I am once again very late, but at least “this” month (this is actually September’s book), I’ve managed to actually read a Cozy for my long-running series on the most popular and recommended Cozy Mystery Series, mostly taken from reader suggestions.
Today I’ll be discussing Death by Bubble Tea, the first in the L.A. Night Market Mystery Series by Jennifer J. Chow. Unfortunately, this is a rather brief series – it’s the first of two, and it seems unlikely to receive more entries as the author has moved on to another series. So why did I read this one? Well, first, it was the most recommended of her series – no more specific reason than that.
Having recently lost her job at an Ervine, California bookshop due to declining sales in walk-in customers, Yale Yee has suddenly found herself at loose ends when her father asks her to pick up her cousin, Celine, who is visiting suddenly from Hong Kong. Yale finds her suddenly asked to pick up her glamorous social media influencer cousin from the airport, who she feels little connection with, and doesn’t particularly like – unsurprising, as Celine immediately ditches Yale upon arriving. The next day, she’s asked to man the family’s food stall at a night market in Eastwood Village, near Yale’s apartment. The offer includes being able to split the profits, so Yale feels obliged to accept, despite the fact she hasn’t cooked much since leaving the family business years ago.
Celine ends up in charge of marketing, while Yale is responsible for serving the pre-prepared foods and making drinks, including bubble tea. Celine actually does a good job, somewhat surprising Yale, and the stall ends up a great success, many customers enjoying the bubble tea in particular, which Celine had ‘fancied’ up by adding gold flake garnish and serving in light bulbs repurposed as glasses. Unfortunately, and perhaps unsurprisingly, one of those customers turns up dead, and the nearby light bulb is eventually connected to Yale and Celine.
Death by Bubble Tea is a really well-written Cozy in the modern style. Despite many familiar elements – a bookish sleuth, recently losing her job, hard up for work, suddenly accused of murder after a chance encounter related to food, etc., there are also a lot of parts that help keep this book from blending in with the normal Cozy crowd. In particular, I really appreciate that this focuses on a less Euro-centric theme than most Cozies. Mysteries in general and Cozies specifically tend to be very focused on small American towns, usually in the mid-west or the northeast, or going back a bit further, quaint little English countryside villages. Yale is Chinese-American, a fact that often influences the flavor elements of the book, as does the fact that the mystery is set in a large city. Don’t get me wrong – I do love more traditional Cozy settings as well, but being able to see a different voice, culturally, is a very welcome change of pace.
I also appreciated the interactions between Yale and Celine, who ends up far more sympathetic than her introduction or Yale’s initial impressions of her would suggest at the beginning of the novel.
If you’re looking for a modern Cozy with traditional elements and a very different cultural lens than you normally get from Cozies, I can strongly recommend Death by Bubble Tea.
As always, if you want to read more of these brief discussions of some of the more popular Cozy Mystery Series that I’ve written in the past, you can find them at the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page.
PS: For those who are interested, there are a few recipes at the end of the book, specifically Grapefruit Green Tea with Boba and Spicy Cucumber Salad.
