Like Corinna’s earlier adventures (Trick or Treat, 2009, etc.), this episode is cleverly written and chock full of charming...
A talented baker and her circle of unusual friends find themselves with a puzzle to solve that echoes many of the features of a much earlier Christmas story.
Earthly Delights is the bakery where Corinna Chapman, a perfect size 20, turns out wonderful bread and where her assistant Jason is the wizard of muffins. The latest assignment for Corinna’s private-eye lover Daniel is to locate Brigid, the pregnant daughter of a wealthy couple. The religious convictions of Brigid’s mother made her life and her sister’s tightly circumscribed until Brigid ran off with Manny, one of the family gardeners. Though Corinna is not fond of either Christmas or the scorching Melbourne summer, there’s no lack of diversions this time. She and several of her friends in Insala, the Roman-style apartment house they call home, get sucked into the adventures of some singing vegans temporarily staying in Insala, a troupe of freegans who are a big help in Daniel’s search, and Serena, a rosewater muffin-loving donkey whose owner thinks Corinna’s friend Meroe is a black witch. Following some wild chases through the streets in search of the missing pair, Corinna, Daniel and company must solve an unpleasant puzzle before anyone can have a happy holiday.
Like Corinna’s earlier adventures (Trick or Treat, 2009, etc.), this episode is cleverly written and chock full of charming characters, interesting puzzles and luscious descriptions of food with appended recipes.Pub Date: June 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59058-738-6
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Even when she’s in pantyhose, Hannah’s grit and quick thinking once more save the day.
All of Lake Eden is agog when the police chief’s secretary takes a tumble from the penthouse of a condo complex.
Fabulously wealthy Roger Dalworth has pulled out all the stops for the grand reopening of the Albion Hotel, his new luxury condo project. A caterer from Minneapolis! Red Velvet Surprise Cupcakes from The Cookie Jar for dessert! The evening is so grand that The Cookie Jar’s owner, Hannah Swensen (Cinnamon Roll Murder, 2012, etc.), in eye makeup and pantyhose, decides to tour the Albion’s posh penthouse, complete with its outdoor garden. Hannah is luckier than Barbara Donnelly, whose own tour of the penthouse ends in a headfirst plunge to the parking lot. Barbara survives, much addled, leaving amateur sleuth Hannah to decode her ramblings about her brother (Barbara is an only child) and a furry white monster that lurks in her hospital room. Hannah soon has her own worries. She finds Dr. Bev Thorndike, her former rival for local dentist Norman Rhodes’ affections, in her red Maserati at the bottom of Miller’s Pond. Even though Dr. Bev has recently become engaged to Roger, her death puts Hannah very much on Detective Mike Kingston’s radar screen. Can Hannah find the real culprit before Mike ends the discussion of whether he or Norman will be the one to wrestle her to the altar by putting her in the slammer instead?
Even when she’s in pantyhose, Hannah’s grit and quick thinking once more save the day.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7582-8034-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Her zany cast will have readers wondering whether DiRico’s series debut is set in Belle View or Bellevue.
Murder crashes the party.
Mia Carina would like nothing better than to see her dad, Ravello, a made man in Donny Boldano’s mob, go straight. When she hears he’s won the Belle View Banquet Manor from hard-luck gambler Andre Bouras in a poker game, she rushes back from Palm Beach to help him run the place, hoping it will provide her dad with enough legitimate income to allow him to cut his ties with the underworld. Despite its dated décor and bone-shaking proximity to LaGuardia Airport, the catering hall has panoramic views out its windows that make it a worthy rival to the overpriced event venues in Manhattan—which Mia’s outer-borough friends drive her nuts by calling “the city.” (“Queens is the city” is her perennial retort.) And she proves her borough cred by moving in with her nonna in Astoria. But running a catering hall involves more than dealing with bridezillas like Alice Paluski, who’s determined to make her wedding bigger and better than her twin sister’s, or with momzillas like Barbara Grazio, Alice’s prospective mother-in-law, who’s determined to make the groom’s side of the wedding outshine the bride’s. She has to wrangle an ever changing cast of chefs, sous-chefs, waitstaff, decorators, DJs, and the occasional stripper, who all bring a host of quirks and baggage to the banquet table. She also has to deal with more than one corpse. It takes all of Mia’s considerable ingenuity to keep Ravello’s first legit enterprise from becoming a ticket right back to the slammer.
Her zany cast will have readers wondering whether DiRico’s series debut is set in Belle View or Bellevue.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4967-2534-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
