Sunday, January 8, 2012

Cooking the Books-Kerry Greenwood

Cooking the Books


Kerry Greenwood

Poisoned Pen, Mar 6 2012, $24.95

ISBN 9781590589823



In Melbourne, size twenty Corinna Chapman, owner of Earthly Delights bakery, hates Christmas as the city is always hot and dirty and the shoppers are even more demanding.. She closes down the bakery planning to do nothing but cool down. Her assistant baker teenager Jason is off learning to surf; her boyfriend private investigator Daniel searches for a multi-thousand dollar theft; and the girls (Kylie and Goss) obtain parts in the soapie Kiss The Bride.



Corinna ends up at Earthly Delights feeling like the Mad Hatter or perhaps the executed chef of Richard III, baking Heavenly Pleasures for Mrs. Dawson’s tea party. She quickly learns how doing nothing is extremely s hard work. Her school mate Thomasina the caterer hires her to bake for the cast and crew filming Kiss The Bride. Corinna needs little time to know something is not kosher on the set as sabotage, twisted nursery rhymes (that Jay Ward and his fans like moi would appreciate) and a confrontation with Tabitha the feline who is a bit more aggressive than Horatio the cat occurs.



The latest Corinna Chapman series (see Forbidden Fruit and Trick or Treat) is an amusing Australian cozy filled with irony; as the heroine finds out what Oscar Wilde said: “It is awfully hard work doing nothing learned.” Fans will enjoy the self-deprecating heroine who is comfortable in her “fat” (as she says) skin most of the time. Entertaining and whimsical, fans will enjoy the latest escapades of Melbourne’s bah humbug baker and her busy eccentric crew.



Harriet Klausner

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