Another nice installment to the Noodle Shop Mystery series, centered around Chinese New Year's festivities this time. Lana has a murder to solve with all the usual family, extended and close, helping in their own special ways. The story does not disappoint.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Peking Duck and Cover is the 10th book in A Noodle Shop Mystery Series by Vivien Chien.

I enjoyed this book a lot more than the one pervious to it. In this mystery we are back in Ohio and now someone is dead, red envelope in their pocket containing four one-dollar bills—an omen of death in Chinese culture.

I have 2 issues with this book that keeps it away from 5 stars, the first is that I really think we are past due time for a conversation with Lana's sister about her "relationship" rather than pushing it off and treating Lana like a villain for being concerned. It needs to be a full blown conversation or drop the subplot altogether, it's aggravating.

The 2nd is that the ending felt rushed. It didn't even feel time to reveal the killer, their intentions, or reasoning. I feel like there was a time crunch here and it was tossed together at the last second. Honestly, the killers reasoning made no sense to me and it really felt like "really? Seriously?" the entire time.

However, I loved that Lana was more confident in her skills this time around! It really brought out the things I thought were missing in other books and I'm excited to see where it takes us. Her longtime boyfriend Adam is such a great support and her best friends were great characters in this story. (Also a potential romance for Meghan? I'm living for it)!

I do honestly think you should read the other books in this series before this one. It will really help you understand the characters and their personalities.

4/5 can't wait for the next one.

Chinese-customs, Chinese-culture, Chinese-Americans, Cleveland, amateur-sleuth, cozy-crime, family-business, family-drama, family-dynamics, local-gossip, local-law-enforcement, friendship, friction, situational-humor, suspense, suspicion, verbal-humor, restaurant, lawyers, siblings, sisters, Asian-Americans, secrets, investigation, murder, pet-dog, pug, senior-citizens, unpleasant-co-worker, relationship-issues, relationships, relatives*****

Was the wrong woman warned and shot?
It was supposed to be a fun lunar new year celebration until one of the dance company was shot and an Omen of Death was found in her pocket. Lana has family and friends making her crazy because some do NOT want her investigating, while others (including the Mahjong Matrons) urging her on! Another twisty cozy in this delightful series!
I requested and received a free temporary EARC from St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

This book was outstanding!! I just so love the Noodle Shop series, it’s fun and entertaining!! I always look forward to a new book is this wonderful series to release!! I would highly recommend this book to everyone!!

I have really come to love this series, and #PekingDuckandCoverANoodleShopMystery #NetGalley did not disappoint me.
Lana Lee is working hard to have her small Asian village celebrate the Chinese new year with flair, but we all know trouble singles out Lana and she can't resist a good murder investigation.
There was a lot of action in this book, and I found myself very interested in what was going on, wishing I was with Lana.
Lana's pug Kiko adds color to the books, and it's always so much fun to catch up with everyone.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for selecting me to read an advanced copy of this book.

So this was a much better offering than the last book. I think Chien moving things to California in the last one didn't really work cause Lana was without her usual friends and ability to actually get insights into law enforcement like she is in Cleveland. The only reason why I gave this four stars is the whole subplot with Lana's sister and her "boyfriend" is beyond tedious. It needs to be addressed or not discussed anymore. It's aggravating. Also, the murderer's reasoning behind things was beyond messed up and didn't even make a lot of sense. I just went with it though.

"Peking Duck and Cover" has Lana preparing for the Lunar New Year. Hiring a dragon dance troupe should put a fine pin in things, but when one of the troupe dancers ends up dead, Lana is asked to investigate by Ian (thorn in her side) and Donna.

Lana is now more confident in her investigative abilities. What's great is that her and her now long time boyfriend, Adam (Detective Trudeau) share things with each other. I think this is the most he's been in any of the books and it was great to see him interacting with Lana's family, at her job, at events, and meeting his partner too. Meghan was not as annoying in this one. Neither were a few other characters like Kimmy.

I thought the overall plot though needed some fine-tuning. Like I said above, the murderer's why behind things had me going seriously? Lana's blow up with her sister though just does not work anymore. It doesn't feel real and I wish that Chien would have them have a conversation and that's that.

The ending was good though, I think that Lana's family is now just accepting of her investigations and putting herself in danger. I wonder how long this series is going to go.

This is one of my favorite series, and I was so excited to see a new release. I am glad that Lana is back in Cleveland for this installment. It is time for Lunar New Year and the Asia Village crew is pulling out all the stops. Of course, given Lana’s history with party planning, no one should be surprised when one of the dancers is found dead. Lana is on the case to discover which one of the attendees is also a killer.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an early copy of this book! Below is my honest review.

Given that I didn’t read the first 9 books in this series (because I didn’t really realize it was a series), I feel like I missed some important connections/relationships that could have made the reading process a bit more enjoyable. Instead I thought everyone was a suspect no matter what. But I enjoyed how the author incorporated Chinese culture into this mystery novel (a rare thing to see)! The mystery itself seemed kind of meh to me and slightly rushed in my opinion (even though we don’t get to be mystery plot until chapter 9). I’d be interested to read more from this author!