Heavenly Pleasures

Kerry Greenwood (author)

Allen&Unwin, Australia: 2005; 275pp

ISBN: 1741145120

Genres: crime, mystery

Issues: crime, differences

This second novel featuring Corinna Chapman, ‘baker and reluctant investigator', is just as light-hearted and entertaining as the original Earthly Delights. After her unwilling involvement in a spate of drug-related deaths in her neighbourhood, Corinna is determined to keep her nose firmly inside her own bakery. Small mysteries begin to distract her from such sound intentions, however.

When Corinna bites into one of the chocolates she is taste-testing for a fellow shop-owner, for example, she receives a mouthful of chilly. Why would someone be spiking the very expensive chocolates made by the lovely sisters at Heavenly Pleasures? And who is the mysterious new occupant of an upstairs flat - a man who was followed at a discrete distance by a policewoman of her acquaintance? And if she's not going to become involved in crime again, how is Corinna possibly going to satisfy her curiosity?

Readers who enjoy the small my steries and homely characters of Agatha Christie will thoroughly enjoy Kerry Greenwood's Corinna Chapman books. The writing is lively, opinionated and witty, the characters eccentric and well imagined, the plot clever without being contrived. Very much a book to entertain and lighten the spirits.