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Cozy mysteries come in a variety of styles—with amateur sleuths who can be anything from cupcake bakers to dog walkers. Few series will make you crave Asian cuisine quite like author Jennifer J. Chow’s L.A. Night Market series—though the second installment, Hot Pot Murder, might make you think twice before digging in.
The story finds Yale Yee and her cousin, Celine, investigating another suspicious death after the president of Yale’s father’s restaurant owners association is killed during the group’s Thanksgiving hot pot dinner. Jeffrey Vue was setting up one of the hot pots when he was electrocuted by a faulty power cord. His death is a shock to all of the association’s members, but when the police start investigating it as a homicide—and Yale’s dad is one of the suspects—Yale sets out to uncover the truth and clear her father’s name.
Between emergency association meetings, helping her father, and working at her stall in her neighborhood’s night market, Yale teams up with her social media influencer cousin, who’s on an extended visit from Hong Kong, to try to make sense of what happened to Jeffrey. Though the suspect list is short, most of them seem to have some kind of motive—from the association’s long-suffering VP to the ambitious newcomer, who’s desperate to prove himself. Really, though, few of the motives seem credible—since running a small neighborhood restaurant owners association doesn’t seem to come with a whole lot of power and prestige. But readers will still enjoy following Yale and Celine as they work to put all of the pieces together.
As is often the case with cozy mysteries, though, the mystery is just a part of the appeal of this novel. What makes it truly stand out is the unique setting: this L.A. neighborhood with its Asian restaurants and its lively night market. The characters could still use more development, but the author writes about the city streets and shops and restaurants in such detail that you can almost taste it. It’s the kind of place that you’d definitely want to wander through, taking in all of the sights and smells and tastes—while solving a mystery on the side.
With its close-knit neighborhood of shop owners and restaurateurs, Hot Pot Murder offers readers a little bit of mystery with a whole lot of personality. You may start reading for the mystery, but you’ll keep reading for the community.
Listen to the review on Shelf Discovery:
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