Crime Rangoon - A Review

 Review

 

CRIME RANGOON by Vivien Chien
The Twelfth Noodle Shop Mystery 

 

Aside from Shanghai Donuts and her family's restaurant, the Modern Scroll is Lana Lee's favorite shop in Cleveland's Asia Village. After all books are food for the soul! Lana thrilled when one of her favorite authors, Charlene Chan is coming to the store for a book signing and Lana will be assisting as her handler, with a special perk of a private dinner with the author afterward. The event is running smoothly until an irate woman makes a scene claiming Charlene stole her book! Then a strange man dressed as the killer from her latest novel shows up, right before Charlene collapses. There will be no special dinner with the author-Charlene Chan has died. The murderer is copying scenes directly from Charlene's latest book. So much so, that instead of warning Lana to stay away, her boyfriend, Detective Adam Trudeau, actually asks for her help! Is this the end of the world? With reality mirroring the book, Lana has cause to be worried for though her helping may not be the end of the world, it may be the end of Lana Lee! 

 

I absolutely love Lana Lee and Asia Village and thoroughly enjoyed this, the twelfth Noodle Shop Mystery. Lana is so relatable, especially in her love of books! Who wouldn't love to hang out with their favorite author? Being a mystery, of course things go terribly wrong. I like how the killer was using Charlie's latest book as a template. Real life and fiction intertwined...just how far will it go?

 

It was also fun seeing Lana and Adam working together. Instead of hiding her sleuthing from him, she's able to share her expertise-and she is an expert at this point. It's not just her knowledge of the author, her work, and Asia Village, but with eleven mysteries behind her as well as the fact an actual private investigator wanted to hire her, she's had lots of experience solving crimes!

 

While there were several suspects I did realize the killer's identity early on. Was that my expertise as a former cop and mystery blogger or sheer luck? Perhaps a bit of both. Even so, I enjoyed waiting to see when the penny would drop and Lana would solve the murder.

 

Death imitates art in CRIME RANGOON so grab a bowl of noodles, or maybe a doughnut, and settle in to see Lana and her friends solve another murder at Asia Village.