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 helping 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 … 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.
“Vivien Chien serves up a delicious mystery with a side order of soy sauce and sass. A tasty start to a new mystery series!” –Kylie Logan, bestselling author of Gone with the Twins
“Deathby Dumpling is a fun and sassy debut with unique flavor, local flair, and heart.” –Amanda Flower, Agatha Award–winning author of Lethal Licorice
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I really enjoyed the first Noodle Shop Mystery! It’s a fun mystery set in a shopping center in Ohio that features Asian restaurants and speciality shops. I’ve ordered the next book and I’m looking forward to reading more of Lana Lee’s adventures.
This was a good read! The story was solid even if the mystery portion was obvious, but my favorite part was the colorful characters! They were so much fun!
I picked this book up because the main character was Asian-something I don’t typically see. Also, it’s fun to compare my Asian background to those in books because it’s like walking down memory lane-with all the highs and lows of growing up in a household of dual cultures:)
Lana Lee has landed back at her parents’ Chinese restaurant as a waitress in an effort to get her life back together. She thinks she’s hit rock bottom, but she’s wrong. Not too long after delivering Mr. Feng his usual order of dumplings, the man is found dead. Somehow, he got shellfish dumplings instead of the pork he ordered. With the police looking at everyone at the restaurant, Lana starts poking around to clear herself and the rest of the employees. But is one of them really guilty?
This was a very fun debut. The mystery is good, although the pacing does lag a bit in the middle. It does pick up again in the final third, giving us some great twists and turns before we reach the logical climax. The characters are mostly strong, which some room to grow as the series progresses. I did feel that Lana’s mother was the weakest characters, and I hope she is fleshed out more as the series progresses. I will definitely be back for seconds.
Dollycas’s Thoughts
While not a fan of Chinese food, this cover caught my attention, plus it was the first book in a new series so I added to my Kindle immediately.
Lana Lee has grown up working in her mother’s restaurant but never expected to back working there now. Her mother is quite pleased because having her close means she can work on finding Lana a husband. That is the last thing on Lana’s mind.
The restaurant is part of the Asia Village. A plaza that is part of the original Chinatown area on the east side of Cleveland. It is managed by Mr. Feng, who orders lunch from the Ho-Lee Noodle House all the time. The staff knows his dietary restrictions by heart. So when the man is found dead in his office right after finishing his Ho-Lee dumplings everyone is in shock. The chef becomes the #1 suspect and Lana decides she needs to be the one to serve up the real killer. That is if they don’t kill her first.
Ms. Chien has cooked up a great start for this Noodle Mystery Series. A fresh new idea bringing the Asian culture to cozy readers.
The staff at Ho-Lee Noodle House are family. They have known and worked together for years. The same can be said of most of the store owners in the plaza. The author does an excellent job of introducing the cast and the connections to each other. She also introduces Lana’s roommate/friend, Megan Riley, Detective Trudeau and Lana’s dog Kikko. They are an eclectic cast of characters and very well developed for the first book in a series.
The book had a good pace, my finger was swiping the pages rapidly. Twists and turns, and drama that took us to some unexpected places. Lana was a determined sleuth, no matter how many times Detective Trudeau told her to leave the investigation to him. The author took us on a delightful journey to catch the killer with some hard to figure out clues.
I found the setting very interesting and enjoyed learning how the plaza had evolved over the years and how it was the heart of this community.
An entertaining cozy. Mystery, humor and just a bit of romance served up with noodles and dumplings on the side. Vivien Chien has brought a fresh voice to this genre and I am hungry for more. I have marked my calendar, Dim Sum of All Fears will be released August 28.
