{"id":26244,"date":"2020-08-31T08:19:36","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T12:19:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/?p=26244"},"modified":"2022-10-11T16:58:59","modified_gmt":"2022-10-11T16:58:59","slug":"review-killer-kung-pao-by-vivien-chien","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/31\/review-killer-kung-pao-by-vivien-chien\/","title":{"rendered":"Review \ud83d\udd0d Killer Kung Pao by Vivien Chien"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-26244\" data-postid=\"26244\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-26244 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    \t\t\t<!-- module_row -->\n\t<div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_row themify_builder_row tb_bbbcac8 tb_first tf_w tf_clearfix\">\n\t    \t\t\t<div class=\"row_inner gutter-narrow col_align_top tb_col_count_2 tf_box tf_rel\">\n\t\t            <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col3-1 tb_49667e8 first\">\n                                                        <div class=\"tb-column-inner tf_box tf_w\">\n                        <!-- module image -->\n<div  class=\"module module-image tb_7036296 rounded drop-shadow customBorderRad_top image-center auto_fullwidth tf_mw\" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div class=\"image-wrap tf_rel tf_mw\">\n\t\t    <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/killer-kung-pao-vivien-chien.jpg?w=640\" title=\"Review \ud83d\udd0d Killer Kung Pao by Vivien Chien\" alt=\"Review \ud83d\udd0d Killer Kung Pao by Vivien Chien\">\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<!-- \/image-wrap -->\n    \n    \t<\/div>\n<!-- \/module image --><!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_a1982ef customBorderRad_bottom repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\"><strong>Is life at the Ho-Lee Noodle House becoming too hot to handle?<\/strong><\/span><br \/><br \/><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">Lana Lee\u2019s plate is already plenty full. Running her family\u2019s Chinese restaurant in Cleveland\u2019s Asia Village is challenging on the best of days. But just when Lana thinks she might be able to catch her breath before the weekend\u2014which she\u2019s eager to spend with her equally overworked boyfriend, Detective Adam Trudeau\u2014Lana witnesses a car accident in the parking lot. And now she has no choice but to get involved.<\/span><br \/><br \/><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">June Yi, of Yi\u2019s Tea and Bakery, is a serious businesswoman well-known for her heartlessness. But June meets her match when she rear-ends the Cadillac belonging to Mah Jong lover Mildred \u201cMillie\u201d Mao. As each woman curses\u2014and threatens\u2014the other, it becomes clear to Lana that trouble lies ahead. Still, who could have imagined that Millie would end up dead at the beauty salon? The evidence suggests that she was electrocuted while having a foot bath, and all eyes are on June. Can Lana find a way to solve this case before another fatality occurs in Asia Village?<\/span><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->                    <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col3-2 tb_23787e9 last\">\n                                                        <div class=\"tb-column-inner tf_box tf_w\">\n                        <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_2d1ea91  repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16467 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/3_5-hearts.jpg?resize=146%2C44\" alt=\"\" width=\"146\" height=\"44\" \/><\/p><hr \/><p><strong>Release Date:<\/strong> Aug 25, 2020<br \/><strong>Series:<\/strong>\u00a0<em>A Noodle Soup Mystery<br \/><\/em><strong>Book:\u00a0<\/strong>6<br \/><strong>Publisher:<\/strong> Macmillan<br \/><strong>Imprint:<\/strong> St. Martin&#8217;s Press<br \/><strong>Price:<\/strong> $7.99<\/p><hr \/><p>\u00a0<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Lana Lee<\/strong> is very busy managing her family\u2019s Chinese restaurant in Cleveland, Ohio while her sister Anna May interns at a nearby law office. The manager of Asia Village where the restaurant is located then puts her in charge of the summer sidewalk sale and her mother wants her to update the look of their noodle house. She takes a break to try out a new color for her ever-changing hair and ends up a witness to murder. Neither the victim nor the prime suspect, June Yi, have been a friend to Lana, but she agrees to look into the murder to see which of Millie Mao\u2019s many enemies is the real killer.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This is the sixth book in this series, which I have been following from the beginning. I enjoyed the book, but it isn\u2019t up to the usual standards of this series. Lana is as likable as ever, taking on whatever responsibilities are necessary to help her family, friends, and in this case someone she doesn\u2019t even care for. Her out-going, fun roommate Megan Riley is there to help in the investigation even when Lana\u2019s police detective boyfriend doesn\u2019t want her getting involved. This installment allows us to learn more about the Mah Jong Matrons, who appear in every book but haven\u2019t played a large role in the stories until now. I also enjoyed the minor subplot with Lana\u2019s chef Peter and his girlfriend and Lana\u2019s childhood friend Kimmy.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The victim had some many people she didn\u2019t get along with and Lana does a good job of finding and questioning several suspects instead of assuming the obvious one is the killer. There is a clever twist at the end that I enjoyed. The downside of the book is that after a large build-up as Lana investigates many suspects throughout Asia Village and beyond, the ending is abrupt. I was expecting more follow-up on the clues Lana had uncovered when instead the killer is revealed and the book ends soon after that. It was all a little too rushed. Not everything is resolved by the end of the book, and I assume the major loose end regarding the secret Lana\u2019s abrasive sister Anna May is keeping will be addressed in the next book. I think this book could stand alone for readers who are new to the series. However, those who like Lana will want to go back to the prior books to get to know her better.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>~ Christine<\/em><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0<\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text --><!