a legacy of secrets

Lana Lee is working in her family’s restaurant when private investigator Lydia Shepard comes to visit. Lana owes her a favor, and Lydia needs help with a case. Lana’s reputation as an amateur investigator is pretty well known around Asia Village by now, but she’s never had a detective asking for her help with a specific case before. She is intrigued.

It turns out that the case involves a long-held secret in the Asian community in Cleveland. Based on a Chinese legend about the Eight Immortals, eight prominent businessmen started a secret society. Each man was given an artifact to represent their place in the society, and their artifact and place in the society were to be handed down to a son. Lana had no idea that this society existed, and apparently it was right under her nose the whole time.

Lydia’s client turns out to be one of the original eight in the society, and he’s worried that he might be the next target. He claims that three of the original members have been murdered in the last few months, but the police aren’t looking into them. The first one was ruled a heart attack, even though he’d never had any heart trouble. The second one fell down the stairs. The third was found in his garage, with the car still running. And this man is afraid he is next on the killer’s list.

The more Lana finds out about this secret society, the more she realizes how close it is to her family, so this case becomes personal. She wants to solve it quickly, before someone she cares about is next on the list.

The Chow Maniac is book eleven in Vivien Chien’s Noodle Shop Mystery series starring Lana and her friends and family. These books are charming and light, with strong plots, lovable characters, a strong sense of place and culture, and an adorable little pug named Kikkoman.

The plot with the secret society based on an ancient Chinese tale is a departure for this series, but I really enjoyed how Chien brought it into the present day. I loved how she built on the connections through Asia Village. I was a little concerned with Lana’s entanglement with the private detective though. Their relationship was not well balanced, with each of them keeping secrets from each other. It seemed like the investigation put Lana into more danger than the professional PI, and that troubled me. Other than that, I had a great time seeing Lana put together the pieces and find the killer.

Egalleys for The Chow Maniac were provided by Minotaur Books through NetGalley, with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.