Murder with Lemon Tea Cakes

by Karen Rose Smith

If you like tea shops and cozy mysteries, Murder with Lemon Tea Cakes is perfect for you. It is a clean mystery with great characters and is an introduction to a series that continues throughout to entertain and to pose puzzles captivating you with thoughts of “whodunit.” I am qualified to say that because, now having read book #1, I am only missing two books to finish off the ten book series. 

Daisy Swanson, a widow with two teenage daughters, and her Aunt Ida opened a tearoom in Willow Creek, Pennsylvania. Ida has been getting serious with Harvey Fitz, owner of an expensive men’s clothing store nearby. When a murder occurs in the gardens of the tea shop, Detective Rappaport investigates with all the sensitivity of a water moccasin, accusing Ida of the murder and continuing to focus on her as the criminal in this case saying she vandalized her own house and created stories that someone was following her.

On the positive side, the reader learns how a tea shop works. Daisy and her best friend Tessa put in long hours trying to create special treats for the customers and please them with exceptional and exclusive events and service. Daisy has two gentlemen interested in her. Cade, her realtor, was her high school date to the prom. Jonas, a retired detective, has a furniture store near her shop. He stocks beautiful furniture made by Amish craftsmen and by himself.

Other threads include Vi (Violet), Daisy’s college age daughter, and Jazzi (Jasmine), a high school student. Jazzi was adopted as a baby in a closed adoption, but she is now interested in finding her biological mother.

Although I read 7 books in the series without the benefit of the background in Murder with Lemon Tea Cakes, I very much enjoyed this book. It was nice to see “old friends” and fill in some details. It is a tribute to the author, however, that she was able to keep the plot developing as she shared background information in each book. 

Rating: 4/5

Category: Mystery

Notes: 1. #1 in the Daisy’s Tea Garden Mystery Series

    2. There are three recipes at the end of the novel.

Publication:  January 2018—Kensington

Memorable Lines:

She didn’t know if he’d ever called her by her name before. It was one of those things—until you knew a person well, you didn’t really use their name. Names had power. Names conveyed meaning.

“Something good from something bad. My brother and sister and  I are closer since Mom died. That’s one good thing that came from something bad. You have to look really hard sometimes, but if you do, you can find it.” Daisy liked Foster.

Adult women needed best friends just as much as third-graders.