Author: Kerry Greenwood
ISBN:1741750003
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
2007
Life is going well for Corinna Chapman. Her bakery is going gangbusters. Her apprentice, Jason, has revealed himself to be a talented baker, his muffins in particular are to die for. And her lover, Daniel shows all the signs of being blissfully happy.
When a cut-price bakery opens just down the road, it gives Corrina a few nightmares. She hopes the novelty of the cheap bakery will wear off quickly and people will return to her because of the quality of her goods.
Another fly in her otherwise sweetly perfumed ointment is the sudden appearance on the scene of Georgiana, one of Daniel's ex-girlfriends. Georgiana is tall, slim, blonde and incredibly glamourous. How can Corinna compete.
The inner city always sees its fair share of drug overdoses and attendant odd behaviour, but there is something that is sending people mad and causing deaths. Corinna is shocked to find her bakery is one of the suspects in the source of the drug.
TRICK OR TREAT is the third in the Corinna Chapman series and my first meeting with her. I liked Corinna enormously. Hers was a world I want to inhabit. Inner city living in a beautiful old building with what appears to be affordable costs with a group of lovely people. Lots of wonderful food and fine wine. I want that life!!! It's probably just as well I don't have it. I'd be the size of a house rather than the commodious garden shed that I am now.
There were a couple of tiny things that didn't quite work for me. The presence of cats in the bakery being one. My son is a baker and there's no way they'd be allowed to trade with felines on the premises. And the sheer hard physical labour involved in the job is glossed over. But that's understandable. Trick or Treat is as much a fantasy as it is a crime fiction. It is an idealised life. In that respect TRICK OR TREAT reminded me of The Darling Buds of May with the lavish and loving descriptions of meals eaten. And that was my main problem with the book. While reading these descriptions it was difficult to resist the almost overpowering urge to go and rummage in the fridge for a snack.
TRICK OR TREAT is a real treat, but not one I'd recommend to anyone trying to diet!!
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2 comments:
I found the cats quite acceptable Sunnie. My Dad was a baker and we always had bakehouse cats to keep the mice down.
Perhaps Kerry Greenwood's knowledge of baking industry standards is a bit dated.
I actually like the Corinna Chapman books better than the Phryne Fisher
I suspect they've tightened up rules and regs. I can't see the Health Dept allowing cats in a bakery these days..
On a positive baking related note. The Childe Allan rang me last night. Their Bakers' Delight shop won the best BD in Tasmania again for the 2nd year running. He was very chuffed.
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