The Betel Nut Tree Mystery (Crown Colony Book 2) Kindle Edition

This set of mysteries starring Su Lin Chen is !ight, quirky, different from any other I've read, since it has the sensibilities of a distant romantic Singapore, a culture I know only superficially. She is a young polio-afflicted Chinese girl who fights for her freedom from a very narrow culture, yet is set in a time and place where such longings will never be fully achieved. Her struggles give depth and meaning to her modern ideas and a job as secretary to a British colonial policeman and allows readers to accept her as a real person with feelings totally outside our experience. The descriptions of Singapore and the British, Chinese, Malay culture are vivid, finely drawn and exciting, while maintaining this sense of reality in a very difficult time and place. Su Lin describes a life where she is "unlucky" for her family because she had polio and her parents died. Her family would cast her out or kill her under normal social conditions, but her grand mother refused to give her up, even flouting convention by sending her to an English school for girls, a wildly bizarre concept in that time and place. Her grand mother can well afford the negative social nuances, as her position as the head of a wealthy syndicate family means she already is a bit of an outlaw in every sense of the word. Such improbabilities are the stuff fun detective novels are made of and I like it.

Ovidia Yu, the Singaporean author and playwright, has a new series of cozy mysteries, to go along with her four book "Aunty Lee" series. This series - "The Crown Colony" - set in mid-1930's Singapore, features Chen Su Lin, a young woman from a wealthy family, who wants to be independent and yet is still bound to her traditional Singaporean family and the mores of the time. At this point, Su Lin was hired by Police Chief Le Froy as his secretarial assistant, More of the back story is told in the series' first book, "The Frangipani Tree Mystery". This book, "The Betel Nut Tree Mystery", is the second in the series.I've read the four books of her "Aunty Lee" series and found them all charming and mostly compelling. The food described is mouth watering and the plots usually give the reader a good time. But this book, "The Betel Nut Tree Mystery", is a complete mess - plot-wise. Both the crime characters and plot points make very little sense. I'm still confused on who murdered who and why and I really don't care. That's the bad part of the book. The good part is that the Singaporean characters are interesting and I kept reading because I wanted to find out what happened to Su Lin, her friend Parshanti, Le Froy and his police squad, and Su Lin's rather interesting family. Also, the time 1937 in a British crown colony is a good setting. Author Yu does bring in the international situation into the picture.I'm going to read the first book in the series, "The Frangipani Tree". Hopefully, it's better. But I'll keep Ovidia Yu's writing at hand. This one might be a bummer of a book.

Geez, I wanted to love The Betel Nut Tree Mystery. I was hoping that Chen Su Lin would be working closely with Inspector Le Froy and that maybe they would becomes friends or something to that effect but none of my hopes were realized. Le Froy spent most of his time sleuthing around for another case or in the background thinking about things. I wanted more from his character.Su Lin was just as interesting in this book as she was in the last but she had more backbone this time and that was nice to see. I liked that she was becoming more sure of herself and taking more risks. I was disappointed that her family had very little “time”in this book. I liked the zany element that they added before. Su Lin’s best friend, Parshanti, was a major part of this story but that was just drama that wove into the mystery of this story. I was not a fan of Parshanti at all and Su Lin was a fool to share as much as she did with her.I did enjoy the culture and the history that was incorporated into The Betel Nut Tree Mystery. It just brings the setting alive for me. I also appreciated how the betel nut tree was incorporated into the mystery. That was well done. So, I will admit that there were parts of this story that were slightly irritating but then there were other parts that were nicely done. I think that evens out to a three star book and I am not sure if this will be a series I continue in. I just wanted more of what I was expecting after reading book one.

I discovered Ovidia Yu in a recent trip to Singapore, and I instantly became a fan of both of her series: old, wise and meddlesome Aunty Lee in modern Singapore, and young, clever and fierce Chen Su Lin in the British colony around Second World War years. Both belong with honors to the great family of female crime solvers along I discovered Ovidia Yu in a recent trip to Singapore, and I instantly became a fan of both of her series: old, wise and meddlesome Aunty Lee in modern Singapore, and young, clever and fierce Chen Su Lin in the British colony around Second World War years. Both belong with honors to the great family of female crime solvers along with Miss Marple, Tuppence, Mma Ramotswe, Mma Makutsi, Isabel Dalhousie, and so many others who are able to mix female wisdom and humor with rich human whodunit plots. Painting the island of Singapore, Yu speaks a most universal language, at least to this Latin American fan.The Betel Nut Tree Mystery is the second in the series of the "Crown Colony". It can be read on its own, but I think is best to read it as part of the series, to follow the growth of the young heroine. I specially appreciated the accuracy of the historical frame, and the humor and delicacy in presenting political, social and racial tensions, cleverly woven in the murder solving plot.

unusual in every way set in singapore characters all with a personality quickly drew me in and will look for more by this writer

A great novel by a very good author.

I really enjoyed the book (and it’s precursor and it’s successor). Very easy to read - an excellent holiday book!

I love Asian backdrop books and although an easy read this was missing something, lacking in humour or suspense. Quality of the physical book itself was excellent. Contents couldn’t hold my attention enough to finish it though.