Ovidia Yu

Aunty Lee is a Singaporean widow who own a restaurant and is a bit of a busybody who loves to solve mysteries. She cooks for her stepson's wine dining experiences. When on the same day that a female body washes up on Sensota beach, one of the female attendees doesn't appear Aunty Lee starts looking for connections. I loved the characters of Aunty Lee, her companion Nina and the local police inspector Salim. The author does a great job of explaining much of the culture and the food that is made. I will definitely read more of these.… (more)

This is he first book in a cozy mystery series set in Singapore.

This is a light, fun, rather silly cozy mystery. It doesn't have a lot of depth, too many of the characters are stiff and cardboard thin, the mystery is far from the tightest, and the coincidences are way to numerous to count and I don't care. I had so much fun reading this book.

I will admit that even for a cozy mystery it was fluffy, but it's light fluffiness was exactly what I needed and wanted. I loved the characters of Aunty Lee, Nina and Senior Staff Sergeant Salim, I enjoyed all of the descriptions of food, and the admittedly far to brief look at Singaporean life. And to be honest, I didn't really care about the mystery I was having to much fun getting to know Aunty Lee and her world.… (more)

This series came up in WSIRN, because it’s set in Singapore.

It was an unusual mystery - the clues and solutions are figured out mostly by talking to people. Aunty Lee talks to everyone - to Vallerie, to Josephine, to the police (Salim and Raja), to Nina. She didn’t give away much about what she was thinking, but it was pretty clear what she had in mind. I caught on when Aunty Lee and Nina called the Woons in LA - the attorneys that were helping Allison with her will, and were so attached to Vallerie (how could that be, given how crazy Vallerie was in Singapore?!)

And it was a twisty plot - Allison/Vallerie, Dr Kang and Brian are murdered, there is the fire at the vets office, Vallerie’s unwillingness to help the investigation. It was a fun read, and I liked Aunty Lee.… (more)