Dim Sum of All Fears (2018) by Vivien Chien

 

🥟 Following Vivien Chien's debut series of Death by Dumpling, which was okay. I have bigger expectation for the second book, but unfortunately, this has been a little off for me. Our sleuth, Lana Lee, has plan for her future career, which does not involve waiting tables at the family restaurant of Ho Lee Noodle House, located in the Asian Village business complex. However, just days before her coming interview at a professional office, her parents announced that they would go to Taiwan visiting an ailing old aunt. And, they wanted Lana to be in charge of the restaurant, instead of her sister Anna May, who's studying for her law school - which is more important than Lana's current idle existence. And so, like a dutiful Asian child, she relented.

🥟 Lana has just been befriended another bookworm like herself. A few months ago, a newlywed couple opened a souvenir store next door, and the wife has been a kind and gentle person, with whom Lana liked to book-shopping with. However, a terrible thing happened; one night the couple was brutally murdered inside their shop. So, once again, Lana couldn't stop herself from meddling and snooping into the murder case; intending to find the murderer of such a kind woman who was her friend. Of course, her new boyfriend, Detective Adam Trudeau, scolded her for snooping, but how can she resisted anyway? Not when 

🥟 First of all, there's too many dramas around the sleuthing. And I always hate drama! Well, a few dramas to spice up is still okay, but in this case, a lot of Lana's sleuthing came from these dramas. The dead husband turned out to have not one, but two ex wives (and possibly one ex-lover - I have lost count). And 'miraculously' these ex wives, as well as the wife's sister, suddenly wanted to have heart-to-heart conversations with Lana. That must have been every detective's dream, I guess. I still can't imagine how strangers would want to speak with a friend of the deceased (after a murder, no less). And they even answered some of Lana's questions, which would have seemed suspicious to normal people. But there you are. These ex wives even turned tantrums at times. :( Maybe too many women in a crime story is a bad idea after all!

🥟 What I would have expected from this second book of the series, are, first, more noodle dishes to be mentioned, in particular the dim sum that the writer put in the title. Where is the dim sum?! And secondly, I would love to see more of Adam Trudeau, the detective, in the investigation, rather than only as possible boy friend to the sleuth, and who would later on appear when she was in danger, saved her, while saying: I've-told-you-not-to-snoop-look-what-you've-done' kind of thing. Which what I assumed to have happened, because - a confession - I ditched the book right after the murderer was revealed. I lost interest of the final outcome. So, that's how this series turned up for me. A promising one at first, but unfortunately, a disappointing sequel. Another series I won't continue in the future. If only Vivien Chien had put some dim sums into it, I would probably change my mind, because I love noodles and dim sums, and that had been my reason of picking this series in the first place.

Rating: ⭐⭐1/2

Read for:

Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge 2026

hosted by Carol @ Carol's Notebook

A Picture of Murder (2018) by T.E. Kinsey #20BooksofSummer2025

📽️ T.E. Kinsey's Lady Hardcastle's Mysteries is one of the cozy mystery series I love to read through. Besides being a period cozy mystery (the early 1900s), I like it because for once, the amateur sleuths (Lady Hardcastle and her maid/companion Florence 'Flo' Armstrong) are women with strong characters, and without any personal 'problem'. Most cozy mysteries I've read these days seem to depict a 'broken' heroine, who had endured some sort of problems in the past, and now they must juggle between solving a murder and their own problem. I'm tired of it all, for once I want sound-minded heroines who solve murders just because they love doing it, not for saving someone or something. Lady Hardcastle and Flo are just that.

📽️ We are back at the small village of Littleton Cotterell. Lady Farley-Stroud asked Emily (Lady Hardcastle) to host a group of movie maker and actors on her behalf, due to a little fire that had just happened at the Grange (the Farley-Stroud's abode). Emily agreed to that readily; in fact both Lady Hardacstle and her maid Flo and the servants were all excited. For Lady Hardcastle especially, as she had been nurturing a new hobby: moving picture. The first night of screening would play a movie called The Witch Downfal, to mark the coming Halloween. But not everyone in Littleton Cotterell was excited; a group of church-fanatic were against it, and even put protest signs during the first screening. That night, one of the actors died, murdered, the same way as a character on the movie died. Then another was following, with the same pattern; this time the murder even happened at Lady Hardcastle's house.

