Cooking The Books

Kerry Greenwood (author)

Allen & Unwin, Australia: October 2011; 312pp

ISBN: 9781742370217

Genre: crime

Issues: ethics, trust

Corinna Chapman, baker and reluctant investigator, is supposed to be taking a holiday. Her apprentice Jason, he of the superlative muffins, is absent with leave, learning how to surf. Her bakery is closed.

Kiley and Goss, her airheaded sales assistants are working on their first acting job – a soap opera called 'Kiss the Bride'. It should be a time of rest and relaxation and would be, except that Corinna's beloved Daniel is looking into a corporate theft at an accounting firm. Then a phonecall from an old school friend sees Corinna brushing off her pastry making skills for a few weeks and being dragged into the emotionally charged environment of a TV set. The same TV set where Goss and Kylie are at work, as it turns out. A brilliant but temperamental star, too many good-looking but narcissistic actors, sensitive egos and a trickster who is doing his or her best to frame the chief cameraman, and a series of nursery-rhyme clues for Daniel to chase: how could Corinna not get involved?

Kerry Greenwood has had a great deal of fun with this, the sixth in the Corinna Chapman series. By setting the mystery against the melodramas of a soap opera set, Greenwood gives herself licence to create a positively Gilbert & Sullivan-type plot packed with as many twists, turns and surprises as a good rollercoaster, as well as quirky characters and temperaments galore. This produces a breathless pace of narrative and a delightfully frothy piece of escapism. Only such a skilful writer could get away with it but Greenwood does: readers will find themselves laughing at the outrageous resolution as much as the way the author pokes fun at the nature of soap operas in general and this one in particular.

Set in Melbourne, Australia, Cooking the Books sings affectionate praise of a city that has so many interesting places, spaces and people. Despite being the sixth in a series, Cooking the Books works as a 'stand alone' novel and readers new to Corinna Chapman will enjoy her confidence, independence and strength, as well as her wicked sense of humour.

Entertaining escapism with some really good recipes included!

Same series: Heavenly Pleasures