Book Talk | Hot Pot Murders

 I am back with another book talk from the L.A. Night Market Mystery series from J. Chow. I enjoyed my time reading the first book of this series, Death by Bubble Tea, so of course I had to come back for seconds. Just like the last book, I checked this one out at my local library (suppoer your local libraries!) since it was the place I discovered the last one and I was already there, so might as well! Anyway, onto the review.

About the Author

Jennifer J. Chow writes cozies filled with hope and heritage. She is an Agatha, Anthony, Lefty, and Lilian Jackson Braun Award-nominated author. Her newest series is the Magical Fortune Cookie mysteries; the first book is Ill-Fated Fortune. Jennifer’s previous series is the L.A. Night Market Mysteries. Death by Bubble Tea was reviewed by the New York Times, featured in Woman’s World, and hit the SoCal Indie Bestseller List.

 

About the Story

Trouble is brewing for cousins Yale and Celine Yee after a hot pot dinner gets overheated and ends in murder in this second novel of the L.A. Night Market series by Jennifer J. Chow.

Yale and Celine Yee’s food stall business is going so well that they’ve been invited to join an exclusive dinner with the local restaurant owners association. The members gather together for a relaxing hot pot feast…until Jeffery Vue, president of the group, receives a literal shock to his system and dies.

 

 My Thoughts 

I am always looking for a cute and cozy mystery book and while I have found a couple of series that I love and enjoy (The Stephanie Plum series and the Mrs. Pollifax series) it's nice to stumble upon a new one, ecspecially when it's early on in the series. When I am looking for a cozy mystery story, I'm looking for something not super corny, something fresh, and something I don't have to wrap my mind around a dozen times and the Hot Pot Murder does that for me. 

Hot Pot Murder picks up right after the last book, Death by Bubble Tea, drops off. The two cousins are right where we left them, but they don't stay there the whole book. We get some more character development and reasonable character growth from both the girls and from some of our side characters as well. We get to see Yale come more to terms with her mother's death. While  Celine, who is already a little rambuncious, except when it comes to her parents, uses that energy to finally take a stand against them without being too disrespectful. 

Speaking on characters, it was nice to have our author shine a light on the side characters from the last book. The whole Asian Restauant Association members were there, but not the main focus of the last story. This one, they all get to shine and we get to see them individually and learn more about them and thus this whole world building. We also get new characters introduced, such as Celine's parents. 

I was also impressed by how much back and forth I was going with trying to figure out who exactly the murderer was. There were moments when I thought it had to be one person, but then they would get details on another person, so then they made sense and so on and so forth. 

Overall, I had a cozy, comfy time reading the Hot Pot Murder. It's a fun little mystery novel that goes a long way and great for when you just want something more relaxing and down-to-earth to read. Until next time folks, Happy Reading!