A YA murder mystery noir set in 1930s Los Angeles’s Chinatown, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Downstairs Girl.“A captivating and crackling noir full of suspenseful...
A YA murder mystery noir set in 1930s Los Angeles’s Chinatown, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Downstairs Girl.“A captivating and crackling noir full of suspenseful...
Due to publisher restrictions, your digital library cannot purchase additional copies of this title. We apologize if there is a long holds list. You may want to see if other editions of this title are available from your digital library instead.
Due to publisher restrictions, your digital library cannot purchase additional copies of this title. We apologize if there is a long holds list. You may want to see if other editions of this title are available from your digital library instead.
Description-
A YA murder mystery noir set in 1930s Los Angeles’s Chinatown, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Downstairs Girl. “A captivating and crackling noir full of suspenseful twists. Readers will fall in love with the Chow sisters and their quest for the truth.” —Kathleen Glasgow, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Pieces and The Agathas LOS ANGELES, 1932: Lulu Wong, star of the silver screen and the pride of Chinatown, has a face known to practically everyone, especially the Chow sisters—May, Gemma, and Peony—Lulu’s former classmates and neighbors. So the girls instantly know it’s Lulu when they discover a body one morning in an out-of-the-way stable, far from the Beverly Hills home where she lived after her fame skyrocketed. The sisters suspect Lulu’s death is the result of foul play, but the police don’t seem motivated to investigate. Even worse, there are signs that point to a cover-up, and powerful forces in the city want to frame the killing as evidence that Chinatown is a den of iniquity and crime, even more reason it should be demolished to make room for the construction of a new railway depot, Union Station. Worried that neither the police nor the papers will treat Lulu fairly—no matter her fame and wealth—the sisters set out to solve their friend’s murder themselves, and maybe save their neighborhood in the bargain. But with Lulu’s killer still on the loose, the girls’ investigation just might put them square in the crosshairs of a cold-blooded murderer.
Excerpts-
From the cover
1
GEMMA
In 1932, Los Angeles was a city of reinvention. It was a place where mountains could be moved and riversre shaped, where even stars could fall from the sky and walk around on Earth. The blood of an Angeleno coursed through the veins like gasoline, primed for the explosion that would drive progress.
“Stop looking like we’re about to rob a bank.” I tied my straw hat tighter. My older sister, May, with her long arms gripping the steering wheel of our father’s flower delivery truck, did not look poised for progress. In fact, she looked like she was waiting for the truck to drive her.
Around us, customers hunted bustling City Market for deals on the last of summer’s bounty—corn, stone fruit, zucchini—though it was already October. “Pretend you’re the lead in one of those Hollywood flickers. We’re stylish women in the latest robin’s-egg-blue Cadillac about to go for a drive.”
The Mule, what we called our old Ford Runabout pickup, was definitely not robin’s-egg blue. More like turtle-egg brown.
May frowned at me, a tiny Y crease forming between her tea-steeped eyes. Even when she was annoyed, she had the kind of beauty that drew eyes and tripped feet. “Are you wearing lipstick?”
I pressed my lips together. “As a matter of fact, yes. Lulu Wong’s Noir Red.” The silver-screen starlet and our hometown celebrity had the dark-red shade made vegetarian for her. “Here, you wear some too. Put it on quick.” I plucked the tube from my clutch.
“They’ll think we’re hussies!” Her serious eyes blinked double time.
“They already think that.” If I’d had enough money, I would’ve gotten the kohl pencil for drawing on Lulu Wong’s tiger-charming beauty mark, a mole round and perfect enough to stop a tiger in its tracks. “Oh, forget it. Work the gears. Let’s get this bucking mule on the road.” I swept my hands toward the exit of City Market, where Ba had carved a niche selling flowers among all the produce vendors. But few bought blooms during a depression. Save for a few big orders placed during the Summer Olympics, it felt as if flowers came to our stall to die. We’d only sold a third of our inventory this morning, mostly the cheaper lilies. But this time, we weren’t going to simply donate them around town like we always did. Ba wouldn’t approve, but he was sixty miles away and might not return for many months.
“You and your big-thinking head,” she muttered, using a Chinese expression for someone with grand ideas. “I have a bad feeling this will get us married off for good.” With grudging movements of her hands on the gears, May eased us forward.
I snorted, though my leg began to jitter with annoyance. With fewer eligible maidens in Chinatown than bachelors, Bahad always told us that his three fierce clouds—Mei Wun, or “beautiful cloud,” for May; Gam Wun, or “fresh cloud,” for me; and Pan Wun, or “wishful cloud,” for our youngest sister, Peony—would blow favorable winds to our family. But with the city’s plans to bulldoze the heart of our community for a train station, May and I worried the winds would scatter us to new households sooner than we were ready to go.
