Élan Les Vies’ The Lemon Twist comes out May 26, 2026. After her father’s descent into his gambling addiction, her mother’s untimely death-by-lighting strike, and her sister’s disappearance, 19-year-old Iris Sailor lives and breathes figure skating. That is, until her drug use is discovered and her dreams of going to the Olympics are snatched away. Hopelessly alone, all Iris wants is to talk to Sam, her older sister. When she finds a postcard postmarked September 14, 1981, the day Sam disappeared three years ago, Iris takes the note on the back seriously (“HELP”) and goes looking for her sister. After all, she has all the time in the world now.
Although The Lemon Twist is not specifically a sapphic romance but a mystery thriller, it is a big proponent of the story. It’s half told by Sam’s tape recordings from beyond the grave, detailing to Iris how she met her girlfriend and willingly followed her into life with a contagious terminal illness. I found Sam’s story romantic, albeit tragically so. To meet a woman and immediately decide she’s worth spending the rest of your days isolated in a quarantine facility, slowly dying a painful death if it means staying in her presence until the end, feels quintessentially sapphic.
Although it has been awhile since I’ve delved into a mystery, I do love them so. I’m by no means a connoisseur of the genre but I greatly enjoyed connecting dots and finding clues along the way. Towards the end, I realized I missed some clues I thought I should have caught, but that’s what makes mysteries fun to read. It wasn’t so difficult that you couldn’t put anything together (which would be incredibly frustrating, to be left in the dark as a reader), but not obvious enough that the twists weren’t surprising. There was no point that I truly knew where the story was going even when I convinced myself I did. I read the whole thing in one afternoon just to get to the bottom of it.
As much as I enjoyed the mystery aspect, the ending left much to be desired (no spoilers!). I didn’t understand Iris’ (hetero) romance. There was a lack of chemistry between the characters and it felt thrown in at the last minute to save the happy ending. I’d almost label it as deus ex machina. On the same note, the ending was wrapped up almost too neatly. For all the action throughout the story the end was too normal. There weren’t any true consequences to make the HEA feel earned or satisfying. Nothing was left up to interpretation either. As someone who likes to imagine the rest of the characters’ lives past the pages of the book, the ending left me feeling unfulfilled. However, the ending is only a sliver of the story. I would still recommend adding The Lemon Twist to your TBR if you’re a fan of mysteries or thrillers. But be mindful of the content warnings!
Content warnings: eating disorders, abuse, addiction, religious trauma, homophobia, sexual assault
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