Kerry Greenwood’s last novel was waiting in an old inbox: Just Desserts, the final Corinna Chapman mystery, is out 20 months after her death

For readers who had already said goodbye to Kerry Greenwood, there is one more.

Just Desserts, the final Corinna Chapman mystery, was published by Allen & Unwin this month, about 20 months after Greenwood died in March 2025. It is the eighth book in the series, which began in 2004, and it comes a year after Murder in the Cathedral, the Phryne Fisher novel that was published eight months after her death and was expected to be the last.

Where did the book come from?

From an inbox. Greenwood’s life partner and business manager, David Greagg, found the finished manuscript in an old email account, where it had been waiting since 2023 for a reply from Greenwood. The book was already partway through the publishing process. Mr Greagg has said he missed it and takes responsibility for that.

The pair met at the University of Melbourne when she was 19 and were together for about 50 years. He read every word of her books aloud to her as she wrote, and Greenwood often said her male heroes were based on him. He is now working on her autobiography, to be published after her death.

Who is Corinna Chapman?

Corinna is a cat-loving baker who runs a bakery called Earthly Delights in Melbourne and keeps getting pulled into crimes she would rather leave to others. In Just Desserts, her partner Daniel, a private investigator, is attacked while searching for a missing boy, and residents of Corinna’s heritage apartment building face losing their homes to property developers. When a member of the development group turns up dead in the river, Corinna and Daniel become suspects.

Annette Barlow, Greenwood’s publisher for more than two decades, has described Corinna as a feminist heroine in the same mould as Phryne, and said Greenwood wanted to write a healthy, happy plus-size woman as her lead.

Why does Greenwood still matter?

Greenwood came late to fame and wrote for most of her life. Her first novel, Cocaine Blues, was published in 1989 after 17 earlier attempts at publishing fiction, and it introduced Phryne Fisher, the 1920s Melbourne detective. She worked for more than two decades as a criminal defence lawyer with Victoria Legal Aid while she wrote.

Phryne reached a global audience through the ABC series Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, which premiered in 2012 with Essie Davis in the title role, a casting Greenwood endorsed, followed by the 2020 feature film Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears.

Greenwood’s books have sold more than 700,000 copies in Australia and New Zealand, and a similar number overseas.

Where can readers get it?

Just Desserts is in Australian bookshops now from Allen & Unwin, at a recommended price of $34.99.