Saturday, March 6, 2021

Review: Death by Dumpling by Vivien Chien

 


Genre: 
Cozy Mystery 

Format: 
Audio Book 

Publisher: 
Audible Audio 

Release Date: 
March 27, 2018 







Synopsis from Goodreads

Welcome to the Ho-Lee Noodle House, where the Chinese food is to die for. . . 

The last place Lana Lee thought she would ever end up is back at her family’s restaurant. But after a brutal break-up and a dramatic workplace walk-out, she figures that a return to the Cleveland area to help wait tables is her best option for putting her life back together. Even if that means having to put up with her mother, who is dead-set on finding her a husband. 

Lana’s love life soon becomes yesterday’s news once the restaurant’s property manager, Mr. Feng, turns up dead―after a delivery of shrimp dumplings from Ho-Lee. But how could this have happened when everyone on staff knew about Mr. Feng’s severe, life-threatening shellfish allergy? Now, with the whole restaurant under suspicion for murder and the local media in a feeding frenzy―to say nothing of the gorgeous police detective who keeps turning up for take-out―it’s up to Lana to find out who is behind Feng’s killer order. . . before her own number is up.  

My Review 

After quitting her last job, Lana Lee is forced to work in her parent’s restaurant, Ho-Lee Noodle House. For now, this is her best choice to earn a living as well as getting over a bad relationship break-up. Her mother is thrilled since she can concentrate on finding Lana a husband. 

Things take a nasty turn when the restaurant’s property manager is found dead. Unfortunately, for Lana and her family, it is right after he eats shrimp dumplings from their restaurant which happened to be delivered by Lana. The police turn their sights on Lana and the restaurant as their prime suspects. Lana vows to find the truth to protect herself, as well as her family’s business. 

This is the first book in Vivien Chien’s “A Noodle Shop Mystery” and I totally enjoyed listening to this book. The narrator does a wonderful job of telling the story. I felt as if the characters were standing right next to me. 

The author does a masterful job of creating quirky and lovable characters. Lana is now one of my favorite amateur sleuths. The story is clever and I was taken off guard at the killer reveal at the end. It wasn’t who I had expected at all. 

I've been wanting to read this series for awhile and I'm so glad I decided to listen to it on audio.   Excellent start to this series. 

One warning: I was really hungry for Chinese food throughout listening to this book.

 

For reading challenges: 
Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge 2021
Literary Escapes Reading Challenge 2021 (Ohio) 
The Backlist Reading Challenge 2021 
Cruisin’ thru the Cozies Reading Challenge 2021 

 Disclosure: I borrowed the audio book from the library . All opinions expressed are my own.

1 comment:

  1. I read a book in this series I think two books ago and really enjoyed it but somehow have never read any of the other books. This sounds like a good one!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for stopping by and visiting my blog! I always love reading comments and getting to know my readers!

After some careful consideration, I've decided to become an award-free blog. Although I appreciate and am honored by each and every award I've received, your comments and friendship are enough award for me. Thank you all so much for your thoughtfulness.

Due to way too many spam comments, I disabled the Anonymous User comments. We'll see if this works, otherwise I'll have to go back to word verification.