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A review by lory_enterenchanted
Aunty Lee's Deadly Specials by Ovidia Yu
adventurous
dark
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
2.75
I don't actually enjoy reading about crime, murder, violence, and gore, so when I read a mystery, I need something else to hold my interest. Things like memorable characters, a strong setting, interesting historical or cultural information, witty dialogue, or evocative writing. The first Auntie Lee book I have read, this has three of the above -- the first three. I really enjoyed learning about Singapore (including the disturbing trend of human organ trafficking) through the eyes -- and kitchen -- of Auntie Lee, one of those amateur detectives who can squirrel out information the police can't by appearing nosy, but harmless. Her passion for cooking was infectious, and I liked her psychological observations about the similarities between cooking/eating and one's approach life. I liked the secondary characters too.
The writing style, though, was nothing special, and I was particularly distracted by the frequent POV switching. I am not a purist who would say one can never do this, but it has to be done carefully and meaningfully--when it happens so often, from one paragraph to the next, and between many different characters, it is very disorienting. It can be a great way to present a mystery -- getting into people's heads when you don't know whether they are murderers can be quite thrilling -- but in this case I merely found it confusing and annoying.
The construction of the actual mystery was also lacking. The ostensible reason given for the deaths -- mercy killing / suicide -- was absurd, and it wasn't believable that the police would simply swallow it and keep saying "Oh, let's just forget it and move on." There was a potential murderer on the loose! Unless perhaps this was a comment on police corruption in Singapore? If so, it's pretty damning.
Once the real murderer did come to light - finally! - the drawn-out denouement was sort of an anticlimax. Surely people could have and should have figured some of this out already. But everyone seemed to be in a sort of daze, even Auntie Lee, who at least had known she was missing something.
All in all, a worthwhile diversion, but I don't think I'll read others in the series.
The writing style, though, was nothing special, and I was particularly distracted by the frequent POV switching. I am not a purist who would say one can never do this, but it has to be done carefully and meaningfully--when it happens so often, from one paragraph to the next, and between many different characters, it is very disorienting. It can be a great way to present a mystery -- getting into people's heads when you don't know whether they are murderers can be quite thrilling -- but in this case I merely found it confusing and annoying.
The construction of the actual mystery was also lacking. The ostensible reason given for the deaths -- mercy killing / suicide -- was absurd, and it wasn't believable that the police would simply swallow it and keep saying "Oh, let's just forget it and move on." There was a potential murderer on the loose! Unless perhaps this was a comment on police corruption in Singapore? If so, it's pretty damning.
Once the real murderer did come to light - finally! - the drawn-out denouement was sort of an anticlimax. Surely people could have and should have figured some of this out already. But everyone seemed to be in a sort of daze, even Auntie Lee, who at least had known she was missing something.
All in all, a worthwhile diversion, but I don't think I'll read others in the series.