Aunty Lee’s Deadly Specials

by Ovidia Yu

  “Most people learn they can’t have everything their way all the time when they are children. I think it’s a lesson easier learned when young,” Aunty Lee said.

  “Mabel Sung was in much deeper trouble than anyone guessed. But she was such a forceful personality that nobody thought to question her. The people in her law firm, the members of her prayer group and her family had been under her leadership for so long that questioning her would have seemed like an act of treason to them. That’s why until Sharon went through the books, no one knew that Mabel had got Sung Law into serious financial trouble. What made it worse from Sharon’s point of view was that Mabel had borrowed against her house as well as the company. If Mabel was declared bankrupt they would lose the house, their reputation, everything.”

  “Everything was all right until Mabel Sung was careless enough to let Sharon find out what was happening,” Cherril observed. “If she pulled off the organ scam she would have had more than enough money pay back everything and to rescue the house and the law firm.”

  “I don’t think it was carelessness.” Aunty Lee said. “The problem from the start was that Mabel Sung and Sharon never understood each other. To make it worse, they thought they did.

  “My stepdaughter, Mathilda,” she continued, “told me how competitive Sharon already was back in her school days. If Sharon couldn’t be the best at something, she had to put it down and show that it wasn’t worth doing. But it wasn’t her teachers or her peers that she was trying so hard to impress. What Sharon really wanted was to get her mother to notice her.

  “It was only after she was made partner that Sharon discovered her mother had been putting more than prayer into Leonard’s recovery. His drug use had damaged his heart. Because of his HIV-positive diagnosis, it was unlikely Leonard would be considered for a heart transplant in Singapore no matter how much money his family threw into the system. Which is probably why Mabel started to look outside the system. By then Leonard wasn’t well enough to travel, so she had to find a way to bring a donor into Singapore—and someone and someplace to perform the operation.

  “That night Sharon learned that Mabel had ruined the law firm—which she considered her birthright—to try to save her sick son’s life. That’s what drove her to put the Algae Bomb powder into Leonard’s food. And almost by accident she killed her mother too.”

  “So Sharon killed them?” Commissioner Raja could remember Sharon Sung as a skinny girl in a school uniform.

  “I don’t think she meant to. But after she did it, I don’t think she minded. You know, accidents upset some people terribly. They run over a dog by accident and feel so guilty they kill themselves and leave all their money to the SPCA. Of course that’s a bit extreme, but I don’t think Sharon Sung felt anything except that she had got away with it. And it would have got easier with practice,” Aunty Lee said. “Like with killing chickens. So it’s a good thing you stopped her.”

  “You stopped her,” Commissioner Raja said. “It’s hard to believe. On the surface they were such decent, law-abiding people. It just shows how little you can tell.”

  “According to Mabel, the laws necessary to maintain social order are not the same as God’s laws. To her that meant she had a God-given right to save her son by any means that did not upset the social order. Sharon is very like her mother. She felt her mother had cheated her, so she was entitled to get what she wanted as long as she didn’t get caught.”

  “I can’t believe old Henry Sung went along with it,” Aunty Lee said.

  “Henry Sung always let his wife run him. He only did as well as he did because of her. If he had married someone else, he might have spent his whole life working in a government hospital and living in a semidetached house. Mabel was always the energetic driving force. But Henry Sung liked being rich and comfortable, and once Mabel was gone, Sharon was his only hope of maintaining that lifestyle. Henry spent most of his life doing what his wife told him. It was easy for him to switch to obeying his daughter’s orders, no questions asked.”

  “She could have killed you,” Commissioner Raja said feelingly. Death could come so quickly and almost easily, but with irreversible consequences, and Aunty Lee, caught up in the thrill of figuring out the ingredients that had gone into producing killers, seemed to be forgetting this. “Sharon Sung would have killed you if she could. You might be dead now. Think about that.”

  Aunty Lee thought about it.

  “I want to serve crab cakes at my funeral,” Aunty Lee said. “Made with fresh pepper crab meat inside a light batter pastry. I can make them in advance and freeze them and all Nina will have to do is put them in a deep fat fryer. But I haven’t made them yet, so I’m glad I’m not dead yet.”

  Raja Kumar looked at her with some exasperation, but Aunty Lee was not just being facetious. She had just realized that the heavy cloud of misery that had hung over her for so long, carrying the conviction that everything she did was pointless, had evaporated.

  “That poor China man and poor Benjamin Ng are still dead for nothing. But poor Patrick came with Timmy Pang tonight, so at least the brothers are eating together now. You know, we may offer food to remember the dead, but funerals and feasts are for the living, do you know what I mean? People must go on eating together to remind themselves why life is worth living.”

  “And you will go on feeding us.” Raja Kumar laughed. He almost added “from beyond the grave,” but stopped himself. “We should go. Mycroft and Cherril have already gone and Nina and Salim are waiting to lock up.”

  “You see?” Aunty Lee took a moment to say to the portrait by the wine room as she picked up her handbag. “I told you things would work out all right.”

  ML Lee, as tactful in death as in life, did not contradict her.

