The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV

Vivien Chien: Noodle Shop Mystery Series

Death by Dumpling: A Noodle Shop Mystery First off, I want to wish everyone a happy holiday! I’m having a good holiday myself – definitely enjoying my daughter’s visit. (I don’t have time to read much around the holidays, so this is actually a post I wrote a few weeks ago. So I might still be a bit slower on approving comments for a while longer.)

So, the Cozy I read this month was the first entry in Vivien Chien‘s Noodle Shop Mystery Series, titled Death by Dumpling.

In many ways, I would call this a very traditional modern-style Cozy. Half-Taiwanese, half-English Lana Lee has recently come off of a bad breakup, as well as quitting her job that she wasn’t happy at, and is spending time working at her family’s noodle house until she can pull her life back together. Though she hadn’t seen herself working there in her late twenties, she’s making the best of things until the area’s landlord is found dead – apparently killed by an allergic reaction caused by the dumplings she brought to him for his regular lunch delivery.

Naturally, there’s an irritating-but-hunky detective investigating the case, many neighbors all with their own theories (and varying levels of eccentricity), and unusual behavior on the part of the bereaved family and many others in the community.

So far, no doubt this all sounds like very familiar ground. Fortunately, what really helps make this book feel different from the many other Cozies like it is the interesting and unusual backdrop for a Cozy in Cleveland’s Asian Village.

While I still love the traditional quaint villages of England and New England alike, every so often it is nice to see a slightly different backdrop for otherwise comfortable Cozy elements, and setting the story in an area that feels culturally different feels like something of a breath of fresh air.

At the same time, many of the useful conventions of the Cozy genre can still apply – while the community might be part of a “big city” like Cleveland, the residents of the Asia Village have their own distinct community that an outsider (like the police, investigating the death of one of the residents) might find harder to penetrate.

Altogether, Death by Dumpling brings together a mystery that has a unique setting for the Cozy genre, one that (at least to me) feels as authentic as the Amish villages, New England fishing towns, and English countryside communities that are more often the hallmark of the Cozy subgenre. At the same time, it retains enough of the “Cozy” elements that I know we’re all looking for to help relax with a good book. If you’re looking for a familiar Cozy with an interestingly different sort of backdrop from the usual Cozy village, then I think that you’ll find something to like in Death by Dumpling.

If you want to read some of the other entries about highly recommended Cozy Mystery series, you can see them on the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page.

Comments

  2. This has become of one my favorite new series and one I purchase straight out rather than wait for a sale or check out from the library. I haven’t had much time to read lately so I’m only just getting through her latest (Wonton Terror). I really like the author’s writing style (engaging, not too repetitive, no multipage soliloquy about every single bite of food taking away from moving the plot forward) and I think it treads in to some areas of diversity that is lacking in the cozy genre (biracial struggles, balancing traditional vs. modern, being 2nd generation born to an immigrant parent).

    Reply

  3. So glad you’re sharing about Vivien’s series. She’s a doll and the Noodle Shop mysteries offer a fresh, charming cozy addition to the cozy genre.

    Reply

  4. I’ve read all the books in this series and I really love them. I too like the series location especially since I live near Cleveland. Give this series a try. It won’t disappoint you.

    Reply

  5. It is my favorite cozy mystery series currently. I appreciate the different backdrop as well. And I like how the animal (in this case the dog) is in the story but not a major part of the story. To me, there are too many cozies that spend too many pages talking about the animal or its interactions when they should be focusing on plot or character development. I am looking forward to Egg Drop Dead in less than two months.

    Reply

  7. I recently bought copies of the whole series to date! I plan to binge read as soon as I finish my current batch of library books!

    Reply

  10. I’ve been reading and recommending this series since the first book came out. I especially appreciate the diversity and location of the books.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Please don't tell us about Cozy Mystery authors or books you don't enjoy.

Please use a nickname or your first name and last initial (unless you are an author and want your full name to appear).

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

MENU