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If there's one thing that Corinna Chapman, baker extraordinaire and proprietor of the Earthly Delights Bakery, can't abide, it's people not eating well, particularly when there are delights like her very own, just-baked, freshly buttered sourdough bread to enjoy. So when a strange cult which denies the flesh and eats only famine bread turns up, along with a malnourished body, Corinna is very disturbed indeed. On top of that, her hippie mother, Starshine, has turned up out of the blue, show more hysterical that Sunlight, Corinna's father, has absconded to Melbourne with all their money and a desire for a new young lover. Someone is poisoning people with weight loss herbal teas, and then odd things are happening at the nearby Cafe Vlad Tepes, which attracts a very strange clientele indeed. It's a delicious recipe for murder, mayhem, and mystery. show lessTags
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After my last read, an excellent book but tackling the darkest of subjects, I was looking for something a little lighter. Devil’s Food, the third in the Corinna Chapman series, fit the bill nicely. In this outing Corinna is forced to search for her lost, but not much loved, hippie father while sorting out if someone is poisoning the young slimmers of inner Melbourne.
It’s not exactly hard-boiled crime fiction but it does, in its way, tackle some of the seedier points of living in a big, modern city, although aided by liberal doses of wit and fun and the occasional biting social comment. Greenwood’s large cast of characters are deliciously exotic and quirky although she provides enough detail to make them realistic too. They form a show more big, odd, wonderful family based in and around an intriguing apartment building. I thoroughly enjoyed snuggling under a blanket on a cold, wintry afternoon with this book, which even phsycially is gergeous in all it's shiny pinkness, while pondering whether I could move into one of the spare appartments to join in the fun. show less
It’s not exactly hard-boiled crime fiction but it does, in its way, tackle some of the seedier points of living in a big, modern city, although aided by liberal doses of wit and fun and the occasional biting social comment. Greenwood’s large cast of characters are deliciously exotic and quirky although she provides enough detail to make them realistic too. They form a show more big, odd, wonderful family based in and around an intriguing apartment building. I thoroughly enjoyed snuggling under a blanket on a cold, wintry afternoon with this book, which even phsycially is gergeous in all it's shiny pinkness, while pondering whether I could move into one of the spare appartments to join in the fun. show less
Devil’s Food - Greenwood
Audio performance by Louise Siversen
3 stars
I like the characters in this series, including the cats. I enjoy the Australian setting. I like the author’s social conscience which bleeds into the attitudes of her good guys. The political content of the setting is dated. (I didn’t vote for the president who receives Corinna’s outspoken criticism but I was surprised to feel a bit defensive. My country, my president, my right to criticize. Not really a rational response, I suppose.)
The mystery of this book revolves around a weight loss cult. There’s a clear anti-fat-shaming message. I happen to agree with Corinna’s assertive self acceptance, but I think the author went a bit overboard with the message.
Audio performance by Louise Siversen
3 stars
I like the characters in this series, including the cats. I enjoy the Australian setting. I like the author’s social conscience which bleeds into the attitudes of her good guys. The political content of the setting is dated. (I didn’t vote for the president who receives Corinna’s outspoken criticism but I was surprised to feel a bit defensive. My country, my president, my right to criticize. Not really a rational response, I suppose.)
The mystery of this book revolves around a weight loss cult. There’s a clear anti-fat-shaming message. I happen to agree with Corinna’s assertive self acceptance, but I think the author went a bit overboard with the message.
I dislike Corinna. To use a metaphor that Corinna might use, it's like I'm having my fur stroked the wrong way; it makes me want to draw a blood-beaded line down the stroking hand with my kitty claws.
I do like the other characters. I feel almost media fannish in my desire to rescue them. Kylie and Goss are more than cardboard cut-out aspiring actresses. Jon has a more mature and thorough understanding of aid and development than Corinna. He doesn't, for example, think of program partners as the poor and wretched. Kepler is not gay Lin Chung, beautiful and characterless.
Etc.
Also, I like books set in my town.
I do like the other characters. I feel almost media fannish in my desire to rescue them. Kylie and Goss are more than cardboard cut-out aspiring actresses. Jon has a more mature and thorough understanding of aid and development than Corinna. He doesn't, for example, think of program partners as the poor and wretched. Kepler is not gay Lin Chung, beautiful and characterless.
Etc.
Also, I like books set in my town.
“Devil’s Food” is the third Corinna Chapman mystery by Kerry Greenwood. It is the first on audio that I can find however and so I started with it. Corinna is a baker in Melbourne and actually enjoys getting up at 4 a.m. to bake bread for local restaurants and the customers that come into her shop “Earthly Delights”. She also enjoys consuming the fruits of her labors and is not shy about it. Corinna is down to earth and I’d love to have her shop somewhere near me, especially if it comes with her muffin magician of an apprentice, Jason. The description of his herb muffins or his apricot orgasam muffins or especially his rosewater Kama Sutra muffins have kept me perpetually hungry during this book. Corinna’s father is show more missing, there is a mysterious weight loss tea that has made her two assistants incredibly ill, and there is a strange group of monks going under the name of the “Bodiless Brotherhood” that are ordering famine bread from the bakery. Corinna finds them more than a little creepy, but with her father missing she’s directing her energies toward the search until a body turns up in the local park showing all the signs of starvation. show less
I like the interesting collection of varied oddball characters that live in the apartment block that houses Corinna Chapman’s bakery. The stories aren’t grabbing me as much as Greenwood’s Phryne Fisher series, however, though I’m not sure why.
Kerry Greenwood surely qualifies as a one-woman industry due to her prolific output. She has two new books out at present, this one and the latest in her Phryne Fisher series. The Corrina Chapman books are a bit darker than the Phryne books, but they give an insight into Australian city life that Americans might otherwise never experience. The mysteries involved are rather minor, and the baking is heavy-duty with recipes included. Beware, however, that this book includes numerous anti-George Bush comments which make it seem rather dated already. They did not add anything to the book, and perhaps the author would be well-advised to keep her views on American politicians separate from her mystery series.
An enjoyable mystery, mostly because the Australian setting was just different enough to be unique. I also like that the principal sleuth was a baker. However, there were so many characters that I had some difficulty keeping them all straight and the mysteries weren't all that mysterious.
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- Canonical title
- Devil's Food
- Original title
- Devil's Food
- Original publication date
- 2006-01-01
- People/Characters
- Corinna Chapman; Daniel Cohen; Meroe; Jason
- Important places
- Australia; Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Victoria, Australia
- Epigraph
- He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exhalted them of low degree.
He hath filled the hungry wi... (show all)th good things and the rich he hath sent empty away.
—Magnificat, Luke 1: 51–53 - Dedication
- This book is dedicated to Annette Barlow for her great kindness, gentleness, intelligence and unfailing courtesy.
With thanks to David Greagg, Dennis Pryor, Belladonna and all the fans. - First words
- It was one of the most horrible sound-effects I had ever heard.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)‘Devil’s Food,’ he said, and grinned.
- Original language
- English
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 324
- Popularity
- 98,682
- Reviews
- 14
- Rating
- (3.71)
- Languages
- English, German
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 21
- ASINs
- 6
