Murder Lo Mein

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Lana Lee is finally the full-time manager of the Ho-Lee Noodle House and she's happy to be in charge. In Murder Lo Mein by Vivien Chien, Lana enters the restaurant in the second annual Best Noodle Contest, knowing last year's winner wasn't really as good as Ho-Lee. (Murder Lo Mein will be released on March 26 by St. Martin's Paperbacks.)

Last year's winner, Ray Jin, is now a judge for this year's competition along with noted food critic and professional crouch Norman Pan and Stella Chung, hometown girl who made it big in Chicago. The competition is really between the Ho-Lee Noodle house and the House of Shen, but a few others restaurants have been allowed to compete.

Peter, Lana's chef is anxious because he knows how much is at stake for Asia Village, especially after the events of the last few months. Lana knows Peter's noddles are truly the best and she is confident they will win. The contest consists of three rounds before the winner is declared.

The first round finds Peter as the winner and Norman Pan receiving a threatening fortune cookie. It said If you do not seek out allies and helpers, then you will be isolated and weak. Ian discovers it is from Sun Tzu's The Art of War. Why would Norman receive it and what could it mean?

Later at the celebration party at Penny's Bamboo Lounge, everyone is relieved the first round is over. Suddenly there is a scream from inside the party room. and one of the judges is found dead. As much as she promises her detective boyfriend Adam Trudeau she will stay out of the investigation, Lana and her pal Megan cannot help themselves.

When another judge dies, it appears someone doesn't like the judges and is trying to ruin the contest. Lana wants nothing to stop her restaurant from winning this year, so she plunges headlong into the investigation.

Lana is a terrific character, but with her mother occupied by her visiting grandmother, we don't have as much of Mrs. Lee in this book. Too bad because she is every woman's mother and is so funny. Ho-Lee Noodle House sounds like a terrific restaurant and add the new doughnut shop next door and you have a great place for lunch. Stop by some time, if you dare.

Dim Sum of All Fears

Lana Lee yearns for a job outside of her parents' Chinese restaurant and, in fact, has a job interview for an office manager position. In Dim Sum of All Fears by Vivien Chien, her mother upends those plans by announcing she and her husband have to return to Taiwan to care for Lana's grandmother. Guess who ends up managing the restaurant, and to her on surprise, she is quite good at it. (Dim Sum of All Fears will be released on August 28.)

Newlyweds Isabelle and Brandon own the souvenir shop next door and Lana has become friends with Isabelle. But an apparent murder-suicide next door to the restaurant sets Lana off on another investigation. Of course her sort-of boyfriend Detective Adam Trudeau discourages her involvement.

The more Lana learns about the husband of her murdered friend, the more she wants to solve the crime. There are several ex-wives in the picture and Brandon's long absences from the store make Lana suspicious of him.


When the police discover it wasn't a murder-suicide, but two murders, Lana and her roommate Megan decide to put their newly acquired investigating skills to the test. When Brandon's ex-wives begin to show up demanding possession of the souvenir store, Lana doubles down on investigating.

Lana discovers Brandon spent a lot of time at the local casino and when one of the wives decides she wants to liquidate everything from the store and return to New York, something doesn't sound right with Lana. The other ex-wife is an aggressive bully and she wants to take control of the store immediately so she can turn it into a high end purse store.

Surprising information from a loan shark appears to point in another direction and confuses Lana even more. With Detective Trudeau on the case, Lana quietly tries to solve it without getting herself in trouble with him

Another smart, sassy mystery for Lana. Even though her mother is thousands of miles away, her presence is felt in this book in her usual quirky fashion.

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Death by Dumpling

When Lana Lee rashly quits her job, she is forced to do something she hasn't wanted to do - work in her parents Chinese restaurant. The restaurant called Ho-Lee Noddle House is in the middle of a quaint Asian Village shopping center owned by Chinese entrepreneur Mr. Feng. In Death by Dumpling by Vivien Chien, Lana finds job hunting to be difficult in the northeast Ohio so she bows to pressure from her mother a joins the restaurant team.

When Lana stops to deliver Mr. Feng's lunch to him at his office, she hears yelling from inside. Bursting out of the door is Kimmy Tran, whose parents own the China Cinema and Song Asian video and music shop in the complex. Kimmy rages that Mr. Feng is planning to raise the rents on the shops and this will hurt her parents' business. She huffs off muttering threats against Mr. Feng.

Lana delivers his usual meal making sure there is no seafood in the dumpling because Mr. Feng is very allergic to shellfish. Within hours Mr. Feng is dead from anaphylactic shock from shellfish. Lana is sure she had seen the EpiPen in his shirt pocket. What could have gone wrong?

Without warning, Pete, her parents chief, is arrested for the murder, Lana and her roommate Megan decide to "take the case." With her trusty detective notebook in hand, Lana decides to start interviewing suspects. At her condolence call to Mrs. Feng, she asks pointed questions about Pete and Mr. Feng's partner Ian Sung. What is to become of the little enclave?

But all is not what it seems in the lives of the Asian Village shop owners. As Lana digs deeper she finds some secrets don't stay hidden no matter how hard you try to bury them.

This is the first in a new series and I enjoyed it very much. Although Lana's family owns a Chinese restaurant, the author does not play on stereotypical  Chinese behavior which I thought was a good direction. She makes the Asian Village come alive and you can almost see the pagoda-style buildings. And I was craving Chinese food after reading it!