Book Talk: 'Hot and Sour Suspects' a tasty murder mystery
Dating apps like Match.com and OkCupid are wildly popular, but the old-fashioned ways still have some charm. Lana Lee, manager of her family’s Ho-Lee Noodle House, has seen the success of speed dating at the bar where her roommate works, and determines to hold an event herself. Twenty-five dollars for all the dumplings you can eat, with a chance at love and — in “Hot and Sour Suspects” by Cleveland author Vivien Chien — to maybe end up dead.
Ho-Lee is in the fictional Asia Village, bustling with shops like Rina Su’s cosmetic salon. Lana isn’t expecting to see Rina at the speed dating event, as Rina had previously dismissed the idea, but she appears, all dressed up, and hits it off with a man.
They’re getting along fine until another woman rushes in and denounces the man as a “stupid jerk bag,” among other incivilities. This doesn’t discourage Rina from going home with the man. She feels so comfortable that she takes a shower at his apartment and when she comes out, he is dead.
As expected, Lana’s handsome detective boyfriend is working on the case; also as expected, Lana can’t stay out of it.
One of the delights of the series is Lana’s relationship with her girlfriends, who are all willing to go undercover to Cleveland’s night spots or masquerade as death metal groupies.
Lana’s contentious relationship with her sister enters the story when Anna May’s romance becomes gossip material and Lana tries to subdue the rumors. Lana is one of the most realistic and likable heroines in cozy mysteries.
“Hot and Sour Suspects” (320 pages, softcover) costs $8.99 from St. Martin’s Press. It’s eighth in the Noodle Shop Mystery series.
‘Truly Tyler’
So far, Cleveland author Terri Libenson’s popular Emmie & Friends middle-grade graphic novels have been from the point of view of girls (“You-Niquely You” is an associated interactive journal). Now, with “Truly Tyler,” she uses a boy’s perspective.
Tyler, along with Emmie, Izzy, Jaime and Brianna, attends Lakefront Middle School, where he is a member of the basketball team. He’s excited to return after a boring winter break, but uncomfortable with the clique system at school, where the “computer nerds” self-segregate from the “art and manga club kids.”
Tyler also likes art and is enthusiastic when Ms. Laurie assigns a project: The students are to create their own comics, to be entered into the Student Showcase and maybe win a prize. Tyler talks to Emmie, who’s good at drawing people, and she suggests that they team up on their comic.
This causes drama for both. Emmie has a major crush on Tyler, and her eagerness to appear more attractive and popular cause her other relationships to suffer — she avoids Sarah, who makes her own clothes, and gets irritated at her best friend, Brianna, who’s not “supposed” to like Sarah.
Tyler is ridiculed by his friends for spending time with Emmie; one of them taunts her and Sarah in hallways and two others make a vicious meme. The time Tyler is spending with Emmie is cutting into his basketball, risking his starting position.
Libenson’s approach to middle-school drama is authentic and relatable.
“Truly Tyler” (384 pages, hardcover) costs $22.99 from HarperCollins. The sixth book, “Remarkably Ruby,” will be released Tuesday.
Events
Ohioana Book Festival: Terri Libenson was the author of “The Pajama Diaries,” a syndicated comic strip, from 2006 to 2020; it won the 2016 Reuben Award for Best Newspaper Comic Strip from the National Cartoonists Society. Libenson will be part of the live Choose to Read Ohio panel at 3 p.m. Sunday, the final day of the virtual Ohioana Book Festival. The festival concludes with interviews plus live and prerecorded panels about cozy and historical mysteries, poetry and horror fiction, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. See the schedule at ohioana.org.
Visible Voice Books (2258 Professor Ave., Cleveland): Sam Goldberg launches “Thank You for Asking! A Book about Pronouns,” with a singalong for kids, 11 a.m. Sunday.
Loganberry Books (13015 Larchmere Blvd., Shaker Heights): Kerri ni Dochartaigh talks about “Thin Places: A Natural History of Healing and Home,” her memoir of growing up in Northern Ireland, in a conversation with New York Times contributor Margaret Renkl, in a virtual event at 12 p.m. Sunday. Go to loganberrybooks.com. In in-person events, James Redwood signs “Two Ships,” historical fiction set in the 17th century, 1 p.m. Sunday; at 2 p.m. Sunday, Monica Babcock signs “A Melancholy Union,” based on her ancestors who emigrated from Ireland to the United States in the 1850s.
Cuyahoga County Public Library (Parma-Snow branch, 2121 Snow Road): Don Winslow (“The Force”) talks about “City on Fire,” a crime novel set in 1980s Rhode Island, 3 to 4 p.m. Sunday. From 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, “Friends and Fiction LIVE!” brings authors Mary Kay Andrews (“The Homewreckers”), Kristen Harmel (“The Forest of Vanishing Stars”), Kristy Woodson Harvey (“The Wedding Veil”) and Patti Callahan Henry (“Surviving Savannah”). The $45 ticket includes copies of “Homewreckers” and “Forest” and a post-event book signing. Register at cuyahogalibrary.org.
Hudson Library & Historical Society: Victoria Kastner, former historian of Hearst Castle, talks about “Julia Morgan: An Intimate Biography of the Trailblazing Architect” in a Zoom event at 7 p.m. Monday. At 7 p.m. Monday, Scientific American columnist Riley Black talks about “The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World.” Register at hudsonlibrary.org.
Maltz Performing Arts Center (1855 Ansel Road, Cleveland): The William N. Skirball Writers Center Stage series continues at 7:30 p.m. Monday with Anthony Doerr, whose “All the Light We Cannot See” won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; his new novel is “Cloud Cuckoo Land.” In-person tickets are $30; virtual tickets are $15. Go to cuyahogalibrary.org.
Cuyahoga County Public Library: A.J. Jacobs (“The Year of Living Biblically”) talks about “The Puzzler: One Man’s Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life,” in a Zoom event from 7 to 8 p.m. Monday. From 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Bree Barton talks about her middle-grade novel “Zia Erases the World.” From 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Heather McGhee discusses “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together” as part of the WKYC Community Read. Register at cuyahogalibrary.org.
Massillon Public Library (Pam S. Belloni branch, 12000 Navarre Road SW, Navarre): Michael Gill, Cleveland children’s author and artist, reads from his books and demonstrates printmaking in an interactive visit from 6 to 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Cuyahoga County Public Library (North Royalton branch, 5071 Wallings Road): Laura Peskin brings local history from her three-volume “Deep Cover Cleveland” series, 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday. Register at cuyahogalibrary.org.
Medina Community Library (210 S. Broadway St.): Columbus author Janet Beard talks about her books, including “The Ballad of Laurel Springs” and “The Atomic City Girls,” 6:30 p.m. Thursday. Register at medina.lib.oh.us.
Music Box Supper Club (1148 Main Ave., Cleveland): Graphic novelist Derf Backderf, whose “Kent State” won an Eisner Award and “My Friend Dahmer” an Alex Award from the American Library Association, joins the Cleveland Stories Dinner Party series at 7 p.m. Thursday. Dinner is $20; the lecture is free. Go to musicboxcle.com.
Learned Owl Book Shop (204 N. Main St., Hudson): Hope Bollinger signs “The Cassandra Curse,” 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday.
Email information about books of local interest, and event notices at least two weeks in advance to BeaconBookTalk@gmail.com and bjnews@thebeaconjournal.com. I tweet at @BarbaraMcI.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Book Talk looks at 'Hot and Sour Suspects' and 'Truly Tyler' by Cleveland authors
