How The Cookie Crumbled
As sole heir to the Bredahl Cookies and Cakes fortune, Casper led a comfortable, happy-go-lucky life. Some would say, a charmed life.
Sure, there were challenges: relentless pressure to join the family business, and his unrequited feelings for former high school crush Raleigh Jackson. But yeah, a charmed existence, compared to life after being arrested for murder and spending nearly a year in Chippewa Falls County Jail, awaiting trial.
Exoneration, freedom, came at too steep a price. To say Casper isn’t in the mood for the holidays, is putting it mildly. In fact, the only thing he wants for Christmas is to see Detective Raleigh Jackson, the man responsible for wrongly putting him behind bars, get his just desserts.
Always love when a surprise release from a favorite author drops😉😉. Love it even more when it's a mystery from Josh Lanyon, the Queen of LGBTQ Who Done It?. So many wonderful authors in the mystery genre but there is just something special about Lanyon's storytelling that can make even the obvious culprits completely flabbergast the reader.
So onto The Lemon Drop Kid. What a great title! I keep picturing the lemon drop suck candies my grandparents always had in the house but in this case it's a lemon drop martini, the drink of choice of our hero, Casper Bredahl. To go with the awesome title is an even more fabulous book cover, martini glass full of floating skeleton heads is not only a bit creepy to fit the mystery side but also a bit comicbook-ish that shows you the fun loving guy Casper can be or should I say use to be, which brings me to my last observation on the cover: the two sides of who Casper is now, cynical because so many thought he was a killer and yet that carefree young man before the town turned on him still lingers underneath. I don't know maybe I'm reading too much into a cover but I love it!
I don't often talk much about the location setting of a story but how can I not in this case? When I read Chippewa County in the blurb I thought "it's gotta be somewhere else? How many people outside of the state even realizes there is a Chippewa County here in Wisconsin?" Nope, it was Chippewa County, WI which is only one county away from me, I can safely say I think that is the closest setting to my location yet. I mean, it's Western Wisconsin, our own state forgets we even exist half the time. So for that alone I applaud and want to thank Josh Lanyon.
So the mystery of Lemon Drop Kid? You know what's coming: you have to read for yourself because I won't spoil it. But OMG it's great. Yes, I had a feeling who the real culprit would be but I wasn't entirely correct on the why, so I was still guessing right up until the reveal. Spot on fun! The wrong guy getting arrested scenario happens a lot in all forms of fiction but rarely do we get to see what happens to them when they are cleared in the way of townspeople reactions or the wrongly accused reacting to their behavior. I think Josh Lanyon really captures that in this book. I don't know if the author sees this as cozy mystery? Personally I don't see dividing certain genres up, to me a mystery is a mystery, what kind of side content has no real baring on the overall story for me to break it down further but that's just me. I will say despite some of the more dramatic, or heart-hurting undertones of those around Casper and where they stood on his guilt or innocence, I do think there is a lightness to Lemon that made this a fun read on top of the mystery or the to-revenge-or-not-to-revenge quandary Casper finds himself in.
I look back at this review and I think I went off on a babble or two direction so I'm going to put it to you simply: The Lemon Drop Kid is a fun, heartbreaking, humorous, heartwarming, entertaining who done it that I couldn't put down until I finished and then I was kicking myself for not savoring it slower.
Prologue
“Well, well. If it isn’t the Lemon Drop Kid.”
Huddled in a booth at Cutter’s Mill Bar and Grill, Dax and I looked up from our drinks—and kept looking up—as Officer Raleigh Jackson, Little Copenhagen PD’s finest, gazed down at us with resignation.
Dax, being the goofball that he was, giggled.
Me, being whatever I was seventeen months ago, choked mid-swallow on my lemon drop martini.
Technically, it was a choke and a teeny-tiny splutter, made worse by Dax—still giggling maniacally—energetically pounding my back.
So, the teeny-tiny splutter became a full splashdown. I could see Raleigh—Officer Raleigh Jackson—prismed through the glittery drops of martini on my eyelashes. I think he was trying not to laugh.
But he sounded as serious as ever when he said, “Jeez, I hope neither of you juvenile delinquents plan on driving anywhere tonight.”
I found my voice and said, a little hoarsely from all the coughing, “You know we’re thirty, right?”
Raleigh’s lip curled. “You’re twenty-eight, Caz, and that’s a legal technicality.”
“Rude,” Dax observed.
We’ve been best friends since the sixth grade, Dax and I. No origin story. We randomly got seated next to each other in Mrs. Kaynor’s homeroom, and the rest was history
“I’ll say.” It did kind of sting, given it was Friday night and we weren’t doing anything that everyone else in the place—barring Officer Killjoy—wasn’t.
“You could drive us home,” Dax suggested. He flinched when I kicked him beneath the table, then grinned even more broadly.
Raleigh snorted. “Yeah, no. I’m on duty.”
“So?”
“So,” Raleigh shot back. A reminder that, sure, he was older, but not that much older, and snappy repartee had never been his long suit.
“I call bullshit,” Dax retorted. “You just ordered beer and a plate of potato skins to eat at the bar.”
That was news to me, and you’d have thought it was news to Raleigh, given his expression.
“Anyway, I’ve got a ride.” Dax added slyly, “You could drive Caz home, though.”
Dax always had a ride, literally and metaphorically. He was the original chick magnet: slim and blond with dark soulful eyes, which was false advertising because he was the least soulful person on the planet. He was also short, which I used to tell him was where the magnet part came in. He could have easily fit on the front of some lucky girl’s refrigerator.
Raleigh’s dark brows pulled into a straight and forbidding line. “Ha.”
Frankly, it was a pretty half-hearted effort. Like he was afraid he was going to be roped into driving the kiddy carpool, but knew it was his duty.
