Kerry Greenwood's final novel published 18 months after her death

When Murder in the Cathedral came out last year, eight months after author Kerry Greenwood died, it was thought to be her last work.

Then her life partner and business manager, David Greagg, stumbled upon another book.

"I missed it," Greagg tells ABC News. 

"It was sitting in an old email account; it was totally my fault," he adds, half sighing, half smiling.

The completed manuscript was part-way through its publishing process. 

It was waiting for Greenwood's response to a 2023 email, but in the 18 months before her death, her health nosedived.

"The last year of anyone's life is often a bit grim, and hers was a bit grim," says Greagg, who was thrilled to have discovered another addition to Greenwood's catalogue.

A final salvo

Just Desserts features cat-loving baker and reluctant sleuth Corinna Chapman in a tale of dodgy real estate practices, kidnapping and muffins. 

It is the eighth book in the popular cosy crime series that started in 2004. 

"Like Phryne Fisher, Corinna was a feminist heroine," Greenwood's publisher, Annette Barlow, says.

"She had come through adversity and Kerry wanted to show a plus-size woman who was healthy and happy."

There is a twinkle in Barlow's eye as she talks about the author she worked with for more than two decades. 

She was one of three people who spoke at Greenwood's private funeral for friends and family in April last year and confesses she misses her immensely.

"To a publisher, some authors are just a gift and, for me, Kerry was one of those authors. She was wise, kind, appreciative and talented."

To have this final serve of uplifting whimsy feels like just the sort of cheeky valedictory treat Greenwood might have planned.

Greagg says it felt right that he should work with the publisher to ensure the book reached Greenwood's many readers. 

In Australia and New Zealand, sales of Greenwood's books topped 700,000, a figure matched internationally.

Life at the 'hobbit cottage'

Greagg is talking to me on Zoom from the idiosyncratic home he shared with Greenwood in western Melbourne, where the author grew up. 

The tumbledown weatherboard cottage belonged to her maternal grandmother and became the couple's cherished haven.

Essie Davis, the actress who played Phryne Fisher to critical acclaim in the hit ABC TV show and subsequent movie — a casting choice endorsed by Greenwood — describes it as "a hobbit cottage, a little wombat home. I would duck down to go through the trees to get inside when I visited."

Greenwood adored it and, even when success came knocking, refused to let Greagg rebuild, only sanctioning patch repairs when things like the kitchen wall collapsed.

"There used to be five people in the house — three cats and two humans and now it's just the two of us — me and my cat Shadow, who likes to spend time on Kerry's bed," Greagg says.

"Shadow is quite clingy now and I can understand that. She became used to the ambulance coming and taking Kerry away from time to time and was quite distressed in those two weeks after Kerry died [on March 26, 2025] when she didn't come back from that bad place."

A unique relationship

Greagg and Greenwood shared a union that flouted convention. 

They never married nor wanted children and though both wrote books, it was Greenwood who became famous while Greagg worked as her assistant and happily took over the housework.

The secret to the success of their relationship was that "she was very domineering, I was calm most of the time, and we loved each other," he says. 

"I didn't have that thing they call 'status anxiety', which apparently is one of the big ruiners of marriage."

As part of Greenwood's writing process, Greagg would read every word of every book aloud to her. When interviewed, she regularly declared, "my male heroes are all based on David".

Greenwood was 19 when she spied him in the student union building at the University of Melbourne. 

She insisted it was love at first sight. 

"She was standing at the bottom of the stairs. I was walking down in footy shorts, a red T-shirt, and bare feet," Greagg recalls. 

"I thought, 'Who is this glamorous person looking at me'. I always wondered if I'd ever get a girlfriend, and there she was."

An incredible gift

Greenwood was larger than life with a sharp intellect. 

She also lived with continuous ill health, which she took in her stride. 

"When I first met her, part of her subtext was, 'Look, if you're ever going to make a move, mate, make up your mind and get on with it, because I may not be long for this world.'

"She was always expecting to die young, but hey, we kept her going until she was 70," says an emotional Greagg.

Greenwood — who "had more illnesses than the mind could comfortably imagine" — was reluctant to discuss her health. 

"The one [illness] she was prepared to talk about was kidney failure," Greagg says. 

She ended up on dialysis in her 50s and desperately needed a transplant. When it turned out Greagg wasn't a match, one of her sisters came forward. 

"But it was very hairy for the first six to eight months when the kidney was rejected," Greagg says. 

"Then suddenly it settled down and became probably the healthiest part of her. Kerry used to say, 'I thank my beloved sister every day of my life.'"

A dream career

Greenwood's ambition was to be a legal aid solicitor and a best-selling author. 

She achieved both, working as a criminal defence lawyer for Victorian Legal Aid for more than two decades and, on her 18th attempt, publishing her first work of fiction, Cocaine Blues, in 1989, introducing her now-famous 1920s' sleuth, Phryne Fisher. 

"Kerry was the first person from her school to study law at the University of Melbourne and the only working-class woman in the law school," Greagg says.

Fame came in 2012 with the ABC TV series Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries written by powerhouse SeaChange duo Deb Cox and Fiona Eagger. 

"We clicked almost immediately. She had a very big sense of moral justice through being a solicitor and representing the great unwashed. That was in Phryne's character as well," Eagger notes. 

In 2020, Cox and Eagger released a feature film, Fisher and the Crypt of Tears. Their latest Phryne adaptation is a Sydney Theatre Company play, Death By Deckchair, on stage in 2027.

Greagg is currently working on another posthumous gift — Greenwood's autobiography. When asked for a favourite memory of his soulmate, he smiles.

"After a new book came out, we would celebrate with champagne, and then she'd say: 'Have I been a good cat?' And I would reply, 'Yes, you've been a very good cat!'"

Just Desserts by Kerry Greenwood is published by Allen & Unwin.