Meddling and Murder is the 4th in the Singaporean Mystery series by Ovidia Yu. This is my favorite of the series so far, though I enjoyed them all.

Bank holiday reading/listening. I think quite often, once you get into the sense of how a mystery writer thinks, it’s easier to solve the puzzle. I’d worked this one out from the start (and teased out the various nefarious plots), but this was still an enjoyable listen over a couple of days with a migraine. I’ve done an unconscionable amount of being ill this year…

I thought this Aunty Lee took a little while to get going, but I always love the Singapore setting and food and Aunty Lee herself.

Drat! This is the fourth of a four-book series, and I find I'm disappointed there aren't more so I guess I liked it a lot!

In these Singaporean Mysteries, sometimes the solutions felt rushed, while at other times the pace felt slow as details were repeated in almost the same words, as if the author forgot she'd said that already. But I enjoyed these reads overall, mostly because there was never a moment where I couldn't identify with one character or another and see human faults and foibles, as well as human heroics, lovingly shared.

Also enjoyable was the setting of Singapore, with its delightful diversity. Yu's other series, the Tree mysteries, paints a fascinating historic Singapore, and this earlier series of modern Singaporean mysteries doesn't disappoint a fan of that faraway setting, despite lacking the spice of long-ago.

A note for audiobook readers: The narration is excellent but the audio production isn't perfect. The levels aren't balanced overall, so you'll be cranking it up when the reader drops into the confidential almost-whisper she uses for "narrator," and then dialing the volume down again when a character voice comes booming in. Ride that gain, audio engineers!

I continue to be impressed with how Ovidia Yu manages to weave in the cultural and societal aspects of Singapore life in a compassionate understanding yet slightly critical way without ruffling feathers, much like her protagonist.

Takes a long time to get to the main mystery. Still, Auntie Lee is a very memorable and fun character that manages to keep one's interest.

It was okay. Nothing happens for the first half of the book so it was really hard to get into it and stay engaged. Johnny Ho is so unlikeable it’s almost unbearable. I thought about DNF’ing it a few times. It’s pretty easy to figure out whodunit once things start happening, which is kind of a bummer. Overall it was okay but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you like the slow burn of a story development.

Read as a stand-alone - it didn’t feel like I missed much.