Review of Vivien Chien's latest cozy mystery and other recommendations

I just finished a fun cozy mystery in which the main character works at her family's Chinese restaurant. The main character, Lana Lee's mother is from Taiwan so there is plenty of Chinese-American culture includes in this book. I enjoyed this book as well as the first book in this new series.

If you enjoy books that include an inside look into Asian-American cultures, you will want to try the latest by Vivien Chien. My full review of this book can be found at the end of this post. Here are a few other mysteries series with Asian-American main characters that you may also enjoy.

• The Lydia Chin/Bill Smith series:  Lydia is a Chinese-American professional PI . She works with her partner, Bill Smith, who would love to have more than just a business relationship, to solve gritty, dangerous cases.
• Sujata Massey's Rei Shimura series is one of my favorite mystery series. Rei is Japanese-American and ends up involved in several intriguing mysteries. I especially like the earlier books in the series that take place in Japan.
• Naomi Hirahara has two excellent series I enjoy. She is best known for her series featuring Japanese-American Mas Arai who solves mysteries while working as a gardener in Los Angeles. She has a cozier series with Ellie Rush, a bicycle police officer, that is excellent. Unfortunately, this series has only two books. I don't know if the author has any plans to continue it or not.

Review of Dim Sum of All Fears by Vivien Chien  Rating:  4 stars

Lana Lee works as a server at Ho-Lee Noodle House, the restaurant owned by her parents. Lana longs to do something else with her life, but she is needed at the restaurant, especially now that her mom and dad must travel to Taiwan to deal with a family crisis. Things get even worse for Lana when a good friend becomes a victim of a tragic, fatal incident. Detective Adam Trudeau, Lana's sometime boyfriend, warns her not to get involved, but Lana continues to investigate to get justice for her friend.

This book is the follow-up to Chien's "Death by Dumpling". It's not necessary to have read this book to enjoy this one, although there is a large number of characters to keep track of. An old-fashioned "Cast of Characters" at the beginning of the book would have been helpful. I like Lana and most of the other main characters, although Lana's condescending sister and pushy mother are sometimes hard to take. I like the setting of the Chinese restaurant and the entire Asia Village shopping area in which it's located.

The mystery itself is interesting and Lana does a good job of questioning witnesses and potential suspects. There are plenty of surprises in the book's clever plot and I enjoyed this fast read and look forward to seeing what's in store for Lana in both her working and her love life in future books.

I received this book through NetGalley through the courtesy of St. Martin's. The book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.