Earthly Delights

Earthly Delights is the first novel in Kerry Greenwood's second long-running mystery series, with Corinna Chapman the proprietor of a sourdough bakery in central Melbourne, ex-accountant, living above her shop in a building called Insula full of eccentric tenants. The case in this one involves a young woman found on the steps overdosed and a series of poison-pen letters delivered to the building's residents.

Greenwood is doing something different from the Phryne Fisher novels, which is contemporary, urban, and quietly interested in chosen family. The Insula tenants are a wonderful ensemble. The baking material is the kind of writing-from-experience that the form rewards. Corinna is a less glamorous heroine than Phryne, and Greenwood uses that to do quieter work.

Four stars. A genuine pleasure of the early 2000s cozy. Recommended even if you have not read Greenwood's Phryne books. The Corinna series develops in interesting ways across the run.