HOT POT MURDER

Thanksgiving dinner at the Asian American Restaurant Owners Association in West LA leaves the often squabbling members grappling with a murder.

Yale Yee isn’t a member, but her restaurateur father is. So she and her cousin, Celine, who’s visiting from Hong Kong, pitch in to help. Since her mother’s sudden death, Yale has been unable to live at home, but she happily shares her apartment with Celine, a social media influencer, who helps her run a food stall at the nearby Eastwood Village Night Market, where they solved a previous murder. The Thanksgiving dinner at Ho’s, a restaurant owned by Mrs. Ho and her son, Nik, who’s long butted heads with Yale, includes a hot pot dinner for a dwindling AAROA membership including club president Jeffery Vue; his vice president, Derrick Tran; and Roy Yamada, who all help prepare the meal. Misty Patil shows up to help with the cooking though she claims she didn't get an invitation to the dinner, and when someone named Trisha Kim arrives, she says she heard about the dinner on a blog and thought it was a public meeting. Things take a shocking turn when, while setting up the dining room, Jeffery is electrocuted while plugging in a damp extension cord. Det. Greyson Strauss, whom Yale knows from the Night Market murder, insists that the death was no accident. With so many of their friends as suspects, Yale and Celine decide that a little sleuthing is in order, and they dig up some tidbits to share with Strauss. Celine’s parents arrive from Hong Kong and insist she return home with them, but she’s grown to love her independence and wants to stay, setting up some family drama. Then both women are endangered when they get too close to a desperate killer.

Great characters and a delightful mystery filled with luscious descriptions of food.