📽️ As usual, Inspector Sunderland from Scotland Yard, who was supposed to lead the investigation was busy, so he called upon Lady Hardcastle and Miss Armstrong to help him (it's nice that for once it's the police who wanted the amateur sleuth, instead of the amateur sleuth who interfering with the the police work!). Who could be the murderer? The main suspects were the church-fanatic leader and another movie maker who claimed that the group had stolen his idea. But of course, the victims' friends were also suspects. But what was their motive? Would a movie maker or actor murder his friends and jeopardizing his work?

📽️ I loved this fourth book of the series; in fact, I think it's my favorite so far. Not only the story is compelling, it provides a backstory of Lady Hardcastle and Flo's past adventures. It had been a mystery so far - we only know that something happened when they were on a mission in Shanghai, China, but what mission, how dangerous it was, or how they have escaped it, were mystery to us from first book. I'm glad that Kinsey finally fulfills our curiosity. In short, I loved every single element of this story - Lady Hardcastle and Flo Armstrong's dynamic relationship; their mocking and teasing of each other were constant entertainment to us, with dry humour that made you chuckle - and the unexpectedly dark nuances of the case - all provide the perfect element for a not-too-cozy mystery to read for Halloween!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Read for:

20 Books of Summer 2025

hosted by Annabel and Emma

Vintage 1954 (2018) by Antoine Laurain #ParisinJuly2024

🍾 The year 1954, wine and UFO. These are three elements that Antoine Laurain had woven into a fantastic time-travelling story set in Paris.

🍾 1954 was historically the year of UFO sightings wave in France. Almost every day there were news of strange phenomenon in their newspapers. In this particular story, a winegrower called Pierre Chaveau was walking across a vineyard in Beaujolais when he experienced a UFO sighting. Fast forward to 1978. The old Pierre Chaveau was having a family dinner at home. He unwittingly drank a vintage wine produced from the very place and time of his UFO sighting - Beaujolais, 1954. His dog also tasted the wine that night. The following morning he left the house for a walk with his dog, and mysteriously disappeared.

🍾 Fast forward again to 2017 in an apartment building in Paris. Monsieur Hubert Larnaudie, the property owner/manager; Julien and Magalie, residents; and an American Airbnb tenant Bob, founnd themselves in an awkward moment one day, which would cement their friendship. To celebrate a triumph over a previous apartment struggle, Hubert opened a bottle of vintage wine he found on his cellar, and shared it with his new friends. The wine was 1954 Beaujolais! The next morning, the four friends discovered themselves transported back in time, to the Paris of 1954.

🍾 What follows are highly entertaining piece in three stages. The shocking moment when they realized their predicaments are quite hilarious. Their euro coins received with suspicion, public transportation changed to vintage systems. They were naturally shocked at first, but then came the determination to seek a way to return to 2017. But in the process, they also had a lot of fun while exploring the 1954 of Paris. There's Les Halles, which was still existed, where they could explore the Belly of Paris in Zola's universe. And there's the personages they encountered - and for some, hung up with - Salvador Dalí, Jean Gabin, Édith Piaf. That was a glorious time for our four friends.

🍾 But the main business remained. They must go back to their own time. Could they do it properly? What surprises awaited them? And if they do come back, what will happen then? Two things for sure, their perspectives of life changed for good, and in the end they have forged a friendship that would last a lifetime.

🍾 Laurain did it again! This is a wholesome read, very entertaining, fast-paced, and memorable. The atmospheric of 1954 Paris is the main highlight for me.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Read for:

Paris in July 2024

hosted by Emma @ Words and Peace