This past week I went on a campout with my two sisters for a “sister’s week”. We had a great time and all three of us were able to get in some good reading time; amazingly all three of us love to read. The book I chose was: Lemon Tart by Josi S. Kilpack. One of the reasons I bought this book is because I love yellow, I love Lemon’s and I love a good mystery – it looked good, it sounded good, so I bought!
Let me tell you, I was not disappointed one iota with Lemon Tart. Josi Kilpack has done a fantastic job of making her character, Sadie, a very real and likable person. Sadie is a kick in the pants and I loved her antics and her tenacity to go for what she believed was right, even to the point of putting her own life at peril.
In this volume, a middle aged widow named Sadie sets out in her amateur way to figure out who is responsible for the death of her beautiful neighbor. In so doing she both intrigues and ignites the tempers of the two Police detectives assigned to the case. In her awkward and meddling way Sadie finds that the people she thought she knew and loved were not the people she had believed them to be. She is flabbergasted at all of the neighborhood comings and goings that had been happening right under her nose, without her even noticing; which incensed her because she thought herself to be the watchdog of their cul-de-sac.
When two detectives come to her door to ask questions, Sadie somehow manages to get Detective Cunningham to help her make the apple sauce she was in the middle of canning. While at the same time Detective Madsen rubs her the wrong way. His determination to prove her guilty of the murder causes not only a clash with her but with his partner as well.
Sadie sets out taking baked goodies to certain neighbors to try and wheedle information from them while trying to prove herself innocent, solve the case and find the missing child at the same time. She ends up having to eat her own preverbal mud pie in the process. Nope, no recipe for mud pie included!
Josi Kilpack has done a great job with this mystery in keeping me guessing as to who the actual murderer is. The added bonuses of the recipes in Lemon Tart are a plus as far as I’m concerned and I will be making the Lemon Tart and the other recipes included. How can you go wrong with a book that gives you a good read, a good mystery, and a mouth watering recipe to boot?
This debut novel in a culinary mystery series is a must read for anyone who likes a good mystery with humor interlaced throughout. Rest assured I will be buying book two, English Trifle as soon as I can!
~Joyce
