Fatal Fried Rice: A Noodle Shop Mystery (A Noodle Shop Mystery, 7)

I love escaping into this series! If you have not read it yet, PLEASE add it to your pile. It is so fun following Lana through the mystery & I like that Megan jumps in to encourage her right off the bat. We get to see more of Kimmy too. This one was cool because Lana had only met the victim that evening, so there were no previous connections to help her investigate. Each book can be read alone, but starting at book 1 will give you some back story of the characters.

Hard to believe this is already the seventh in the noodle shop mystery series. Fatal Fried Rice is one of Vivien Chien’s best, and on par with Killer Kung Pao (book 6) and Murder Lo Mein (book 3). The great irony in the series of course highlights protagonist Lana Lee’s inability to cook any of the menu items at her family’s Chinese restaurant, keeping Lana strictly to her managerial duties when she isn’t solving crimes. Fatal Fried Rice not only winks at this idea but Chien leans into it as Lana enrolls in a Chinese cooking class at Barton Adult Learning Center - where a murder occurs on night one.

This premise and the Barton setting inject equal parts fun and suspense as we meet several suspects/quirky characters when Lana investigates the crime. These characters/suspects all possess mysterious backgrounds making Lana, and therefore the reader, question their assumptions about these people. Placing much of the action outside of Asia Village, where Lana’s family’s restaurant is located, seems liberating and makes for a very satisfying story, one crafted as well as Chef Peter’s dishes. Chien’s deft plotting also (re)introduces us to someone we’ve met in book 3 - almost an Easter egg for series fans - and Lana’s frenemy Kimmie Tran plays a pivotal role in this book to great comedic effect. Now that Lana and Detective Adam have achieved the blissful couple stage in their romance, removing some of the dramatic tension from the story, Lana and Kimmie emerge as the duo I didn’t know I needed but want to see more. (To be clear, readers don’t need to have read any of the earlier books as this mystery stands on its own.)

This St. Martin’s published book contained a few typos (pp. 59, 196, 299) including, inexplicably, the back cover misspelling the victim’s name. Typos aside, Fatal Fried Rice contains all the ingredients for an excellent and satisfying cozy.

I really love this series. They are cute cozy stories that fill in time and differ my attention. I would recommend reading the whole series.

I just finished this book and OMG I love it. I definitely need more of this series. Even though there are no recipes in this book, I can always order some Asian cuisine while I enjoy this awesome read.

I have enjoyed all of the previous Noodle Shop Mysteries, and "Fatal Fried Rice" is a great continuation of the series.

I really enjoyed this book. However, I felt that I would have understood the back stories if I had read at least some of the previous books. It took me awhile to get into it. That is no reflection on the author or the writing.

The story and characters were fun -- Lana was interesting and I loved following her quest to find the killer. The story whet my appetite (literally and figuratively) for more! Now that I've found this author, I'm planning to read more from her!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and provide an honest review of this book.

Lana is one of those characters that you either love or hate; there is no in-between. In the newest installment, Fatal Fried Rice, fans will love Lana and hate her at the same time. Managing a Chinese restaurant isn’t precisely non-stop action, and Lana can’t cook, so she is determined to learn and put a bit more life into her day-to-day work. Once again, she finds a body, and once again, she sticks her nose in a murder investigation even though she shouldn’t. Yes, she found the body, but there is no evidence suggesting that she even knew the victim previously, so why would anyone think she killed her cooking teacher? There are plenty of suspects for readers to question, and the evidence is easy to follow. Even without, or despite Lana’s interference, the killer will be caught.

Unfortunately, this addition to the series isn’t a strong entry. The characters are okay, but none are very likable. The restaurant and the plaza, which have been the main focus in previous books, play a minimal role in this one; this actually hurts the story rather than helps it. Having Lana not be able to make something as simple as fried rice is not believable. Her family’s Chinese restaurant has been around a long time; wouldn’t someone have taught her how to make this staple dish by now?

