Lemons and Grenades

After my 'Pillars of the Earth' disaster, I decided I wanted to read something safe and fun. This generally leads me to a quiet little genre known as LDS fiction, which is alot like Christian fiction and tends to be extremely safe.

So I headed on down to my new local library, which has an entire section devoted to just this one genre, and found a book I'd been eyeing for awhile called "Lemon Tart" by Josi Kilpack. It was exactly what I needed. Fluff.

This book falls into a category I'd never heard of before--culinary mystery--and had so many delightfully ridiculous moments that I couldn't help but laugh. In fact the main character, Sadie, reminded me so much of my own mother that I went so far as to call Jennifer and tell her all about the book.

And the best part is that not only did I get a nice read, I got some great recipes out of my time as well (the Alfredo Sauce recipe alone is worth getting the book).

But the book is a murder mystery and as those types of books go, there are some heavier topics.

Who killed Anne? Why did someone kill her? Where is her 2 year old son Trevor? Who is Trevor's father?

The further into the book I got the more the new song by Bruno Mars (Grenade) came to mind.

"Easy come, easy go, that's just how you live
Oh, take, take, take it all but you never give
Should've known you was trouble from the first kiss

Had your eyes wide open, why were they open?
Gave you all I had and you tossed it in the trash
You tossed it in the trash, you did
To give me all your love is all I ever asked"

The question, however, is who does the song pertain to? In books of this sort, the victim is seldom innocent themselves. So does it pertain to Anne? Or maybe the father? Or maybe one of the myriad of other suspects?

"I responded to the call about [him] this afternoon at Baxter's restaurant, but after talking to him, and being assured the man he assaulted didn't want to file charges, I let him go because I had no other reason to detain him..."

Sadie swallowed and berated herself for not coming clean sooner.

"Had I known all of this, I wouldn't have let him leave. That means he's still out there, on the street."

"You think he did it?" Sadie asked, leaning forward. "You think he killed Anne?"

[Detective] Cunningham let out a breath in frustration. "You do," he said bluntly. "And the rest of the investigation is moving very slowly. It's likely the best lead we've got--ten hours late."

"I'm really sorry," Sadie said, looking at the carpet beneath her feet. She thought about the intruder in Anne's house this evening and felt even worse. Whoever it was wasn't [him], but how would she tell the detective that?

"Is there anything else you would like to tell me?" The detective asked.

Later:

"Did you catch that?" Sadie said to Cunningham once the ugly gray door closed behind her...

The detective looked at her with a guarded expression and nodded....

"He doesn't know she was killed with a drapery tieback. He didn't do it."

... She looked through the glass and watched [him], head in his hands, slowly rocking back and forth in his chair. Misery exuded from him and her throat got thick again.

I guess you'll just have to read it and tell me who you think the song applies to.

In this post:

Book: Lemon Tart by Josi Kilpack
Music: Grenade by Bruno Mars