The Series of 'Noodle Shop Mystery'

When I borrowed Vivien Chien's 'Death by Dumpling' (2018), I didn't realize this was a full series of books known as the 'Noodle Shop Mystery'. I took a look at the titles and thought they were quite interesting. How could I not want to read 'Egg Drop Dead' (2020), fifth in this series? If this first book was good, I would continue. 

Set in modern day Cleveland, Ohio, where the author currently resides, 27-year-old Lana Lee has quit her job and is working at her family's Ho-Lee Noodle Shop in Asia Village at Fairview. The first book sees her trying to solve the murder of the shop's landlord and Asia Village property owner Thomas Feng's murder. Someone killed him by utilizing his shellfish allergies and taking away his EpiPen. He ate one shrimp dumpling and died. She also has her roommate and best friend Megan Riley to help her.

I was introduced to the characters, Lana's family and her mother's best friends Esther and Nancy, and the main tenants in Asia Village What followed is a tale of uncovering Asian family intrigue, illegitimate children, secrets, jealousy and a murder and a poisoning, as well as eye-rolling romantic possibilities. The language isn't too bad. Parts were relatable to an Asian child who grew up in an Asian or Chinese mixed-race family. 

She turned to Nancy. "Ai-ya, why did you come to work today?"

Nancy replied to her in Cantonese, of which I knew none. My mastery of Hokkien, the Taiwanese dialect her family spoke, was shaky from the lack of use and my Mandarin was starting to fizzle out of my brain. I swear my mother and her friends spoke Cantonese just to keep secrets from me and my sister. 

I was expecting a juicy tale and fun. The plot is okay. But it's a bit simplistic. For a 27-year-old protagonist, her investigative methods, opinions and approaches are like an 18-year-old's. The entire book didn't feel like adult fiction. It felt like what I would have enjoyed more as a teen. It's too... simplistic. I shouldn't compare Lana Lee to Nancy Drew, but it does feel like it, except the plot and language both books are equally cringe-worthy. 

'Fatal Fried Rice' (2021)

Since our NLB offers the entire selection of digital books, I decided not to bother reading chronologically or even read the whole series. As much as I like the titles, those aren't going to help with the holes in the plot and the language. I skipped the books written in 2018 and 2019 because I figured there wouldn't be any improvement in the writing. LOL 

I went straight to 2021's 'Fatal Fried Rice' and opened up the first page, fingers crossed. The author dedicated this book to her dog Sasha, for her "15 years of unconditional love and companionship." Awwwwww. But a few intervening years didn’t seem to have improved on any fun twists to a case. 

Lana Lee and Megan Riley are still co-renting an apartment, and are still best friends and partners in all these odd cases that come by their way. No, they're not professionals and they don't earn anything from it, except satisfaction and uncovering the truth. 

In this story, Lana has gone to take up a Chinese cooking class kept secret from her mother. It would be very embarrassing for anyone to find out that she, as the manager of Ho-Lee Noodle House couldn't cook and had to take eight weeks of Chinese cooking classes out in Parma. Of course her cooking instructor Margo Han was murdered right on the first night of the term. And Lana was the one who found her body. 

The case was investigated by the Parma precinct police. There’s a pompous and shortsighted Detective Bishop who seemed hellbent on making Lana his main suspect, and the community college’s janitor the accomplice. The case plodded along really slowly. At the end of the day, it was a matter of a step-daughter Bridget Hastings who is angered by her stepfather’s cheating ways and betrayal of her mother. Bridget’s anger got better of her and she ended up stabbing Margo Han, who was once involved with the stepfather. 

The story and plot are okay. But the writing and the manner Lana Lee investigates are both not quite to what I hoped for. I could only surmise that I’m really not the book’s intended audience.

Officer Weismann, the young police officer who had taken my statement the night of Margo's murder, had come to see me in place of Detective Bishop. Weismann didn't come out and say it, but he did hint—with a smirk—that it was because Bishop didn't want to face me knowing that he'd clearly been wrong about my and Larkin's guilt. The young officer updated me on what happened after Bridget and I had separated that day. He assured me that she was considered a flight risk and would mostly like not be released on bail.

Aside from not visiting me himself, Detective Bishop avoided me to the best of his ability on any matters in regard to the case, and all further communication was handled by Henry, who was still acting as my lawyer. He'd managed to also get me out of trouble somewhat, but told me if Bridget didn't plead guilty, I'd have to go to trial and testify. Kimmy too.

For now, I was safe, and no one was going to come after me for withholding evidence. Sabrina, for all it was worth, took on the brunt of the blame. She did agree to fully cooperate with the police, and since she was an otherwise upstanding citizen, they were going to go easy on her.

From the paragraphs above, it took me a while to consider that "and would mostly like not be released on bail" might be a phrasing issue and not a typo. It could have been easily edited to read "would likely not be released on bail." Right? 

'Peking Duck and Cover' (2024)

Undaunted, I finally read the most recent 'Peking Duck and Cover' (2024). Dunno about you, but the title is very funny to me. Occasionally, I have a rather lame sense of humor.

Nobody died from eating Peking duck in this story. There was simply Peking duck served at Lunar New Year banquet in which a performer at the backstage was fatally shot. Fingers were pointed, secrets unveiled, past relationships, infidelities, perspectives, feuds emerged. At the end of the day, Rhonda Hong's death was really needless, all embroiled within an effort for Nelson Ban to get back at David Hong. I'm sure there's a morality tale in there, but I wasn't going to go so deep into it. 

Come 2024, the style of writing hasn't changed. Lana Lee's voice still shone through. I thought, if it reads like an amateur piece of detective work, that's because she is an amateur detective, in spite of having a boyfriend who is an actual detective with the city's police department. She's still getting guns pointed at her, but she remains unscathed. 

In fact, I didn't even have to read any in between books, and as long as I have read the first book of the whole series, then I didn't seem to have missed anything between that and this book. Every character was still alive and existent in the book; nobody was estranged, and all was well, including the Mahjong Matrons who dutifully turn up at Ho-Lee Noodle Restaurant every day at 9am (except on Sundays when the Lee family has dim sum over at East Village's Li Wah) for their breakfast and tea. The sense of community within the tenants of Asia Village seems to be at the forefront of every book.

Like what Lana said, in her new career move back to working at her family's restaurant and not really going out to get another job, she was happy. She has found her community, her tribe in this Asia Village comprising family and friends, and a non-jerk boyfriend. She is home.

A burst of laughter escaped me at the absurdity of the conversation. As I scanned their faces, I realized there were no other people in this world I'd rather go through hell and back with. "Think larger," I said to the group. "The bat signal would be more apropos."

Okayyy. I'm done. Three books are quite sufficient to tell me that I'm either not its intended audience, or I'm never meant to be its intended audience. The mysteries don't engage me, and don't appeal to my dark side. I won't be reading any more books in this series.