The killer is not hidden, I knew who it was the moment the character was introduced. The resolution of the case is brought about almost by accident and happenstance and isn’t very satisfying. Some subplots were interesting and could have been explored at greater length to give the story more substance. Some of the supporting characters are becoming tiresome and detract from the main story. Overall, I have enjoyed other books in this series far more than this one. Fatal Fried Rice has some interesting scenes but isn’t anything to get overly excited about. I love Chinese food, and the setting of this series has always been intriguing and mouth-watering, but this book misses the mark. I recommend that readers who are new to this series start with the first book and not delve into this latest one until they know a bit of the character’s background and the main premise.

I love this series! Lana is an absolute delight and the supporting characters have all developed some depth at this point in the books. Lana ends up in a delicate situation when she tries to branch out and take a cooking class to learn how to make Chinese food to surprise her family. Instead of developing culinary skills, she finds the instructor murdered and herself a suspect. Unsurprisingly, hijinks ensue as Lana attempts to figure out who wanted Margo dead. While I managed to figure out who did it, I still had fun reading the book. Lana's doormat tendencies were pretty prevalent in this book and I hope she finds a way to grow through them, which I think can only help the series. Still, these are delightful and delicious cozies that I'll devour at any time.

I received an egalley in exchange for an honest review

Lana Lee is the manager of her family’s Chinese restaurant, Ho-Lee Noodle Shop. But she has a secret—she can’t cook. When she was growing up, she just wasn’t interested. And then she had to take over the restaurant, and she didn’t want to admit that she couldn’t cook. But now she’s ready to learn, so she signed up for a Chinese cooking class at a local community college, not too far from where she lives in Cleveland. She doesn’t tell her family because she wants it to be a surprise.

It turns out, Lana is the one who is surprised by what happens.

On the first night of class, Lana shows up, ready to learn. Her instructor, Margo Han, is kind, nonjudgmental, and an excellent teacher. She shows the class how to make Fried Rice, telling them to pay close attention to what she’s doing, as they will be making the same dish next week. All the students try the dish, and it’s delicious.

Lana is excited to finally learn how to cook, so excited she stays behind after class and asks Margo if maybe she’d be willing to give Lana some extra instruction. Margo says that she would, if her schedule lets her, and they agree to talk about it after the run of the cooking class. Then, after Lana leaves, she realizes that she forgot to grab one of the shopping lists for next week’s class and heads back to the classroom.

And that’s when Lana sees Margo, with a chef’s knife sticking out of her back.

Lana’s screams attract the attention of a maintenance man, who calls 911. The officer who responds gets Lana’s statement, but she has a bad feeling talking to the investigator. She feels like he is convinced she had something to do with it and will do anything to put her behind bars.

Lana has no choice but to start investigating the murder herself, both to find justice for Margo and her family and to clear her name. With the help of her friends and boyfriend, who is also a police officer but in a different city, Lana tries to find out what she can about Margo and who might have held a grudge against her. But as she asks questions around the school, she finds a couple of different women who seem a little too interested in her investigation. Could one of them be the killer? Or could it be someone else at the school, like the maintenance man or the other teacher she saw leaving just as she was heading back to the classroom? And will Lana be able to figure it out before she puts herself in danger of becoming the next victim?

Fatal Fried Rice is the seventh book in Vivien Chien’s Noodle Shop Mystery Series, and each of these books have been absolutely charming. Lana is an engaging character, and her family’s restaurant makes a great home base for her investigations. These cozies are smart, inviting, and well plotted, and they’re just plain fun to read.

Like the other books in this series, I really enjoyed Fatal Fried Rice. Lana and her friends and family never fail to entertain or to figure out who is behind the crime. I love having a mystery series that I can always count on when I need something that will hold my interest without getting too dark or gory, and the Noodle Shop Mysteries always fit that bill. Thanks to Vivien Chien for being consistently smart and witty in these books!

Egalleys for Fatal Fried Rice were provided by St. Martin’s Press (St. Martin’s Paperbacks) through NetGalley, with many thanks.

I received a copy of this book from St. Martin's Paperbacks and Netgalley.

Lana decides to take a cooking class because she's sick of being mocked by her family for not being able to cook Chinese food.

So she takes class and because this is a cozy mystery she stumbles across the body of the instructor.

Now a horrible detective is on the case who is absolutely convinced that she had something to do with it.

This is the seventh book in this series but it works just fine as a stand alone.

I love Lana's relationship with her family and the series is a lot of fun.