Review: Cooking The Books (A Corinna Chapman Mystery #6) by Kerry Greenwood

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press (March 6, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159058984X
• ISBN-13: 978-1590589847

Book Description

Corinna Chapman, talented baker and reluctant investigator, is trying very hard to do nothing at all on her holidays. Her gorgeous Daniel is only intermittently at her side (he's roaming the streets tracking down a multi-thousand dollar corporate theft). Jason, her baking offsider, has gone off to learn how to surf. And Kylie and Goss are fulfilling their lives' ambition auditioning for a soapie. It should be a time of quiet reflection for Corinna but quiet reflection doesn't seem to suit her - she's bored.

Scenting a whiff of danger, Corinna accepts an offer from a caterer friend to do the baking for the film set of a new soap called 'Kiss the Bride'. The soapie in which Kylie and Goss have parts. Twists and turns and complications that could only happen to Corinna ensue involving, bizarrely, nursery rhymes and a tiger called Tabitha.

While on the other side of town, a young woman is being unmercifully bullied by her corporate employers - employers who spend a lot of time cooking the books.The 6th in the Corinna Chapman series.

About the Author

 

Kerry Greenwood is the author of thirty-eight novels and six non-fiction books. Among her many honors, Ms. Greenwood has received the Ned Kelly Lifetime Achievement Award from the Crime Writers' Association of Austrialia. Other mysteries In the Phryne Fisher series available from Poisoned Pen Press are Murder in Montparnasse, Cocaine Blues, Flying too High, Murder on the Ballarat Train, Death at Victoria Dock, Ruddy Gore, and Urn Burial. She is also the author of several books for young adults and the Delphic Women series. When she is not writing she is an advocate in Magistrates’ Courts for the Legal Aid Commission. She is not married, has no children and lives with a registered Wizard.


My Review

I had never heard of Australia mystery author Kerry Greenwood until I received the galley of Cooking the Books from Poisoned Pen Press through Net Galley.  What a delight to discover a "cozy" mystery author who writes for an intelligent audience!

Our sleuth, Corinna Chapman is a plus-sized, witty baker extraordinaire and former accountant .  Her breads are famous throughout Melbourne.  She is asked to provide the baked goods for a catering company who is catering a television soap opera production set.  Corinna has a detective boyfriend Daniel whose own detective work provides one mystery while the soap set provides another.

I love the setting of Melbourne.  The oppressive summer heat prompts Corinna to close her bakery each year in the heart of summer.  A wind blows intermittently through Melbourne that is just like a mistral.  The only trees that do well are the native Australian trees.  The English settlers there had tried to foist their gardening tastes and styles on the harsh Australian landscape to the peril of the plants.  All very interesting to read about.

Excellent book written by a talented author.  I am looking forward to reading more of Kerry Greenwood's books, both the past 38 and the upcoming ones!