Death by Dumpling by Vivien Chien is the first book in A Noodle Shop Mystery series. A series of incidents (bad break up, quitting her job, and her parents losing a full-time server) has Lana Lee once again working at her parent’s restaurant Ho-Lee Noodle House in Fairview Park, Ohio. Lana takes lunch over to Mr. Feng, the owner of Asia Village and overhears Kimmy Tran yelling at him. A short time later, Esther Chin rushes in with the news that Mr. Feng is dead. Detective Adam Trudeau arrives to question the restaurant staff and informs them that Mr. Feng died from an allergic reaction to shrimp dumplings. Mr. Feng ordered pork dumplings. All the residents of Asia Village knew about Mr. Feng’s shellfish allergy and the Ho-Lee cooks even use special pans to prepare his food. Lana and her family are shocked when Detective Trudeau arrests Peter Huang, Ho-Lee’s cook, for Mr. Feng’s murder. Lana knows Peter did not harm Mr. Feng and sets out to dish up the truth.
Death by Dumpling is the first Asian cozy mystery that I have read (I have not seen one before). I like the authors unique premise of an Asian shopping center in Northeast Ohio (Cleveland area). The village sounded unique and a place I would love to visit. There are mouthwatering descriptions of the delicacies served at Ho-Lee Noodle House (had me craving Chinese). Lana Lee is a typical late twenties female character who fails to think things through completely, says the wrong thing, clumsy and gets tongue tied around handsome men (sounds like the main character in several books that I have read recently). I felt that Lana lacked depth as did the other characters in the book. Lana has a typical relationship with her sister, Anna May (she is the older sister and going to law school). I found Death by Dumpling to be nicely written and have smooth transitions, but the pace was a little slow. I also felt the book was too long at 352 pages. Fifty or so pages could have easily been edited out. There are two love interests for Lana (of course). Is there a rule that cozy mystery authors must include a romantic entanglement for their main character? The mystery was straightforward, and it lacked surprises. I wanted a good twist. The culprit can easily be picked out early in the story. The investigation consists of Lana and her roommate, Megan Riley questioning people and speculating on who could have committed the crime. There needed to be some action which would have helped the pacing. My rating for Death by Dumpling is 3 out of 5 stars. A Noodle Shop Mystery series has potential, and I hope the author ups her game in the next installment which is Dim Sum of All Fears.
Interesting debut with protagonist Lana Lee working as a waitress at her parents Chinese restaurant. She thinks her life is ho-hum until the murder of a businessman in the Asia Village throws suspicion on the cook who works at the Ho-Lee Noodle House.
Megan, Lana’s best friend and roomie, is a fun, energetic character and co-sleuth. The Lee Family is pretty normal outside the restaurant, and Mom doesn’t like re-scheduling and missing her soap opera! I enjoyed this story with its clean Murder mystery, humor, great main characters, and great evil characters. I look forward to getting to know everyone better in future books, and learning about the Asian community and culture in the Village.
This is a charming series, filled with fun characters and a world I’ve never visited. A cozy mystery filled with delicious food and a tasty mystery.
Great read! Enjoyed the setting and characters very much!
Funny and poignant.
Likable characters, easy read, good to read when traveling or at the beach.
Death by Dumpling is the first book in A Noodle Shop Mystery series. This is also the first book I’ve read by this author and it definitely won’t be the last! After a brutal breakup and a job loss Lana Lee finds herself back in Cleveland working at her parents restaurant. Not exactly where she wants to be but it will do while she gets her life back in order. When the property manager, Mr. Feng, is found dead and the means of death was a severe allergy to to shellfish, found in the dumplings Lana delivered to him, questions abound. Everyone knew about his allergy so how did the shellfish end up in the dumplings? Who would want him dead and why? Lana begins to investigate on her own. I love all the characters in this book and the mystery is well written. In fact I loved it so much I went out and bought the next several books in the series! I highly recommend this book!
I finally read book one of this delectable series. Vivien Chien is a true delight to the culinary cozy mystery world. I have devoured every book like a starving reader.
In Death by Dumpling we meet Lana, learn how she started her hobby of amateur sleuthing, and how her relationship with Detective Trudeau began. Chien gives her characters depth from the beginning. I like that Lana is strong but still has reservations and questions where her life is at this moment in time. It makes Lana as it is human nature to be reserved after a tough breakup. The fact that she does not let it knock her down completely is a sign she has inner strength. Inner strength she needs to deal with the murders she runs into.
