Earthly Delights
A Corinna
Chapman Mystery
Kerry
Greenwood
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-59058-393-0 (1590583930)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-393-7 (9781590583937)
Publication Date: June 2007
List Price: $24.95
Synopsis (from
the publisher): Corinna Chapman was once a high profile accountant and
banker. That is until she 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 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, which has eight stories, sixteen apartments, and a lot of
strange and interesting people. These include a retired professor of
classics, Dionysius Monk; a Dutch gardener named Trudi; Mr. and Mrs.
Pemberthy and their rotten little doggie, Traddles; a pair of
disgustingly thin, would-be soapie stars Goss and Kylie; and a jobbing
witch, Meroe of The Sibyl's Cave.
Corinna 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.
Review: Kerry
Greenwood, author of the popular Phryne Fisher mysteries, introduces a
new series featuring Melbourne (Australia) bakery owner Corinna Chapman
in Earthly Delights.
It is probably inevitable and no doubt unfair to compare this new
series introducing Corinna Chapman to Greenwood's long-running series
featuring Phryne Fisher. But Greenwood seems to invite such comparison.
The plot isn't important in Earthly
Delights, which is for the most part
completely forgettable; the author's focus here is on character
development. She seems determined to portray Corinna Chapman as the
anti-Phryne Fisher.
Where Phyrne came from a humble background to become a member of the
Melbourne aristocracy, Corinna has abandoned the world of high finance
(and no doubt high income) to toil in a bakery. Phryne is sophisticated
and stylish; Corinna is dowdy. Phryne is a woman of action; Corinna
seems content to allow events to come to her. They do have something in
common: they're both terribly opinionated. But while this trait works
in Phyrne's favor, it makes Corinna seem a bit petulant.
It's all well and good to create a new character for a series different
from the one readers are familiar with. But Greenwood has extended this
comparison between the two to the plots of their respective series. The
Phyrne Fisher mysteries are thrilling adventures whereas Earthly Delights is slow and
cumbersome and dull. There are, for example, entire chapters that seem
to be dedicated to describing the difficulties in managing a one-woman
bakery and the art of making bread.
Corinna Chapman has the potential to be an interesting character, but
she needs something to challenge her, a puzzle to solve. Maybe the next
book in the series will provide a mystery worthy of her, and the
reader's, attention.
Special thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for providing an ARC of Earthly Delights for this review.
Review Copyright © 2007 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Have you read Earthly Delights? How would you rate it?
Mysteries in this series ...
Earthly Delights
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover), June 2007
ISBN-10: 1-59058-393-0 (1590583930)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-393-7 (9781590583937)
Heavenly Pleasures
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover), June 2008
ISBN-10: 1-59058-426-0 (1590584260)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-426-2 (9781590584262)
Devil's Food
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover), May 2009
ISBN-10: 1-59058-428-7 (1590584287)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-428-6 (9781590584286)
Trick or Treat
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover), October 2009
ISBN-10: 1-59058-532-1 (1590585321)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-532-0 (9781590585320)
Omnimystery keywords for Earthly Delights ...
Location(s) referenced: Melbourne,
Australia.
