annieb123's Review of Misfortune Cookie (Noodle Shop Mystery, #9)

by Vivien Chien

Despite Lana’s protests, Betty Lee signs her daughter up to attend a restaurant convention being held in sunny Irvine, California. To make matters worse, her sister, Anna May, invites herself along to escape the dating woes of her new relationship. Lana is apprehensive about the whole trip, including the “quality time” with her older sister, but she resolves to make the best of it, hoping the getaway from daily restaurant life will do her some good.

Luckily, Irvine is the home to their mother’s very Americanized sister, Grace Richardson, and sisters happily agree to stay in her posh rental on the exclusive Balboa Island when the offer is extended. As the trip begins, it seems to be just what they both needed and despite the fact that Lana is stuck attending the restaurant convention every day, it proves to be worthwhile and entertaining. Especially when she witnesses a dramatic cat fight between a fortune cookie vendor and a journalist who’s covering the convention.

Lana and Anna May can’t imagine things getting any better until they learn their aunt has yet another surprise in store for them—a swanky cocktail party hosted for the freelancers of Southern California at the newly renovated, historical Hotel Laguna. But on the night of the party, things go south when a close journalist friend of Grace’s mysteriously plunges from the roof top of the hotel. Even more suspicious is the fact that Aunt Grace’s friend is the same journalist Lana saw getting into a screaming match with the fortune cookie vendor at the convention.

The police rule the death a gruesome accident, but Aunt Grace refuses to accept that explanation and begs Lana for her help uncovering the truth. Lana, Anna May, and Aunt Grace attempt to keep up appearances as they search for answers, but unwanted attention from suspicious colleagues and convention attendees start to surface, causing Lana to wonder if they’ll find the killer in time…or if they’ll be the next ones pushed over the edge.

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

Misfortune Cookie is the ninth Noodle Shop mystery by Vivien Chien. Released 27th June 2023 by Macmillan on their St. Martin's Press imprint, it's 336 pages and available in ebook and paperback formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats.

Protagonist Lana is refreshingly modern, fairly snarky, honest, loyal, and has a lovely solid healthy relationship with her bff Megan, and tries to get along with her too-perfect sister Anna May (usually unsuccessfully). She has a knack of getting entangled in and solving crimes along with her adorable pug Kikkoman. Lana and Anna May are on work/vacation in this book, so Kikkoman just gets one mention. Hopefully she'll be back in book 10.

The language and writing are clean; nothing worse than an occasional "damn". No on-page violence or abuse, and nothing which is NSFW at all. It would make a good commute or work break read.

Four and a half stars, delightfully fun light cozy mystery series. Although this is book 9, it works perfectly well as a standalone, with the understanding that the characters and their interrelationships have developed over the course of the books. If read out of order, some spoilers should be expected. This would be a good choice for public library acquisition, mystery book club selection, or binge/buddy read.

Disclosure: I received an electronic-ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.

Reading updates

11 July, 2023: Started reading

11 July, 2023: Finished reading

11 July, 2023: Reviewed