Earthly Delights (Corinna Chapman Mysteries, Book 1)

Earthly Delights (Corinna Chapman Mysteries, Book 1)
Kerry Greenwood, 2007

Premise: Corinna left a life in the corporate world and the spouse who fit there to move into a building full of friendly eccentrics and open her own bakery. She has a routine, regular customers, and cats. Then an overdosing addict shows up on her doorstep, the women in her apartment building start receiving odd threats, and she meets a charming man who seems to be charmed by her. It’s all a bit much at once, but Corinna faces everything in life straight on.

This is the modern-day series by the author of the Phryne Fisher books. And yes, I agree with all the folks who say that, at least in this volume, it isn’t nearly as good.

The characters are fun, if often stereotypes of a sort. The setting is interesting, and the dialogue and narration is snappy.

“I believe in absolutely nothing except yeast and the inevitability of politicians…”

The beginning of this book was exactly what I needed when I opened it up. I loved getting to know Corrina: her daily routine, her world, her attitude. Somewhere along the way it all started to seem a little too easy and ring a little false, though.

The main climax was… weak. Lets just say it was supposed to be both tense and erotic, and all I could think was: really? All the psuedo-realism earlier and no one’s going to mention how insanely unsafe of a sex act that just was? Not normally unsafe, crazy unsafe. This is not the 70’s. You could die doing stupid shit like that. The explanations about the plot were more than a little hand-wavy, too.

That said, I loved the beginning, and I did enjoy most of the other sub-plots, so I will try the next one to see if it finds its feet. Also, there are recipes in the back.

3 Stars - A Good Book