Murder Lo Mein by Vivien Chien

St. Martin's Press | March 2019 | 304 pgs

Source: Library 

This is the third installment of A Noodle Shop Mystery series and this time around our protagonist, Lana Lee, finds herself in another mystery with a noodle contest as its core of the premise.

Now that Lana's been made manager of her family's Chinese restaurant, she devotes all the time and attention in the business so when Asia Village organises a Best Noodle Contest, she decides that she'll win it at all costs. But of course there are others who are eyeing for the first place too, and competition is stiff considering there is a newcomer who decides she wants to join, despite she is running a lounge (although to be fair, she does serve noodle as a side). And then, there's a participant who felt he was unfairly judged by the past contest. There are three judges and one of them is a food critic. 

However, before the contest come to a close, one of the judges was found dead, face-down in a bowl of lo mein. Lana, as always, decides to take matters into her own hands and begin to take a closer look at everyone who's involved in the contest. Detective Adam Trudeau, who's officially her boyfriend in this installment, doesn't want her to get involved in the case for her own safety but of course Lana wouldn't listen. As Lana digs further, she soon learned that some people are trying to keep their past a secret and Lana intends to find out why. 

Once again, Vivien Chien has "cooked up a storm" in this latest installment (can be read as a stand-alone but I'd suggest to start from the first book for the character developments). I find myself enjoying this series the more I read them and am glad to note the relationship between Lana and Adam has finally come to light in this book. Lana is easy to like and then there's her black pug which is named Kikko (short for Kikkoman, a soy sauce brand). The reader will also get to know a bit more of Adam in this story, since there's not much mention of his history in the previous books. And of course, it was fun reading Lana going about and digging for the case, even if her stubbornness can get to you at times but that's one of her traits. Overall this is an enjoyable cozy mystery series; most of all I couldn't resist the cute book covers. 

Books in order:
1) Death by Dumpling 
2) Dim Sum of All Fears

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