“HA!” I said with a lot more vim and vigor. Because thanks, but no thanks.
In fact, we got a few glances from our fellow drinkers.
Raleigh noticed the interested looks and retreated posthaste to the bar.
I glared at Dax. “Seriously?”
“Hey, he noticed you the minute he walked in here. I think he was going to grab his food and take off, but he changed his mind when he saw you. It’s mutual, man. You should go for it.”
“Go for it? What are we…” I groped for a suitably scathing descriptor because the idea that Raleigh might actually sort-of be even a little bit interested was way too… Much.
Dax supplied, “Horny? Yes, we are. And so’s he. Come on, you guys have been dancing around this since you were kids.
“He still thinks I am a kid,” I said a little bitterly.
“He’s only three years older than us.” Dax added slyly, “You know he’s not seeing that coach anymore.”
I grunted, but Dax grinned. “You don’t fool me. Your face is the color of your hair.”
My hair is brown with some reddish glints, so nope. I offered my middle finger in the hope he could still make out shapes.
But I can’t deny that the news Raleigh was no longer seeing Muskies football coach Harbin Folke cheered me up no end. So, when Dax eventually left with his girl du jour, I didn’t phone for an Uber.
I didn’t phone anybody. I sat there nursing my third lemon drop, watching out of the corner of my eye as Raleigh ate his loaded potato skins and chatted with the bartender.
When he finally pushed his plate away, my pulse picked up, because it was liable to look like I was waiting—hoping—
Because I was.
Raleigh half-turned on his stool, scanned the room casually, caught my gaze. We stared at each other. He glanced away, ordered a second beer, and when it came, he picked it up and wandered over to my booth.
So. Raleigh. Think of the boy next door in a 1950s rom com. His dad was chief of police and becoming a cop was all Raleigh wanted to be growing up. He was popular, he played quarterback three out of his four years in high school, and yep, right after college he became a cop. Also, he was tall, broad-shouldered, and long-legged. He had straight dark hair, light gray eyes, and a handsome, serious face. He did not look like someone who smiled much, and that was true, but he had a great laugh. His nose wrinkled just a bit, the corners of his eyes crinkled, and his chuckle came out all husky and boyish. It was one of my favorite sounds way back when making Raleigh laugh had been one of my goals in life.
I gazed up at him, and my heart was in my throat.
“Waiting for someone?” He looked very serious, so maybe he was just concerned with me driving while over the legal limit.
But Dax was right. It was now or never. So, I smiled. “I hope so.”
Raleigh tipped his head, like he was trying to see me better, then he gave a half-smile and slid into the booth across from me.
“It’s been a long time, Caz,” he said. “How’ve you been?”
“Great.” I shrugged. “Busy.”
“They make you vice president over at Bredahl Cookies and Cakes yet?”
“Nope. But there’s no escape.”
“You can run but you can’t hide?”
“Exactly. I can’t even run very far since I live in my sister’s backyard.”
Raleigh laughed that soft, husky laugh, and I got that warm, funny feeling in the pit of my stomach. There was a little twinkle in his pale eyes as he said in seeming commiseration, “Family business.”
“Yeah. Speaking of which. Have you made detective yet?” I mean, I knew he hadn’t. For one thing he still wore that snazzy navy-blue uniform that hugged his shoulders, thighs, and ass. For another, I’d have heard about that. The whole town would have heard about that.
Raleigh grimaced. “Still working on it. Pop says, the problem is nothing happens in Little Copenhagen that requires detecting.”
I grinned. Not only was Raleigh’s pop chief of police, his father before him, and his father before him had also been Little Copenhagen’s chief of police. There had never been any question of what Raleigh was going to be when he grew up. Just like there had never been any question of me eventually running Bredahl Cookies and Cakes.
The difference was, Raleigh loved being a cop. I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to do less than become a corporate executive for a cookie company. Even some of the most delicious cookies in the world cookie company.
Raleigh glanced at my empty martini glass, said lightly, “If you want another drink, I’ll drive you home.”
I gazed into his eyes, smiled. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” Raleigh held my gaze, slowly smiled.
Josh LanyonBestselling author of over sixty titles of classic Male/Male fiction featuring twisty mystery, kickass adventure and unapologetic man-on-man romance, JOSH LANYON has been called "the Agatha Christie of gay mystery."
Her work has been translated into eleven languages. The FBI thriller Fair Game was the first male/male title to be published by Harlequin Mondadori, the largest romance publisher in Italy. Stranger on the Shore (Harper Collins Italia) was the first M/M title to be published in print. In 2016 Fatal Shadows placed #5 in Japan's annual Boy Love novel list (the first and only title by a foreign author to place on the list).
The Adrien English Series was awarded All Time Favorite Male Male Couple in the 2nd Annual contest held by the Goodreads M/M Group (which has over 22,000 members). Josh is an Eppie Award winner, a four-time Lambda Literary Award finalist for Gay Mystery, and the first ever recipient of the Goodreads Favorite M/M Author Lifetime Achievement award.
Josh is married and they live in Southern California.Her work has been translated into eleven languages. The FBI thriller Fair Game was the first male/male title to be published by Harlequin Mondadori, the largest romance publisher in Italy. Stranger on the Shore (Harper Collins Italia) was the first M/M title to be published in print. In 2016 Fatal Shadows placed #5 in Japan's annual Boy Love novel list (the first and only title by a foreign author to place on the list).
The Adrien English Series was awarded All Time Favorite Male Male Couple in the 2nd Annual contest held by the Goodreads M/M Group (which has over 22,000 members). Josh is an Eppie Award winner, a four-time Lambda Literary Award finalist for Gay Mystery, and the first ever recipient of the Goodreads Favorite M/M Author Lifetime Achievement award.
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