Earthly Delights

Corinna Chapman Mysteries, Book 1

By: Kerry Greenwood

Narrated by: Louise Siversen

Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

Baking is an alchemical process for Corinna Chapman. At four am she starts work at Earthly Delights, her bakery in Calico Alley.

But one morning Corinna receives a threatening note saying "The wages of sin is death" and finds a syringe in her cat's paw. A blue-faced junkie has collapsed in the dark alley and a mysterious man with beautiful eyes appears with a plan for Corinna and her bread. Then it is Goths, dead drug addicts, witchcraft, a homeless boy, and a missing girl and it seems she will never get those muffins cooked in time.

With flair, chutzpah and a talent for kneading, Corinna Chapman will find out who exactly is threatening her life and bake some beautiful bread.

©1992 Kerry Greenwood (P)2013 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Love Corinna Chapman

Where does Earthly Delights rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Engaging story and narrator. One of the best for this genre

What other book might you compare Earthly Delights to and why?

None that I can think of, very unique indeed

What about Louise Siversen’s performance did you like?

Believable, easy to understand, drew me in. Love her performance

If you could take any character from Earthly Delights out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Corinna, of course!

Any additional comments?

Love the mixture of characters, Corinna's attitude and the setting. Kept me entertained throughout. I'm going to listen to the entire series

Loved it!

Well written. Great narration. Loved the story line & characters. I look forward to series!

SUCH A BLISS

While jumping already to book 2, I am thrilled to express my joy of the story, having finally read about a chubby heroine ( my wish) and great voice actress. I should say well done everybody who had something to do with the story and the performance.

It Really Was Delightful

I bought this book (on sale!) because I enjoyed Kerry Greenwood's Miss Fisher mysteries. I like this main character too. She's a baker and a tad more traditional (I thought) but she sheds some of that image by the end of the book. She's a self-determined woman, and the book surprised the heck out of me when she and her new lover Daniel (Corinna is an ex-accountant, divorced from a misogynistic numbers type) when they venture into Mistress Dread's (S&M) dungeon to solve the mystery. Yikes! Corinna is an earth mother but also earthy, and the book is delicious.

love love love

I so loved this book everything kerry Greenwood writes is just bonzer I will tell everyone about her books

Excellent

This is an outstanding story with unusual but very relatable characters, made all the better by a gifted reader who manages to give each one their own voice. Recommended.

Hungry for Muffins created and baked by Jason

What made the experience of listening to Earthly Delights the most enjoyable?

It is a modern story dealing with everyday life, the characters very interesting, not boring in any way, love all the description of baking, aren't all good cooks heavy, they seem to be in Hawaii, good advertisement for their food. My first introduction to Goths, I have led a sheltered life!

What was one of the most memorable moments of Earthly Delights?

When Corrina was "poured" into her Goth outfit and realised she is a very attractive woman.

Which character – as performed by Louise Siversen – was your favorite?

Corinna. Louise Silversen is an outstanding narrator.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Come try an exceptional muffin.

Any additional comments?

A very good book, would heartily recommend it.

Bakery: hungry for more; mystery: not so much

I liked the baking talk and all the interesting people around, but was less gripped by the actual mystery and investigation.

This book was a little out of my usual way in some respects. On the surface I was interested by the baker turned amateur sleuth by circumstance, who meets a mysterious tall-dark-and-handsome and finds trouble in the streets... Loved the scenes in the bakery, she often made me hungry with talk of breads and muffins (and I agree with her, none of that crumbly health stuff, yick) and company with her and the cats was warm. I wish there was some kind of appendix with the recipes, cause i'd love to try some of the things she talked about baking...

I liked the cast of characters around the bakery and apt building. Daniel was mysterious, knew there was something concealed, a little bit dark, but not worrisome in any way. And I was glad for Jason to get back on his feet. I was amused by Corinna's nickname for Sgt White - I don't think I'd ever heard the name Lepedoptre spoken aloud before. Her friend the witch, the gardener, and professor were great additions. I got a few laughs out of her shop assistants, and her description of the squalor which the tech-guys lived in. So many kinds of people in different walks of life passed through the pages- some content, some in a busy blur, and some that break your heart and make you question your faith in humanity and the world... It was a beautiful portrait of so many kinds of life all together in one city.

And then came the darker things ... I don't mind goths, like she says, folks who take so much trouble in their costuming are generally not much trouble. But I don't go in for the likes of the Bloodlines club. Gives me the shivers, and when in comes to vampires, well, I'd rather avoid all those who are not Spike and Angel, frankly.

It was quite the quick climax (excuse me) for the slow action building up, and because of the uncertain atmosphere of the club, it took a minute for the results to register in my mind and the pieces to fall into place - it took her self-termed Agatha Christie finish gathering everyone on the roof for the unveil to explain and connect a few more dots for me.

Entertaining enough, partly due to novelty, but also on its own merits. Plenty of fun pop culture references (and notes to self NOT to watch those horror movies mentioned). It wasn't just another silly amateur detective story or cozy mystery (and like I said, i didn't find her investigation particularly gripping or compelling), though it had those elements; it was also a novel of real lives, real people (it was those portraits and relationships which made up more of the actual story), their tragedies and their day to day activities - which were briefly interrupted by crime - and how those people come together and help each other. And the cats too.

Narration was pretty good - the characters all had distinguishable voices, though a few times they were not switched consistently in dialogue. Her pace was often quick and sentences were rushed together -but sometimes it was clearly meant to be so, following Corrie's trains of thought or a disjointed succession of events in her day. Sometimes, though, I got the feeling that that quick cadence rolled over into sections of narrative and dialogue which might have ideally been a bit slower and more naturally paced.

Good overall, a little unique, a little like a lot of other amateur detective stories, and now I need I little bit - er, a lot - of those muffins and olive bread...

Easy listening.

Easy listening. Each character has an identifiable voice that makes the he said, she said, Daniel said unnecessary. I felt I was reading a light-hearted puzzle book. I want more.

For bread bakers

I probably would have given this 3 stars but I love to bake bread. Starts off slow
, but picks up. I do like quirky characters and this had a few good ones.