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A review by book_concierge
Aunty Lee's Delights by Ovidia Yu
2.0
From the book jacket: After losing her husband, Rosie Lee could have become one of Singapore’s “tai tai,” an idle rich lady. Instead, she is building a culinary empire from her restaurant, Aunty Lee’s Delights, where spicy Singaporean meals are graciously served to locals and tourists alike. But when a body is found in one of Singapore’s tourist havens and one of her guests fails to show at a dinner party, Aunty Lee knows that the two events are likely connected.
My reactions:
I had hopes for this first in a new cozy mystery series. I’ve visited Singapore and love the cuisine. And I love cozy mysteries with fun amateur sleuths. But this one just fell flat for me.
I though Yu was trying too hard to craft a complicated mystery and NOT doing enough to endear Aunty Lee and her trusty sidekick/maid, Nina, to the reader. Senior Staff Sergeant Salim seems way too inexperienced and easily cowed by Aunty, but he is a good foil for her efforts to solve the crime on her own.
The other characters were just ridiculous … though I did love how Aunty thought of her stepdaughter-in-law; “Silly-na” perfectly describes Selina!
And there was something off-putting for me about the lesbian characters and theme. Perhaps I don’t have sufficient understanding of the Singaporean culture to appreciate what Yu was doing by introducing these characters and their storyline.
My reactions:
I had hopes for this first in a new cozy mystery series. I’ve visited Singapore and love the cuisine. And I love cozy mysteries with fun amateur sleuths. But this one just fell flat for me.
I though Yu was trying too hard to craft a complicated mystery and NOT doing enough to endear Aunty Lee and her trusty sidekick/maid, Nina, to the reader. Senior Staff Sergeant Salim seems way too inexperienced and easily cowed by Aunty, but he is a good foil for her efforts to solve the crime on her own.
The other characters were just ridiculous … though I did love how Aunty thought of her stepdaughter-in-law; “Silly-na” perfectly describes Selina!
And there was something off-putting for me about the lesbian characters and theme. Perhaps I don’t have sufficient understanding of the Singaporean culture to appreciate what Yu was doing by introducing these characters and their storyline.