Ovidia Yu

Books: Mystery

Singaporean Mystery: Aunty Lee’s Delights (2013)

Singaporean Mystery

Aunty Lee’s Delights (2013)

After Rosie “Aunty” Lee became a wealthy widow, instead of shopping and gossiping, she opened a cafe where she could cook and gossip.

During her step-son’s wine tasting dinner the discussion is on a body discovered on the beach that morning. But no one except Aunty Lee seems suspicious that one of the guests doesn’t show up.

This book is as much a character study as it is a murder mystery, such as how Aunty Lee’s step-daughter-in-law’s personality might shape events.

Mrs. Selina Lee had never forgiven her late father-in-law for interrupting her Italian honeymoon by dying.

I really didn’t like reading about Selina.

Mark insisted on seeing her as unforgiving, said that she held on to grudges. Of course Selina had argued him down and made him take it back.

What I did like very much was all the cooking and food.

What good were recipes that gave you pounds and ounces— or worse, grams and liters— when how much a dish required depended on the quality and age of your ingredients?

In her view, anything cooked with local ingredients was local food.

And how Aunty Lee combines her knowledge of food and people.

“Maybe you’ll just give me a hand in the kitchen?” Aunty Lee had read her visitors well. Lucy Cunningham rose to join her immediately.

Carla said, “I wouldn’t be any use to you,” and the two men assumed her words were not meant for them.

I also liked this view of Westerners and Western culture from Singapore.

(A)ge was so difficult to tell with Caucasians. They liked to sit in the sun and make their skin look older.

I think I wasn’t quite in the mood for this book. I enjoyed it, but I kept getting distracted by things, such as not knowing the book was published in 2014. Some stories are timeless, others are set in a specific time, and this was the latter, especially when it came to technology and laws and social mores.

So I’ll read this again later, and then read the next books.

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks

Rating: 7/10