EARTHLY DELIGHTS

A buxom baker and a handsome man of mystery solve a series of crimes.

Corinna Chapman has left her driven husband and high-pressure job to open Earthly Delights, a bakery in Melbourne. A unique Roman-style apartment house provides lodgings for her, her cat Horatio and a diverse bunch of neighbors that includes Meroe the Witch, retired professor Dionysius Monk, the Pemberthys and their spoiled dog, a Dutch lady gardener, some computer nerds and sylph-like aspiring actresses Goss and Kylie, who help in the bakery. A series of threatening letters addressed to Corinna and the other ladies in the building soon escalate to spray-painted death threats, the first on the wall of a nearby shop owned by androgynous dominatrix Mistress Dread. Corinna’s life changes dramatically when she meets Daniel Cohen, an attractive man who works nights on the Soup Run delivering food to the city’s homeless, and hires the homeless junkie Jason, who has an amazingly light hand with muffins, to help clean the bakery. She wonders if her ex, who’s hatched a scheme to buy her apartment house and tear it down, could be the poison pen. At length, she and Daniel get to the bottom of the threats, discover who’s killing off junkies with hot-shots and have a sexy adventure at the local Goth club with a vampire named Lestat.

Poles apart from Greenwood’s popular heroine Phryne Fisher (The Green Mill Murder, 2007, etc.), but equally delightful.