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Kerry Greenwood

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Devil's Food (Corinna Chapman Mysteries Book 3) Kindle Edition

by Kerry Greenwood (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.5 736 ratings

Book 3 of 7: Corinna Chapman Mysteries

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"A missing father, a bizarre cult and two poisoned shop assistants keep a Melbourne baker on her toes in the latest from Greenwood...like-minded readers will find themselves charmed by the oddball characters and obligatory recipes." —Kirkus Reviews

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, 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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A missing parent, a lethal herbal tea and a sinister cult are a few of the mysterious ingredients in Greenwood's lively third cozy to feature cheerfully fat baker Corinna Chapman (after 2008's Heavenly Pleasures). Chapman's estranged hippie mother, who organizes her time by the phases of the moon, arrives on the doorstep of Melbourne's Earthly Delights Bakery to announce her spouse's disappearance during an apparent midlife crisis. Further complications for Chapman include a toxic tea imbibed by two of her employees and a strange group of monks. To assist in finding the tea's supplier, locating her wandering father and determining the monks' activities, Chapman has a devoted, if eccentric, cohort—a sexy PI lover, a weaver, a follower of Wicca, a grand dame, a dominatrix, a retired classics professor and a nun or two. While a glossary of Australian terms would've helped the American reader, this doesn't detract from the warmhearted message that it takes a village to solve a mystery. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Originally published in 2006 and making its first U.S. appearance, the third Corinna Chapman mystery finds the Australian baker and amateur sleuth trying to determine who’s been distributing poison-tainted herbal teas and why. As usual, there are complications on the home front: Corinna’s hippie mother, Starshine, has unexpectedly appeared out of nowhere after her husband, Sunlight, has left her for a younger woman. The Chapman novels take the best elements of the author’s more popular 1920s-era Phryne Fisher series—strong female protagonist, solid mystery, offbeat humor—and transport them to the present day. Greenwood has a definite knack for character and story, and, while the Chapman series is a mere toddler compared to the longer-running Fisher novels, Corinna shows every indication of sticking around for a good long time. --David Pitt

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07VNH14QP
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Poisoned Pen Press; Reprint edition (September 30, 2011)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 30, 2011
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2180 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 251 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #60,654 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #133 in Women's Detective Fiction
- #782 in Mothers & Children Fiction
- #861 in Amateur Sleuth Mysteries (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
4.5 736 ratings

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Kerry Greenwood

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Kerry Greenwood (born 17 June 1954 in Footscray, Victoria) is an Australian author and defence lawyer. She has written many plays and books, most notably a string of historical detective novels centred on the character of Phryne Fisher. She writes mysteries, science-fiction, historical fiction, and children's stories, as well as plays. She is unmarried but lives with a "registered wizard".

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by John Lamp (John Lamp) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

736 global ratings

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Forrest & Lynn

I Enjoy this series, it makes me love life.

Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2015

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I have read the first three books. They are about Corinna Chapman, a baker, and her bakery, Earthly Delights. Earthly Delights is in a building named Insula, with four shops on the ground floor, (each with an adjoining residence above it). Then floors two through eight each have two apartments per floor, all top with a roof garden. This provides us with many secondary characters to provide extra story lines to weave throughout each books main plot. The stories are mysteries of murder and misdeeds. They are also about the mysteries of life and people. The mysteries are full of turns and satisfy.

To say I want to live there is not uncommon when you're in the middle of a book. But I want to live there even when the book is finished. I want to take up one of the empty flats and make friends with these people.
Kerry Greenwood wrote/writes the Phryne Fisher Mysteries, which I have seen on TV, and have purchased in both DVD and book form but I haven't yet read the books. I will as soon as I can put down this series. I wonder if I will find that I want to read them out loud as I do these. It is a rare modern author whose flow of words begs you to read it out loud, even when you are alone in the room. Her words feel satiny like melting chocolate in my mouth, like poetry. In book three she quotes from Marcus Aurelius, Winnie the Pooh and Tolkien at different times, for me that is pretty cool!

5 people found this helpful

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bookgal

There's Strange Things Going On in this Latest Tale

Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2015

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Mysterious things are happening around Corinna Chapman's baker, Earthly Delights. She is asked to bake an inedible bread and her two front store clerks are nearly poised by a strange weight loss herbal tea. Then there is the new restaurant/nightclub, Cafe Vlad Tepes.

Corinna Chapman is an original and her fellow characters are a delight. And while the stories are never very deep, they are a pleasure to read and indeed, I like a story where the main female character is not rail thin, overwhelmingly fit, beautiful and sometimes extremely stupid. Kerry Greenwood has a winning sense of telling a story and having you care for the characters. Even the cats in the book are fun to read about.

One person found this helpful

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S Hale

Excellent book

Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2023

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Starts with an terrible fight. End well for everyone as possible. Book makes crave good bread.and muffins. Excellent mystery to enjoy.

