Murder on Bamboo Lane (An Officer Ellie Rush Mystery)
Rookie LAPD bicycle cop Ellie Rush is patrolling porta-potties at the Chinese New Year’s festival when a young woman’s body is found in a nearby alley, and Ellie identifies her as Jenny Nguyen, a former Pan Pacific West College classmate. Ellie’s identification gets the investigation rolling, but it abruptly slows when Jenny’s inner circle stonewalls detectives. Ellie, a Japanese American, uses personal time to follow leads mined from her student and Asian community connections while managing her mother’s unyielding expectations, her brother’s teenage rebellions, and her powerful aunt’s ambiguous loyalties. Unexpectedly, Ellie is assigned to assist the official investigation, but celebration of the plum assignment is quashed when she links her own loved ones to the murder and knows she can’t let that stop her from nailing Jenny’s killer. Like Hirahara’s Edgar Award–winning Mas Arai series, this novel features insightful exploration of Los Angeles’ Japanese American community and stars a perpetually underestimated protagonist, but Ellie’s youthful perspective and two-wheeled perch are delightfully unique, sure to draw a wide range of readers, from young adults to seasoned police-procedural fans. --Christine Tran