Trick or Treat

Audio performance by - Louise Siverson
3 stars

I still enjoy the characters, especially the cats. I envy Corinna her Daniel, who seems too good to be true. But, the mish-mash plot of this book just didn’t work.

In the first place, the title is very misleading. The book has nothing to do with American Halloween customs. The Wiccan celebration of Samhain is distastefully combined with a convoluted tale of Nazi occupation of Greece and missing treasures of the lost Jewish community.

I don’t believe the author intended disrespect. She is very clearly respectful of the historical content of her story. I’m just personally uncomfortable with using tragic Holocaust history in a trivial story. Additionally, its use in this story was out of show more place and unbelievable. I’m not Jewish, but I also think Greenwood indulged in some Jewish stereotypes. Affectionate stereotypes such as the jovial Jewish uncle speaking English with heavy sprinkling of Yiddish, but a stereotype none-the-less.

The story didn’t work. The ending was weak. The convenient death of one evil character and the apparent deportation of another were unbelievably lame ways to deal with serious crime. show less

In the fourth book of this series baker Corina Chapman is having a tough time with a competitor opening up shop a few doors away from her business and her boyfriend inviting a long-legged, beautiful woman to stay with him. If that’s not enough it seems there might be some extra-nasty drugs being sold nearby that are sending people mad.

Do you have a friend who you’ve known for ages and whose family gatherings you are automatically invited to? And does this friend’s family delight you with its eccentric members and good-heartedness although you can see how it might be less delightful to be related to them than to drop in (and out) when it pleases you? I do have a friend like this but I have to say that the gang in the Corina Chapman show more series are nearly as much fun to visit as her family. Corina is funny, socially conscious and a highly credible reluctant amateur detective, her boyfriend is a former Israeli soldier who does a nice line in romantic gestures and in this outing her friend the white witch and an ex drug-addict turned apprentice baker feature heavily. They’re all, along with the rest of the residents of the Insula apartment building, great characters.

I often think, at the start of these books, that I’m just going to revel in the characters and not worry too much about the invariably slightly-odd story but I always get engaged by the deft way in which the subjects are handled. This one features a couple of story lines that are both intriguing and well researched and, in combination with the clever and amusing writing style round out a terrific reading experience. If you’re into ‘cosies’ you’ll love this book and if you’re looking for something a little light but still intelligent and witty then I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Sure it’s a little fantastical but a happy ending every now and again is just what my doctor ordered. show less

Corinna Chapman is making ends meet very well with her bakery Earthly Delights just off Flinders Lane in metropolitan Melbourne. She has built up a regular clientele of colourful locals, as well as becoming the supplier to a number of restaurants.
That is, until a franchised hot bread shop opens up at the other end of the lane, and sales begin to flag.

And that's not the only problem. The love of her life Daniel seems to be making excuses and to have other things on his mind. And then morning after morning Calico Alley, at the back entrance to her bakery, has more than its fair share of drug overdose cases, until finally someone leaps from the roof of a building into the alley. The investigation that follows threatens Corinna's very show more livelihood.

To make it worse, although Corinna has a secret admirer sending her flowers and cards, at least one other person wants her out of the bakery - to the point even of nailing a grisly trophy to the front door of the apartment building that houses the bakery.

Kerry Greenwood has a delightful turn of phrase that constantly brings a touch of humour to the pages. TRICK OR TREAT is full of interesting characters - from elderly Greek Jews who remember their war-time flight from the Germans as if it were yesterday; to Meroe the local witch who wants special soul cakes for Halloween; to those who conduct the nightly Soup Run through the streets of Melbourne and collect the bakery's surpluses. Even the animals come over as real characters: Heckle and Jekyll, the bakery's Mouse Police; Horatio the lordly feline whose fiefdom is Corinna's apartment; Nox the black kitten who rules a neighbour, the Professor, with an iron paw; to the death-defying Lucifer whose clawed ginger paws love koi fish.

This #4 in Kerry Greenwood's Earthly series and each one is more like a comfort read, like the comfort food Corinna cooks in her bakery. But make no mistake, there is underlying social comment here too: on the exploitation of the elderly and the gullible, bakery chains who would rather sell their surplus to a piggery than donate to charity, and the importance of resolution for those who were the victims of war crimes even when the war is 70 years in the past. And for those who like cooking, there are real recipes for some of Corinna's treats in the final pages.

