Reading: EGG DROP DEAD - Vivien Chien

Book five in the Noodle Shop mystery series finds Lana Lee's first foray into catering hindered by the death of her client's young nanny, found drowned in a pool. Donna Feng is a family friend who's somehow already survived one scandal with her high society standing intact, but feels the fallout of suspicion again as it was she who'd verbally chewed out her nanny earlier that evening, in the middle of the party and her guests, not long before the young woman was found dead. Entrusting Lana with a mysterious flash drive full of Donna's deepest secrets the society matron is potentially being blackmailed with, Lana agrees to help and begins an investigation that will lead back to Donna's hidden roots in China, and put her own life in danger as she edges ever closer to unmasking a killer with enough to hide to kill again. Author Vivien Chien's skills at characterization made getting back to Lana, her family, and even the Mah-Jong Matrons feel like going home from page one. The mystery is developed nicely, as is Lana's growing/evolving relationship with her detective boyfriend, her interviews with suspects and deductions organically growing from the story as Lana follows one lead to the next up to a truly suspenseful finale that will having you racing through the final pages. Another winning entry in the series that even finds Lana teaming up with a hard-boiled private eye, who promises to reappear in future installments and also provides a bit of comic relief as well as diversity for the investigation. If anything, my only two caveats here are minor - the first being my own fault, which was that I began reading this series mid-run, without realizing when starting book five that this novel is a sort of follow-up to the events of the first book in the series, where we are introduced to Donna Feng ... and therefore is a complete spoiler-smasher for the first book, so if you don't want to know the details and "whodunnit" of book one, definitely do NOT read this one first! My only other hiccup in the book was even more minor: I simply would have liked to have more of Lana's family and friends appear in this one. That may be just a personal thing; I really love Lana's parents (especially mom) and sister, as well as Peter and other workers/friends from the Asia Village shopping plaza, all of whom do appear here but just not as prominently as in, say, the previous book in the series. Caveats aside, Chien's plotting, writing, and characters, as well as the growth of Lana as both a character and investigator, are more than ever solidified for this fan with book five, making the Ho-Lee Noodle Shop still one of my favorite places to visit - and the Noodle Shop Mysteries still one of my top five cozy mystery series being written today. 4/5 stars