Each book in the series can be read as a standalone but as always you get more from the series read in order. Cozy mystery lovers who love culinary series will be a fan of this series. Hurry by the first four books in the series as a gift for the reader in your life.
I liked the idea of a murder mystery set around a Noodle Shop. I like original themes for cozies and a noodle shop wasn’t something I had read about before. So I curiously started this series. The mystery is well done, the Asian theme was interesting, but something was missing to fully pull me in.
The mystery was probably my favorite part of this book. It was quite well done, although I have some minor issues with the mystery too. I thought it was interesting and there were lots of possible suspects and possible motivates. Lots of options, but nothing conclusive for a long time and also not many suspects that get crossed of the list early on. It does take some time for the investigation to really get somewhere. With many suspects and few solid leads, it feels like it’s standing still for a bit. There are some interesting hints and tidbits that Lana learns and then once things really start rolling it becomes quite interesting.
It did feel like the pacing was a bit off with the mystery, with it going slow at first and then once they find an important lead, things suddenly go a lot faster. It also was hard to piece some things together with vague hints. Like a certain picture they see, but we as the reader can’t so it’s hard to start puzzling from that. Or partial hints we get, but nothing solid and they lack impact without that. And then there are a few hints that aren’t quite what they seem, which was interesting. Then toward the end things suddenly goes a lot faster and the wrap up felt almost rushed. Looking back after I finished the book it surprised me that two big questions or possible clues weren’t investigated much as it felt clear that they could’ve been important. I wasn’t surprised at the murderer, although the motive was something that got unraveled quite late. The police does seem to work on the case and follow the same leads as the main character, but at the same time they didn’t really seem that capable.
Even tough the mystery was interesting enough for some reason this book didn’t fully catch my attention. Something about it was just missing to really pull me in. Maybe it’s also because I didn’t read long periods of time at once, so it felt like the pace was slow. Everything was good enough, but never quite reached that level of great or kept me fully engaged.
This story is told from the point of view of Lana, when she and her friend Peter get accused of murder she decides to help investigate. I liked her dog Kikkoman and her best friend Megan, but would’ve liked to see a bit more of the dog. Megan actually helps her with the investigation and I liked how they seemed good friends, but also could disagree on things. Lana was nice enough, but I never fully warmed up to her. I just wanted something more about her that made her likable or interesting. Now most of what she did was what other characters called moping around the house or she was investigating the murder. There were some scenes in the restaurant, but not many, more to show that she worked, than that I really got a feel for how her job was. I also never really got the feeling whether she was happy or not with her life and job. It just was.
I liked the setting with the Asian Plaza and the multitude of Asian stores that are there and the people who work there. While there are a bunch of characters, there weren’t many that were really interesting or likable enough to make me want to read more about them.
There is a bit of potential romance or even a love triangle. I have to admit the romance didn’t work for me at all. The detective was handsome, but that’s about all we know about him. I didn’t feel any spark or connection between him and Lana. I also have read so many books with the detective as love interest that it just isn’t as interesting of a set-up unless its really well done. And Ian just felt a bit like a creep with how he kept asking her out. And I wish Lana would’ve been honest enough to him and just say what she thought.
To summarize: this book has an interesting theme set around a noodle store in an Asian plaza. The mystery is quite interesting, with plenty of suspects and motives. The pacing is a bit off at times, but parts that felt slow and then things speeding up toward the end. It was interesting to find out some secrets and while I wasn’t surprised at the murderer I hadn’t thought of that motive yet, but it made sense. The story is told from Lana’s point of view, while nice enough I didn’t really find her that likable or interesting. There are plenty of side characters, but again most weren’t really likable or interesting enough that I wanted more. there is a bit of set-up for a potential romance. The detective seems the most likely candidate, but besides him being handsome I didn’t feel like we really get to know much about him and I didn’t really feel their connection. All in all this was a decent read with a nice mystery, but I don’t think I’ll be continuing the series.
4.5 stars.
I really enjoyed Death by Dumpling. It was neat to visit a whole complex of potential suspects, and I liked the restaurant atmosphere depicted. The book was fast-paced, and I admired the revealing of what happened behind the murder. (I was able to guess the end a bit early, but that may have been due to my cultural background.)
