This cozy little mystery series has been a nice change of pace for me. Sometimes books really shake you up, make you upset, and just make your heart hurt. That’s fine; books are supposed to broaden our horizons and expand our empathy. But sometimes you just want something predictably fun, and that’s what this series is.
In Death by Dumpling, Lana works at her parents noodle shop in Asia Village, a pagoda-inspired mall full of Asian shops. She’s between jobs, disgruntled at working back with her family, and just off a bad break-up. What better way to shake her out of her misery than a good, old murder mystery! The director of the Village is found dead in his office from an allergic reaction to shellfish, and everyone’s pointing the finger at Lana (who delivered his last meal) and Peter (the cook for the restaurant). After meeting the police detectives—including dreamy Detective Trudeau—and deciding they cannot solve this problem alone, Lana and her roommate, Meghan, decide to dig up the dirt themselves.
Dim Sum of All Fears picks up a month after the first book ends. Lana is still reeling from her findings surrounding Mr. Feng’s murder, but she doesn’t have time to mope. Her parents are taking a surprise trip to Taiwan to visit her grandmother, and they’re leaving the restaurant management to Lana—much to her older sister’s chagrin. While her parents are away, there’s another grizzly murder at Asia Village. This time Lana’s close friend Isabelle and her husband Brandon are found murdered in their small souvenir shop. What first seems like a murder/suicide turns out to be much more than that. Detective Trudeau is back on the case and this time is determined to keep Lana out of trouble.
If there is such a genre as a mystery-rom-com, this would be in it. It’s got the will-they-won’t-they love interest, the roommate side-kick, and spurned ex-lovers. Oh, and murder mysteries! I enjoyed these books because they read similar to YA books: they aren’t difficult, the action in the story is spaced so you won’t have any long lulls, and I read each book in about two days. Like I’ve said before, sometimes you need the Hallmark channel movie instead of an Oscar nominated film, and this is the literary equivalent.
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