to reading the description was that there couldn't posibly be a reasonable storyline with such an assortment of characters; but I have such fond memories of the months I spent in Melbourne that I simply couldn't pass on the opportunity to trigger old memories with familiar references.

In short, I underestimated the author! I am not only pleasantly surprised, but downright delighted at how the author weaves such a solid, believable story from such a diverse cast of characters. Corinna is inspirational on so many levels. The friendship that develops between Jason and Corinna is most inspiring.

Thoroughly enjoyable read!