It is the Christmas season in Melbourne, Australia and a stifling heat wave bakes the city as Corinna Chapman operates her bakery, Earthly Delights. Corinna detests the season, along with the shopping, the crowds and the festival. Mixed in with making bread and rolls and other tasty goods in a Corinna Chapman novel, of which this is the fifth, there is always a mystery to be unraveled.
It is left to Corinna and her sabra [Israeli born] lover, Daniel, to find two missing teenagers, one of whom is a 16-year-old pregnant girl, assisted by all sorts of characters including a strange bunch of “freegans,” vegetarians who proclaim to be free souls. Thus we have the setting of a modern-day manger story, along with a stray donkey and assorted other animals.
Throw in carolers who sing of cooler temperatures and violent actions, and a sinister religious cult, together with a wild chase scene, and you have the makings of another fine story from the author who also has given us the charming Phryne Fisher series.
Recommended.