Kerry Greenwood is an accomplished and popular Australian author, probably better known for her Phryne Fisher series. To be honest though, I find Corinna Chapman less grating that the Hon. Phryne.

Websites to check
http://www.earthlydelights.net.au/books.html
http://www.phrynefisher.com/

The Cairns Post, among other reviewers, labelled this "chick-lit", but unlike much of this crime fiction sub-genre, this is chick-lit the oldies will enjoy too. show less

I can't seem to get enough of Kerry Greenwood. Unfortunately, with this book, I have now read all the novels she currently has in print. What's a girl to do? In the fourth Corinna Chapman book Halloween is in the air and the witches are gathering. Meroe is as nervous as a very cool cat in a room full of rocking chairs. She is a solitary Wicca by preference (and because she doesn't really like other witches). Now there are hundreds of witches flooding into Melbourne for the Samhaine rites. And one of the more eclectic covens is on a purely material treasure hunt that threatens the sanctity of the rites. In the spirit of the season there is also a sudden increase in the number of people going mad in town. Corinna encounters one well show more dressed man in her alley who thinks that his hands have fallen off. Much as she is shaken by this it is nothing to how she feels when a man jumps to his death from the building next door thinking he can fly. Corinna has other causes for anxiety as Daniel has a friend named George staying with him. He may have forgotten to mention that George is tall, blonde, long legged, and imminently female. And George really doesn’t like Corinna. There is also a new franchise bread shop right down the street from Earthly Delights with unbeatable prices, but no taste (on more levels than one). It’s going to be a difficult spring for or intrepid heroine, but there is bread to bake so Corinna can’t just lie abed and worry. show less

TRICK OR TREAT is the third in the Corinna Chapman series and my first meeting with her. I liked Corinna enormously. Hers was a world I want to inhabit. Inner city living in a beautiful old building with what appears to be affordable costs with a group of lovely people. Lots of wonderful food and fine wine. I want that life!!!

It's probably just as well I don't have it. I'd be the size of a house rather than the commodious garden shed that I am now.

There were a couple of tiny things that didn't quite work for me. The presence of cats in the bakery being one. My son is a baker and there's no way they'd be allowed to trade with felines on the premises. And the sheer hard physical labour involved in the job is glossed over. But that's show more understandbale. Trick or Treat is as much a fantasy as it is a crime fiction. It is an idealised life. In that respect TRICK OR TREAT reminded me of The Darling Buds of Mayh with the lavish and loving descriptions of meals eaten. And that was my main problem with the book. While reading these descriptions it was difficult to resist the almost overpowering urge to go and rummage in the fridge for a snack.

TRICK OR TREAT is a real treat, but not one I'd recommend to anyone trying to diet!!

TRICK OR TREAT is a 2008 Ned Kelly Nominee show less

Probably my favourite of the series with a solid mystery or three, and much less formal style than the others. The usual quirky cast of characters with some nutcases thrown in. I plan to try that cake and I am always left craving fresh bread and muffins.

Corinna Chapman starts work at 4 a.m. every morning in her bakery Earthly Delights. She cooks the most wonderful gourmet cakes, breads and pastries. She also seems to end up solving neighbourhood mysteries. In this latest adventure, a new cut-price bread shop has opened up in the neighbourhood in direct competition with Corinna’s gourmet bakery. At the same time, a new hallucinogenic drug hits the street which is literally driving people mad, the gorgeous Georgina moves in with Corinna’s boyfriend Daniel, and there is a witch convention happening to celebrate Samhain, the feast of the dead. Could all these events possibly be connected?

TRICK OR TREAT is the fourth book in a series which just keep on getting better. Set in Melbourne show more Australia, Corinna is an overweight woman who feels no guilt and makes no apologies for loving food, her boyfriend and life. The story is light, witty and easy to read. Yet author Kerry Greenwood is not afraid to show the seedier, sadder side of Melbourne life. Greenwood gets her message across without ramming her political views down your throat.

Reading a Corinna Chapman book must be done with food at hand because you end up drooling throughout the book. Fortunately there are recipes at the end of each of the books in this series. It is not strictly necessary to read the series in order, as each of them stand alone quite well. The previous books in the series are EARTHLY DELIGHTS, HEAVENLY PLEASURES and DEVIL’S FOOD. show less