RogerBW's Blog

Devil's Food, Kerry Greenwood 11 September 2022

2006 mystery, third in Greenwood's Corinna Chapman series. Two of Corinna's bakery staff are made dangerously ill by a mysterious "slimming tea"; a strange cult demands deliberately unpleasant bread for the mortification of the flesh; and Corinna's demanding mother turns up, because Corinna's father has run off from the collective where they live.

On the one hand there are serious and dangerous mysteries to be solved here; on the other I think what Greenwood's most interested in in the series as a whole, and particularly here, is the found-family. When the assistants are off sick, and her apprentice gets pneumonia, she's all ready to try to do it all solo, but everyone helps out with their own particular skills and contacts and so on. Corinna is fat; when she's feeling particularly got-at (the mortifying cult is also a weight-loss deal, with the slogan "Fat? Hate it? So does God!") her friends and neighbours the ex-junkie and the gay couple and the witch point out that they also have their own experiences of being unacceptable to "normal" society.

So if you're after a gritty modern mystery this may not be for you; that strong undercurrent that there are good people if you can only let yourself admit that you need their help isn't something the reader can get away from. It's thoroughgoing feelgood escapism, and can feel simplistic at times. But Corinna also works on the soup run, and it's very clear that however wonderful this particular block may be there's still plenty of suffering and deprivation in the city never mind the world, so in spite of some moments that approach overwhelmingly sweet the overall effect is a good one.

It's not too hard to work out the general outline of what's going on, even if some of the specifics are left out until the revelation scene, but it all holds together and the tonal shifts are handled extremely well.

[Buy this at Amazon] and help support the blog. ["As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases."]

Previous in series: Heavenly Pleasures | Series: Corinna Chapman | Next in series: Trick or Treat

Comments on this post are now closed. If you have particular grounds for adding a late comment, comment on a more recent post quoting the URL of this one.

Search
Archive
Tags 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 3d printing action advent of code aeronautics aikakirja anecdote animation anime army astronomy audio audio tech aviation base commerce battletech beer boardgaming book of the week bookmonth chain of command children chris chronicle church of no redeeming virtues cold war comedy computing contemporary cornish smuggler cosmic encounter coup covid-19 crime cthulhu eternal cycling dead of winter doctor who documentary drama driving drone ecchi economics en garde espionage essen 2015 essen 2016 essen 2017 essen 2018 essen 2019 essen 2022 essen 2023 existential risk falklands war fandom fanfic fantasy feminism film firefly first world war flash point flight simulation food garmin drive gazebo genesys geocaching geodata gin gkp gurps gurps 101 gus harpoon historical history horror hugo 2014 hugo 2015 hugo 2016 hugo 2017 hugo 2018 hugo 2019 hugo 2020 hugo 2022 hugo-nebula reread in brief avoid instrumented life javascript julian simpson julie enfield kickstarter kotlin learn to play leaving earth linux liquor lovecraftiana lua mecha men with beards mpd museum music mystery naval noir non-fiction one for the brow opera parody paul temple perl perl weekly challenge photography podcast politics postscript powers prediction privacy project woolsack pyracantha python quantum rail raku ranting raspberry pi reading reading boardgames social real life restaurant reviews romance rpg a day rpgs ruby rust scala science fiction scythe second world war security shipwreck simutrans smartphone south atlantic war squaddies stationery steampunk stuarts suburbia superheroes suspense television the resistance the weekly challenge thirsty meeples thriller tin soldier torg toys trailers travel type 26 type 31 type 45 vietnam war war wargaming weather wives and sweethearts writing about writing x-wing young adult
Special All book reviews, All film reviews
Produced by aikakirja v0.1