One person found this helpful

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kbc

Delicious reading with a coffee

Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2012

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These books by Kerry Greenwood are easy to read escapism with sweet characters, sweet bakery treats with recipes and a great and easy story line. Kerry provides you with everything you are looking for, that goes with your morning coffee, the couch and a break from the mundane negativity that exists in life. Congratulations Kerry and thank you for providing your readers with Corinna and the ever sassy Miss Phrynne Fisher also. You are a delightful writer and I am never disappointed with a story from you. Serious it is not, serious I am not seeking. Well done. A DELIGHT!

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Barbara D.

Love Corinna and friends!

Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2015

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I love the Corinna Chapman series by Kerry Greenwood. The characters are believable and (mostly) likeable, the plots are intriguing, and Corinna is someone you want to spend time with. I love her apartment building and its inhabitants, and I love getting a glimpse of Melbourne. I don't always understand the terms for some things (what the heck is an esky?), but I muddle through! Very good author. Very good book.

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Sires

Bless Amazon and Poisoned Pen Press for Bringing Corinna to a US Audience

Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2013

Verified Purchase

Format: Kindle/Audible Whispersync for Voice

All is not well for Baker Corinna Chapman despite her successful business and the acquisitions of both a promising young apprentice and a handsome, sensual private eye/partner.

Jason, her young apprentice, had entered into a deal to produce "famine bread" for a group of monks who had established themselves in a property in Melbourne. Given that their only complaint had been that she had made the bread taste too good, it seems they were seriously into mortifying the flesh. And speaking of mortifying-- her unwashed, unpleasant and hysterical mother shows up at the bakery to demand Corinna's help in finding Corinna's father, who had taken off on a mid-life crisis to find "young flesh". Finally, it appears that her two young shop assistants hae fallen victim to a dangerous diet aid.

There's other mysteries that Corinna must solve which introduces the reader to some other venues (including one that is distinctly sad), as she searches for her father.

This one is also narrated by the inestimable Louise Siverson in her warm, kind tones.

I'm going to take a break in the series here, but I'm sure I will be back to finish the rest. The second book in the series was Heavenly Pleasures: A Corinna Chapman Mystery . The next is Trick or Treat: A Corinna Chapman Mystery .

2 people found this helpful

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MI Kathy

Need to get an Australian slang Dictionary

Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2012

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Although this author has written many books, I picked up Earthly Delights, the first in this series, as a Kindle free ebook and fell in love with the characters and series. This one is the 3rd in the series - and although I have lived for 4 years in the land of Oz, it was several years ago and some of the slang has me a bit at a loss. That's really the only thing I can fault it for.

In this episode, Corinna is tasked with making an awful tasting bread from a recipe provided to her. Not really sure why, if they had the recipe and wanted to make it awful, they would hire a baker to do it. However, again the author crafts an amusing story full of twists and turns and if your interests lie in a funny mystery, this book is for you.

2 people found this helpful

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Oonagh

Not as good as books 1 and 2

Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2014

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I thoroughly enjoyed books 1 and 2, I've watched Phryne Fisher and read the first book. This book continue with the characters, well written and developed but I kept saying when's the crime going to occur. I didn't find it as involved as 1/2 and somewhat disappointing. I do like the way she writes, the quirkiness, but the crime wasn't there.

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Top reviews from other countries

cozyfan

An amusing read

Reviewed in Canada on September 6, 2018

Verified Purchase

While still a good read, I found this one of her books... long on preaching and short on the finale. I am prepared to accept the odd coincidence, but when they start tripping over each other I feel letdown by the author. This is the 4th of the Corinna series that I have read and this mild criticism would not preclude me from reading more of her stories. I liked the fellowship and caring of the Insula inhabitants.

norman

Really great read

Reviewed in Australia on February 19, 2023

Verified Purchase

Great book in a series that you must read

Damaskcat

Mystery with recipes

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 24, 2012

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Corinna Chapman is concerned about her two assistants, Gossamer and Kylie not eating properly. Then there's the strange cult which has started up which appears to think that eating is sinful not to speak of the individual found in the park almost dead from malnutrition. In fact not eating seems to be the fashion at the moment. Then Starshine, Corinna's estranged hippie mother turns up on her doorstep, and Corinna feels that her life cannot get any worse.

Along with handsome lover, Daniel, who has no problems with enjoying his food, Corinna decides to try and find out what is happening in her neighbourhood. In the process she hopes to find her father, Sunshine, and reunite him with her mother in order to get her mother out of her hair. This is a complex and entertaining mystery which does deal with serious subjects but also has some light hearted moments and many amusing incidents and conversations.

I love Corinna - she is a lady after my own heart who enjoys her food and drink. I also like the other characters especially the eccentric residents of Insula - the apartment block in which Corinna lives and works. The book is well written and the author really brings the characters and the city in which they live to life. There is the added bonus of recipes at the end of the book. This is the third book in the series but they can really be read in any order.

2 people found this helpful

Miss A.D. Stevenson

Gourmet Dining

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 16, 2014

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Another quirky story! It is the usual group of people, with a few newcomers and several different storylines merging into one. Corinna's own Mother and Father appear, together with the cats, a strange religious order and the usual goths and witches. Quite entertaining and a peaceful read!

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Devil's Food (Corinna Chapman Mysteries Book 3) Kindle Edition

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