Lemon Tart

By Josi S. Kilpack

A recipe for murder!

5 families living on Peregrine Circle
1 flowered curtain tieback
1 missing child
1 body in the field

Mix with a long list of suspects and top with two very different detectives. Increase heat until only the truth remains.

In this debut volume, cooking aficionado-turned-amateur detective, Sadie Hoffmiller, tries to solve the murder of Anne Lemmon, her beautiful young neighbor-a single mother who was mysteriously killed while a lemon tart was baking in her oven. At the heart of Sadie’s search is Anne’s missing two-year-old son, Trevor. Whoever took the child must be the murderer, but Sadie is certain that the police are looking at all the wrong suspects-including her! Armed with a handful of her very best culinary masterpieces, Sadie is determined to bake her way to proving her innocence, resucing Trevor, and finding out exactly who had a motive for murder.


I hadn’t read a murder mystery in probably oh 5 years when I picked this culinary cozy up. To be honest, I used to be addicted to mysteries, but got really sick of them after a major overdose as a teenager. This book was fun for a mystery, having an older lady as the sleuth. I also really enjoyed the recipes scattered throughout the novel and was actually pretty excited to try a few of them out. As for the story and the mystery, I think lots of mystery lovers would really enjoy this new spin on the genre. There are currently 3 books in this little series; the next being English Trifle, and Devil’s Food. As for me, I didn’t much care for it. That was mostly the result of the depressing nature of murder mysteries because they contain, well, murder among other nasty things that I’d rather not dwell on. To me, mysteries seem to pull out the worst things that humanity is capable of and flaunting them so people think it is ingenious how others pull the wool over their eyes and “get away with it”. Yikes. That’s just my opinion though. If you like mysteries and have no problems with them, then absolutely and definitely read Lemon Tart.