Kill Her Twice

By Stacey Lee and George Albert Brown

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 059353204X
• ISBN13: 9780593532041
• Release Date: April 2024
• Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 5.5" x 8.4"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

Enjoyable and thought-provoking historical mystery

Kill Her Twice by Stacey Lee is a historical murder mystery set in Chinatown, Los Angeles, 1932. It is told through the dual POVs of two sisters, May and Gemma. Their friend Lulu Wong, a Hollywood actress, has been murdered and the police don't seem to care about finding her killer. May and Gemma, along with their younger sister, Peony, decide to investigate Lulu's death while running their family flower selling business and helping their pregnant mother. The characters are likeable, and the story is well plotted. The narrative is made more interesting by historical, cultural and political details. The racism faced by the Chinese community in L.A. is explored well and presents additional challenges to solving Lulu's murder. The story did slow down at times; however, the pacing issues did not diminish this enjoyable and thought-provoking YA mystery.

Great historical mystery!

From the cover, which is a glamourous shot of the beautiful actress Lulu Wong and drew me right in, to the spunk and creativity and daring that May, Gemma, and a bit Peony, to solve the mystery of Lulu's horrible murder in Hollywood, this was a solid fun story to read. Yes, it was fiction, but it felt nicely real, especially with the hardships Gemma and May and their family were going through in these tumultuous times when Chinese people were looked down on and the places they lived in Chinatown were threatened to be torn down for a railway station. All that made me admire May and Gemma even more because they refused to give up, trying to find the murderer and keep their family and flower business together, making enough to keep a roof over their heads. They faced prejudice, for their race, and also gender which caused conflicts, but it was nicely balanced by good people who also wanted justice for Lulu. The looks into making movies of that time were interesting too. It was a nice and fun book to read!