“They won’t like us selling at Westlake Park,” May groused, crawling us along. The Mule bucked, tossing us like rice in the wok and clattering the buckets in our truck bed. One of the City Market sweepers shook his broom at us. May gave him an...
Reviews-
February 5, 2024 Three girls navigate a murder investigation with personal stakes in this slow-burn mystery by Lee (Winston Chu vs. the Whimsies). In 1932 Chinatown Los Angeles, sisters May, Gemma, and Peony Chow sell flowers as part of their family business. When they discover the body of movie star Lulu Wong, their hometown celebrity and May’s former friend, the siblings worry that justice will not be served and endeavor to honor Lulu’s legacy—and prevent the killer from striking again—by solving her murder. Led by ambitious, headstrong, mischievous Gemma, the trio push forward with their inquiry, though they’re met with resistance from the police, who underplay Lulu’s death and reject the plausibility of homicide, and political forces that want to paint Chinatown as a “mysterious and sinister” place full of “drunken and slovenly” people. While poking around town, the girls make discoveries hinting that the mystery goes deeper than they expected—and may involve people they know. Told in alternating POVs and interwoven with details from 1930s Chinese American culture, this immersive narrative gradually unspools an intricate murder mystery while exploring elements of prejudice, grief, and deceit. Ages 12–up.
March 1, 2024 Grades 9-12 In 1932 Los Angeles, Hollywood is in its golden age, bringing wealth to a lucky few. A great many others, however, are scrounging to survive, due to the Great Depression. The Chow sisters are among the latter, running the family's flower business after their father falls ill. Despite their hardships, they still enjoy the camaraderie of the city's close-knit and cosmopolitan Chinatown. That solace is shattered when the body of Lulu Wong, a movie star and one of Chinatown's own, is found. When the city police prove to be uninterested--or worse, willfully intransigent--the sisters decide to become gumshoes, piecing together clues that may implicate the highest echelons of Los Angeles society. The eldest two Chow sisters take turns as first-person narrators; May, reserved and careful, clashes with the younger Gemma, who is bold and reckless. While they make enjoyable detectives, the real star of the book is 1930s Los Angeles. Evocative details transport readers into that time and place, creating a nicely paced, engaging mystery made all the better by its lovingly rendered historical setting.
COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
March 15, 2024 Sisters investigate the murder of rising film star Lulu Wong in this story set in L.A.'s Chinatown during the golden age of Hollywood. After their father left home to undergo treatment for tuberculosis, 19-year-old May Chow and her 18-year-old sister, Gemma, took over his flower-selling business in order to support their family, which also includes 12-year-old Peony and Ma, who's expecting a fourth child. With the country still gripped by economic depression, money is tight, and the girls' meager earnings barely make ends meet. Making matters worse is news of a proposed train station in Chinatown that would effectively destroy the community. Thanks to prejudice and discrimination against Chinese Americans, influenced in part by negative media portrayals, the city council largely ignores residents' concerns and opposition to the station. When May and Gemma stumble across Lulu's body in an abandoned lot in Chinatown, the scandal fuels even more negative feelings toward the neighborhood. Aware that prejudice and police corruption might allow Lulu's murderer to escape justice, Gemma decides to conduct her own investigation with help from Peony, a mystery novel aficionado, and May, whose sense of familial duty competes with her desire to honor her dear childhood friend Lulu. This twisty mystery, brought to life by a vibrant cast and abundant historical details, will keep readers in suspense until the very end. Themes of community, representation, and sisterhood add an emotionally satisfying element to the narrative. Riveting. (author's note) (Historical mystery. 13-18)
COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Starred review from May 1, 2024
Gr 9 Up-In 1932, in Chinatown in Los Angeles, three sisters try to solve the murder of their friend and movie star Lulu Wong. What started as a typical day selling flowers for May and Gemma Chow led to the discovery of a dead body. Lulu Wong may be a budding actress, but nobody beyond the Chinese community truly cares about finding justice for her death, especially since outsiders are looking to bulldoze Chinatown. With the help of their younger sister Peony, May and Gemma decide they need to be the ones to find Lulu's killer if the police department won't, especially when the police arrest a Chinese neighbor the Chow sisters believe innocent. Told in the alternating perspectives of May and Gemma, the book takes readers on a wild ride. Woven into the mystery are elements of grief, romance, family dynamics, struggle, prejudice, and deceit. Lee skillfully introduces actual history into this fictional story, leading readers to learn what the residents of LA's Old Chinatown faced. The story contains intriguing characters, but not everyone is who or what they appear-these twists will delight readers. VERDICT Whether teens enjoy mysteries, historical fiction, or both, this is one to get into their hands.-Amanda Borgia
Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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