Cooking the Books

January 16, 2012
At the start of Australian author Greenwood’s light, entertaining sixth Corinna Chapman mystery (after 2010’s Forbidden Fruit), an old schoolmate recruits Corinna, Melbourne’s best bread baker and sometime sleuth, to help with a daunting catering job—to supply food for a soap opera TV pilot, which, by chance, is the very show in which Corinna’s two assistants have landed roles. The tension level on the set is elevated by the presence of the prima donna leading lady, Molly Atkins, who’s been the victim of a series of malicious pranks. In between preparing food and trysts with her hunky Israeli boyfriend, PI Daniel Cohen, Corinna does a bit of detecting, but no one will keep turning pages just to ascertain who’s been harassing Molly. Corinna, who’s a bit too good to be true, lacks the charisma of Greenwood’s other series sleuth, Phryne Fisher.

February 1, 2012
A baker's holiday plans are thwarted by gentle blackmail and a series of mysteries. No more lazing around for zaftig Australian baker Corinna Chapman (Forbidden Fruit, 2010, etc.). Tommy, a schoolmate who's now a caterer, forces her to do the baking for the cast and crew of a TV soap opera. Corinna's assistant Jason is away surfing; her gorgeous Israeli lover Daniel is investigating the case of some missing bearer bonds; and her shop servers, Kylie and Goss, have achieved their ambitions by getting parts in the soap. Corinna herself goes back to the routine of rising early to bake bread and muffins. With some help from Tommy's pastry chef Bernadette, she delivers the treats to the set and helps serve. The program is plagued by a number of annoying incidents, most of them directed at the star, aging prima donna Molly Atkins, whom almost everyone dislikes. Corinna has been helping Daniel, whose client, a chubby young woman bullied by her health-crazed bosses, had left the bonds in a phone booth, where they were picked up by a homeless man who's now leaving nursery-rhyme clues to their whereabouts around Melbourne. In addition, Molly hires Daniel to find the baby she had given up for adoption as a young girl and the trickster who's spiking her food with chili powder and such. To the usual delightfully quirky characters, lovingly detailed descriptions of food and surprising mystery, Greenwood adds several appended medieval recipes.

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February 15, 2012
Australian baker and amateur sleuth Corinna Chapman is on Christmas vacation. Her shop, Earthly Delights, is closed until the new year. She's supposed to be taking it easy, but regular readers of her series will know that ain't gonna happen. While her private-eye boyfriend, Daniel, is occupied with a big case, Corinna takes a job doing the catering for a new soap opera, which, of course, leads to some weird activity, criminal and otherwise. Even more than Greenwood's better-known Phryne Fisher mysteries, the Chapman books rely heavily on character and setting to keep readers glued to their seats. We don't tune in to the Chapman adventures for labyrinthine plots or shocking, right-angle twists. Rather, we're there for Corinna, her wonderfully engaging supporting cast, and the beautifully rendered environment in which the stories unfold (the mystery is icing on the cake). Another winning entry in this consistently satisfying series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)