I took off half a star because of some difficulty I had relating to the character in the beginning. Guess I’m just not the same make-up/shopping kind of gal as the protagonist. Also, I felt like some of the stores in plaza were a mish-mash of Asian versus being specifically of one clear culture. Even the restaurant offered udon noodles (or rather, the mom cooked it for the daughter), which is unusual if it’s a straight Chinese establishment. (I was also a bit surprised that the mom spoke Cantonese, since it’s more usual to have Mandarin, Taiwanese/Hokkien, or even Hakka as languages spoken in Taiwan.)
But I would say I enjoyed the start of this series and the actual mystery. A fun read!
A great start to this Asian “flavoured” cozy mystery. I loved this unique setting in the Asian Village Plaza a shopping mall with little Chinese shops.
When the property manager of the Village Plaza is killed with dumplings from the restaurant owned by Lana’s family she wants to find out who killed the man. Lana and her roommate Megan make a great sleuthing team.
A very good mystery with just a touch of romance sprinkled on top. I am looking forward to the next book in this series.
I requested this book from NetGalley and am thankful that St. Martin’s Press and the author provided me with an advance copy.
Lana Lee is working at her family restaurant Ho-Lee Noodle House. Landing there after a tough break up followed by a falling out at work, it’s tough with her mother constantly trying to bring up her love life, but it’s not too bad of a gig. Things are pretty lax there for the most part. That is until Mr. Feng, the property owner ends up dead. Even more shocking is that it seems he was intentionally given dumplings containing shrimp replacing his ordered specifically from Ho-Lee Noodle House causing him to go into anaphylaxis shock. Everyone at the restaurant knew about Mr. Fengs severe shellfish allergy, so how did he end up with an order of shrimp dumplings? All fingers point to Lana and Peter, a cook at the restaurant. Lana doesn’t believe for a second that Peter did it. Determined to clear her family’s name as well as her own, Lana, along with her best friend Megan, set out to investigate what really happened. During her investigation, secrets begin to surface, lengthening the suspect list. Can Lana and Megan uncover the truth before someone else gets hurt?
I have been eying this cozy mystery for a while now. I finally decided to pick it up over the weekend and honestly would have finished the same day I started, but well, life lol. I got the audio version of this book and I really enjoyed it. The narrator did a pretty good job. I really enjoyed this book. It was cute, entertaining, the perfect amount of mystery, and a dash of romance. I love cozy mysteries like this to break up the more intense books I read. I would definitely recommend this book, which is actually the first book in a series. So if you’re looking for a new cozy mystery series, try this one out. I’ll keep you posted! Happy reading! I rate this
Vivien Chien
Lana Lee is working for her mother at the Ho-Lee Noodle House as a waitress. She quit her previous job after being bullied by a boss in a meeting and following a traumatic break-up.
When Mr. Feng, the plaza owner and manager, is found dead. Lana’s life turns upside down as she may have been the last person to see him alive. Things grow worse when the cause of death is a dumpling from the noodle house. Suddenly Lana is one of the suspects in the crime. She is determined to clear her name and not end up a victim herself.
This is the first book in the Noodle Shop Mystery series by Vivien Chen. I enjoyed it tremendously and highly recommend it. The characters are very well written and realistic. I can still picture the expressions on their faces as I reflect on different parts of the story. The setting, Asian Village Plaza, was interesting to me. It is much like the small-towns I normally see in cozy mysteries. The story’s plot kept me interested in what would happen next.. I strongly suspected the murderer and made a prediction that turned out to be spot on. I look forward to reading the next book.
Book 133 towards my goal of 290! 3.5/5 stars for this cozy mystery. It was fairly long for a cozy, and a bit slow in spots. I did enjoy the storyline, and the family dynamics. Don’t think I’ll be continuing this series.
I adored this book, it was incredibly fun to read. This author is new to me but I fully intend to read more of her books and follow Lana on her further adventures.
I just loved this one! Lana was such a great character. I loved all the neighborhood characters. The mystery was interesting. I cannot wait to read more by this author.