Book Review: Aunty Lee’s Chilled Revenge (Singaporean Mystery #3) by Ovidia Yu
Title: Aunty Lee’s Chilled Revenge
*Series: Singaporean Mystery #3
Author: Ovidia Yu
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Pages: Paperback; 368
Release Date: April 5. 2016
Source: TLC Book Tours / Publisher
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Genre: Cozy Mystery
HDB Rating: 3 Keys to My Heart
Recommended to: Readers who enjoy quirky characters, with a fabulous cozy mystery.
Add it on: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N
Rosie “Aunty” Lee—feisty widow, amateur sleuth and proprietor of Singapore’s best-loved home cooking restaurant—is back in another delectable, witty mystery set in Singapore.
Slightly hobbled by a twisted ankle, crime-solving restaurateur Aunty Lee begrudgingly agrees to take a rest from running her famous café, Aunty Lee’s Delights, and turns over operations to her friend and new business partner Cherril.
The café serves as a meeting place for an animal rescue society that Cherril once supported. They were forced to dissolve three years earlier after a British expat killed the puppy she’d adopted, sparking a firestorm of scandal. The expat, Allison Fitzgerald, left Singapore in disgrace, but has returned with an ax to grind (and a lawsuit). At the café one afternoon, Cherril receives word that Allison has been found dead in her hotel—and foul play is suspected. When a veterinarian, who was also involved in the scandal, is found dead, suspicion soon falls on the animal activists. What started with an internet witch hunt has ended in murder—and in a tightly knit, law-and-order society like Singapore, everyone is on edge.
Before anyone else gets hurt—and to save her business—Aunty Lee must get to the bottom of what really happened three years earlier, and figure out who is to be trusted in this tangled web of scandal and lies.
Aunty Lee’s Chilled Revenge is the third book in the Singaporean mystery series. Keep in mind, while reading this review, that I haven’t read the first two in the series. I’m also not generally a big reader of cozy mysteries, so this was a bit outside the box for me. That being said, I actually enjoyed this very much! Rest assured that this is an excellent standalone novel.
Aunty Lee is one of those characters who is instantly likable. She’s that incorrigible family member that everyone loves, but also has a tendency to be a bit nosy. Which, of course, makes her the perfect character for a story like this. I loved Aunty Lee, and her amateur sleuthing. She was definitely my favorite part of this story. Even though this was the third book in the series, I didn’t feel like I missed out on one bit of her personality, which was great.
I can’t say the same for the other main characters though. This isn’t the book’s fault, obviously. Coming in after the initial book is always a gamble. However, that was one of the things that made me a bit wobbly with my foothold in this story. Aunty Lee is an extremely clever, and well drawn out character. So it was just a tiny bit frustrating not to feel that same way about all the characters she interacted with, especially since they were so close to her. The good news is that it makes me want to read the first two!
As for the story itself, it was a perfectly paced mystery. It kept my attention extremely well, throwing out little bread crumbs here and there to keep me following the same path as Aunty Lee. I got a good feel for the way she does things which, well, let’s just say that it isn’t always exactly orthodox. It was interesting to watch her interact with people, and see the little pieces of her culture thrown in with the standard sleuthing practices.
Overall, this was a pretty solid read! I can attest that this is fine as a standalone, although you’ll probably end up like I did and want to go back and catch up on the first two. I enjoyed Ovidia Yu’s writing, and I would absolutely come back for more.
FTC Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. I was not monetarily compensated for my opinion.
