Teaser Tuesday: Earthly Delights by Kerry Greenwood

I have been reading the Phryne Fisher series by Kerry Greenwood for a number of years now, although to be honest it has been quite a while since I read the last one. I really need to get back to the series. I was aware that Greenwood had another series that she was also writing but didn't really intend to read it just yet. You see, I had a plan. Once I was all caught up with Phryne, then I would start reading the Corinna Chapman books.

My book club which is due to meet on Friday night decided that the March books would be the first one in both series - Cocaine Blues being the first Phryne Fisher book and this book, Earthly Delights, being the first in the Corinna Chapman books. I don't think I will actually be able to attend this week, but it has given me the impetus to actually read this book.

There is the same sense of fun and a Melbourne setting but other than that the books are very different. Phriny's world is 1930s Melbourne - all glamour and glitz - and she is now a professional investigator. In contrast, Corinna is a larger sized woman who is a baker and therefore starts her morning at 4am every day and is in bed by 8pm. She spends her days in her work clothes and then in her track pants rather than any glamourous costume!

So far I am liking Earthly Delights, although it did take me a few pages to get used to the tone and humour. One thing that definitely helped though was finding references to another favourite author, Terry Pratchett, in the pages.

The quote comes from page 23 to 24 and sees Corinna visiting her friend Meroe:

"Looks like fate is taking an interest in your life at last, Corinna. And about time, I might add, though the ways of fate are inscrutable. I do wish they weren't. I spend my whole life trying to make them more scrutable. with only a little success."

"Any peep into the future is bound to be a bit fraught," I sympathised, hardly at all.

"I've been looking into the crystal ball," she said soberly, all traces of a twinkle vanishing from those disconcerting black eyes. This is the second overdose in a week. None fatal so far. But there will be another. Something horrible is happening in the city."

I could have told her that. It's a city. It stands to reason that something horrible is happening in it somewhere. I sipped in silence.  She has a gift of stillness which is very attractive. If she hasn't anything to say, she doesn't say anything. She has no small talk, which for such a dedicated gossip is surprising. Like the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, she considers that a person who does not know the word on the street before it hits the street is just not trying.