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_eb0616c customBorderRad repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2EK5GMS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amazon<\/a><\/span><span class=\"s2\">\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/books.apple.com\/us\/book\/killer-kung-pao\/id1498468956?mt=11&amp;app=itunes&amp;at=11l88k\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">iBooks<\/span><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/killer-kung-pao-vivien-chien\/1135426596?ean=9781250228314\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">B&amp;N<\/span><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kobo.com\/us\/en\/ebook\/killer-kung-pao-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">Kobo<\/span><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/books\/details\/Vivien_Chien_Killer_Kung_Pao?id=27bNDwAAQBAJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">Google Play<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->                    <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n            \t    <\/div>\n\t    <!-- \/row_inner -->\n\t<\/div>\n\t<!-- \/module_row -->\n\t<\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is life at the Ho-Lee Noodle House becoming too hot to handle? Lana Lee\u2019s plate is already plenty full. Running her family\u2019s Chinese restaurant in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,48,59],"tags":[148,223,367],"class_list":["post-26244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christine","category-reviews","category-st-martins-press","tag-3-5-stars","tag-cozy-mystery","tag-mystery"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review \ud83d\udd0d Killer Kung Pao by Vivien Chien - Smitten by Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/31\/review-killer-kung-pao-by-vivien-chien\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review \ud83d\udd0d Killer Kung Pao by Vivien Chien - Smitten by Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Is life at the Ho-Lee Noodle House becoming too hot to handle? 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Running her family\u2019s Chinese restaurant in Cleveland\u2019s Asia Village is challenging on the best of days. But just when Lana thinks she might be able to catch her breath before the weekend\u2014which she\u2019s eager to spend with her equally overworked boyfriend, Detective Adam Trudeau\u2014Lana witnesses a car accident in the parking lot. And now she has no choice but to get involved.<br \/><br \/>June Yi, of Yi\u2019s Tea and Bakery, is a serious businesswoman well-known for her heartlessness. But June meets her match when she rear-ends the Cadillac belonging to Mah Jong lover Mildred \u201cMillie\u201d Mao. As each woman curses\u2014and threatens\u2014the other, it becomes clear to Lana that trouble lies ahead. Still, who could have imagined that Millie would end up dead at the beauty salon? The evidence suggests that she was electrocuted while having a foot bath, and all eyes are on June. Can Lana find a way to solve this case before another fatality occurs in Asia Village?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/3_5-hearts.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"146\" height=\"44\" \/><\/p><hr \/><p><strong>Release Date:<\/strong> Aug 25, 2020<br \/><strong>Series:<\/strong>\u00a0<em>A Noodle Soup Mystery<br \/><\/em><strong>Book:\u00a0<\/strong>6<br \/><strong>Publisher:<\/strong> Macmillan<br \/><strong>Imprint:<\/strong> St. Martin's Press<br \/><strong>Price:<\/strong> $7.99<\/p><hr \/><p>\u00a0<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Lana Lee<\/strong> is very busy managing her family\u2019s Chinese restaurant in Cleveland, Ohio while her sister Anna May interns at a nearby law office. The manager of Asia Village where the restaurant is located then puts her in charge of the summer sidewalk sale and her mother wants her to update the look of their noodle house. She takes a break to try out a new color for her ever-changing hair and ends up a witness to murder. Neither the victim nor the prime suspect, June Yi, have been a friend to Lana, but she agrees to look into the murder to see which of Millie Mao\u2019s many enemies is the real killer.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This is the sixth book in this series, which I have been following from the beginning. I enjoyed the book, but it isn\u2019t up to the usual standards of this series. Lana is as likable as ever, taking on whatever responsibilities are necessary to help her family, friends, and in this case someone she doesn\u2019t even care for. Her out-going, fun roommate Megan Riley is there to help in the investigation even when Lana\u2019s police detective boyfriend doesn\u2019t want her getting involved. This installment allows us to learn more about the Mah Jong Matrons, who appear in every book but haven\u2019t played a large role in the stories until now. I also enjoyed the minor subplot with Lana\u2019s chef Peter and his girlfriend and Lana\u2019s childhood friend Kimmy.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The victim had some many people she didn\u2019t get along with and Lana does a good job of finding and questioning several suspects instead of assuming the obvious one is the killer. There is a clever twist at the end that I enjoyed. The downside of the book is that after a large build-up as Lana investigates many suspects throughout Asia Village and beyond, the ending is abrupt. I was expecting more follow-up on the clues Lana had uncovered when instead the killer is revealed and the book ends soon after that. It was all a little too rushed. Not everything is resolved by the end of the book, and I assume the major loose end regarding the secret Lana\u2019s abrasive sister Anna May is keeping will be addressed in the next book. I think this book could stand alone for readers who are new to the series. However, those who like Lana will want to go back to the prior books to get to know her better.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>~ Christine<\/em><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2EK5GMS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amazon<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/books.apple.com\/us\/book\/killer-kung-pao\/id1498468956?mt=11&amp;app=itunes&amp;at=11l88k\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">iBooks<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/killer-kung-pao-vivien-chien\/1135426596?ean=9781250228314\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">B&amp;N<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kobo.com\/us\/en\/ebook\/killer-kung-pao-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kobo<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/books\/details\/Vivien_Chien_Killer_Kung_Pao?id=27bNDwAAQBAJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Play<\/a><\/strong><\/p>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}