Heavenly Pleasures

A Corinna Chapman Mystery, Book 2

By: Kerry Greenwood

Narrated by: Louise Siversen

Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's Summary

The second installment in the delicious Corinna Chapman series by best-selling cozy crime writer Kerry Greenwood.

Corinna Chapman likes the quiet life: good food, good company, and her daily work as a baker. She doesn't really want mystery and intrigue in her life. Unfortunately for her, she doesn't have much choice. Corinna's apartment building seems to be a magnet for mystery and mayhem and, with her new lover, Daniel, a private investigator, Corinna seems destined to be involved in solving these mysteries.

This second book in the series sees a prankster spiking the chocolates at the nearby Heavenly Pleasures chocolate store (is it an elaborate and horrible joke, or a warning of worse to come?), an attempt to blow up the apartment block, and strange new residents moving in.

©2010 Kerry Greenwood (P)2008 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Second Outing for Corinna Chapman

Format: Audible Download/Kindle Whispersync for Voice

Heavenly Pleasures is the name of a Chocolate Shop run by a pair of sisters of Belgium extraction. They are located near Corinna Chapman's bakery and do very good business. Then Corinna finds out that they have been the focus of a series of unpleasant incidents involving their chocolates. Nothing dangerous, so far, so it is unlikely that they would be of interest to the police, and if the story becomes public knowledge then it might ruin their trade. They hire Corinna's partner (ex-Israeli soldier, current private eye) to try to find out who is trying to put then out of business.

This isn't the only mystery though around Insula, the Roman style building where Corinna has her bakery and apartment.

Corinna is intensely likeable with her whole-hearted enjoyment of the good things in life including bread, sex, chocolate and good company. The mystery is interesting enough; however, I really enjoy the cast of eccentrics who populate Corinna's world.

The narrator, Louise Siverson does an absolutely bang up job of reading this book. I couldn't imagine another voice as that of Corinna now.

I try not to read too many books in the same series in a row because I start to notice the authors little tics and twits. However, I got the first one (Earthly Delights) on a deal from Amazon/Audible and then had to buy the next two because I liked it so well. The following book (3rd) is Devil's Food.

This will sound odd, but..

..this book offended me. In this day and age that is a real trick. And it isn't any of the things you would expect. It isn't the gay couple or the lesbian couple, the witch, the rich people, the heroin addicts or the nun, the alcoholics or the fat woman with the sexy boyfriend, I almost for got the murders and the thieves. Alternate lifestyles aren't so alternate anymore and the time is over when they can be used to raise an eyebrow or titillate in a story. It is called "Mainstream" and "Normal" and even in some cases, overkill.

The thing that offended me is that the author, an Australian, chose to be disrespectful to my President- twice. It is offensive to me when Americans are disrespectful to the person in the Office, but even more so when non-Americans are. Why non-Americans feel entitled to be this way about something that they hear about in the media-as opposed to actually living- is beyond me. It is like going into a stranger's home and telling them that their furniture is crappy: it's easy to take pot-shots at low hanging fruit. You don't have to agree with everything the man stands for, but he is standing. The little pseudo-political rant was rude, didn't add anything to the story and left a sour taste in my mouth.

Do you hear me Kerry? Remember the Dixie Chicks.

Read 4 Out of Order -- Best of the Bunch!

I like this book best of the four in the series I've read so far! After Daniel solves a case, mysteries propagate like the heads of a hydra being lopped. A mysterious package may be a bomb forcing all tenants to evacuate. In the melee, a kitten is lost, and a new tenant is assaulted outside the building. An inmate (Daniel brought in) is acting possessed and terrorizing guards and fellow inmates alike. Daniel takes the job of solving the problems of a chocolate shop down the street whose ingredients are being tainted. A girl who worked there has disappeared and is being blamed by the owners in absentia, but the problems continue, and Daniel fears for her safety -- was she taken or did she run away from her own problems -- a Romeo and Juliet romance being thwarted by a father who wants to marry her off to an older man BY PROXY -- without both parties actually being present. A new tenant may be hiding out with crucial evidence in a case involving millions. Corinna thwarts a cat burglar, but his cohorts are two thug persuaders seeking to infiltrate the building. The bad guys go so far as to kidnap and drug Jason and leave him for trash. I love Jason and was furious! This book is chock-full of mysteries to solve and is never dull!

Disappointing

Greenwood's Miss Fisher mysteries are smart, interesting and a bit naughty and always immensely enjoyable. This book, one of Greenwood's other series, is none of this; I've tried several times, but find the characters unappealing & uninteresting; the plot not worth my time. It's difficult to believe they were written by the same author.

Not for me

Very hard to follow.Just has nothing of content to hold a listener. I had to stop the book after a few chapters. A waste of my time.

Relaxing listen

Easy listen! Good for listening when you don't want any gore or other disturbing imagery.

Great 2nd Book

Where does Heavenly Pleasures rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

among the highest

Who was your favorite character and why?

Corrina is my favourite character. She has a lot of personality and is a good, strong female character.

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

Still Corrina, I think her voice appealed more than the others.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Nothing extreme, it was a nice mystery novel.

Any additional comments?

I enjoy Corrina's comments on life as a plus-sized woman. She doesn't apologize for her size and gets on with her life.

Like the story; the narrator needs work

I've previously read the print version, so I like the story a lot. The narrator has a decent voice to my ears (don't know if it's a good Aussie accent, though) for the main character and the intervening comments.

But the other voices she's doing for the rest of the cast are not very good. The very-young girl voices are the most poorly done, and that for the young male assistant is mostly wooden. There's another main male voice and that's done quite flatly.

A fun story limited by the reading

What did you like best about Heavenly Pleasures? What did you like least?

I've read this book previously to buying the audiobook and enjoyed it very much. Its a fun, somewhat romantic, Australian whodunnit with lovely baking recipes.

What did you like best about this story?

The story

What didn’t you like about Louise Siverson’s performance?

Louise had difficulty performing the male voices. Instead of simply dropping her voice (or reading without trying to make her voice masculine) she added a nasal quality that made them all sound slow-witted - including the dashing and heroic Daniel. It is also distracting at first to become used to the distinct Australian twang of Louise's voice. I'm Australian - its not that. Stephanie Daniel, who reads Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher stories, has a much gentler Australian voice which can then extend from the laconic Aussie males to posh women with equal facility. I really wish Stephanie Daniel had read this series.

Do you think Heavenly Pleasures needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

There is already a series.

a worthy series to follow Ms. Fisher's Mysteries !

We had our doubts. How could anyone follow Phyrne and Jack?
This is NOT a continuation in any way except accent, color and spirit.
Which is enough, and book 2 was brilliant. Many plots and colorful players. Characters we look forward to meeting again and again.
Get the books. You will be swept into their colorful and flavorful world!

Another great story

I love they way Kerry brings the Australian people's attitude when people are in distress or trouble. Unite and find solution.

Yes, I would recommend this book and many other by Kerry Greenwood. The narrator never mis-pronounce words and has a voice that is very easy to listen too.

Entertaining, gentle and engaging mystery

Any additional comments?

Entertaining continuation of the first novel in the series, with the same gentle build-up and many of the same engaging characters. Some similarities in the overall storyline, but not enough to spoil my enjoyment. And I learned a bit about chocolate. The bad guy was a little too obvious for me, but it's only a story! Good performance too.