  Acknowledgments

  So many wonderful people helped me make this book happen. I would like to thank Priya Doraswamy, my magical agent, Rachel Kahan, my wonderful editor, NaNoWriMo-er (the insanely wonderful milieu which helped me get the first draft down), the Magic Spreadsheet (which guided me through rewrites), the Artist’s Way Circle (which told me I was a writer before I was one), KanbanFlow (which provided work-life balance), Bouchercon-ers (who made me believe I could do a second book), and all the great people at William Morrow/HarperCollins who did the real work of making this book happen: Trish Daly, Joanne Minutillo, Alaina Waagner, Jennifer Hart, Liate Stehlik, Joyce Wong, Austin Tripp, David Wolfson, and Sarah Woodruff.

  P.S. Insights, Interviews & More . . .

  About the author

  * * *

  Meet Ovidia Yu

  About the book

  * * *

  Reading Group Guide to Aunty Lee’s Deadly Specials by Ovidia Yu

  Read on

  * * *

  Aunty Lee’s Easy Candlenut Chicken Curry

  Cherril’s Ginger Lemongrass Doctail

  Aunty Lee’s Guide to All Things Singapore

  About the author

  * * *

  Meet Ovidia Yu

  Photo by Kar-Wai Wesley

  OVIDIA YU is one of Singapore’s best-known and most acclaimed writers. Since dropping out of medical school to write for theater, she has had more than thirty plays produced in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, including the Edinburgh Fringe First Award–winning play The Woman in a Tree on the Hill.

  The author of Aunty Lee’s Delights and Aunty Lee’s Deadly Specials and a number of other mysteries that have been published in Singapore and India, Ovidia Yu received a Fulbright Fellowship to attend the University of Iowa’s International Writers Program and has been a writing fellow at the National University of Singapore. She speaks frequently at literary festivals and writers’ conferences throughout Asia.

  Despite her writing career, when she is recognized in Singapore it is usually because of her stint as a regular celebrity guest on Singapore’s version of the American television game show Pyramid.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive i
nformation on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

  About the book

  * * *

  Reading Group Guide to Aunty Lee’s Deadly Specials by Ovidia Yu

  1. Aunty Lee loves her kitchen, which is “small enough to get around quickly but there was space to fit in friends. She always felt that the bonds formed while cooking together ran deeper than those formed merely eating together.” What role does cooking play in your friendships and family life? How do you think cooking together encourages bonding?

  2. Aunty Lee likes buffets because she learns about people by watching how they pick items off the buffet table. What might your buffet approach say about you to Aunty Lee’s sharp eye?

  3. The traditional buah keluak dish ends up at the center of the whodunnit. Why does Aunty Lee continue to prepare such a labor-intensive dish when many don’t seem to appreciate its intricacies?

  4. Mabel Sung claims to hate Peranakan food in the novel, and it seems that sometimes a line is drawn between traditional, local fare like buah keluak and more modern. What does this say about Singaporean culture? What do the different characters reveal about themselves in the way they respond to Aunty Lee’s food?

  5. Singapore’s strict social codes play a role in the novel with many characters facing legal challenges to their relationships: Nina’s status as a foreign domestic worker and Patrick Pang’s sexual orientation. How do the characters in Aunty Lee’s Deadly Specials participate—or not—in these codes? What is Aunty Lee’s take on the matter?

  6. There is a complex web of moral and legal issues around the illegal organ donor trade in the novel. Aunty Lee asks, “even if you have the organs, how does the law decide who gets them? It’s like playing God. Throw a dice, pick at random. As long as the people can pay.” Where do you think the members of the Never Say Die prayer and healing group would fall in this debate? Do you sympathize with Mabel Sung’s attempts to try to save her son—even at the cost of another’s life?

  7. Appearances are very important in the world of Aunty Lee’s Deadly Specials, from displaying family income to “appropriate” clothes to surgically enhanced or repaired bodies. Are appearances deceptive? How does Aunty Lee use people’s needs to maintain appearances to her advantage?

  8. Among the shops at Bukit Timah Plaza are offices for travel and maid agencies, “full of frightened hopeful young women come to Singapore to work and waiting for potential employers to take their pick. They reminded Aunty Lee of desperate dogs in the adoption pound . . . Or worse, they made her think of the ‘live’ seafood in the tanks outside Chinese restaurants. Would anyone report a girl who ran away and died in a fire? Would anyone even miss her?” Singapore’s underclass of undocumented workers plays a large role in the plot of Aunty Lee’s Deadly Specials. How do the characters in the novel view these immigrants? How is this similar or different from the way immigrants are treated in your home country?

  9. Despite their differences, Cherril and Mycroft are one of few examples in the novel of a happy couple, especially compared to Mark and Selina or the dysfunctional Sungs. Why does Aunty Lee think their relationship works? What made her own marriage with ML Lee so satisfying?

  10. GraceFaith Ang, like Edmond Yong, is an unabashed social climber who cares only about her own success, but it is her action that breaks the case wide open, while Edmond only digs deeper into his crimes. Why do you think GraceFaith gave Aunty Lee the documents and shut down the Sungs’ donor scheme? Was it her conscience? Or something else?

  11. Healing through grief is a theme in the novel: Anne Peters walks her dog three times a day, while Aunty Lee stays busy, makes food, and solves mysteries. Yet even cheerful Aunty Lee still grieves: “Now that loss was a permanent part of her life, she saw that the custom [of offering food to the dead] was less a matter of superstition than of wanting those you loved most to share your experiences.” Because she has experienced loss, she feels compassion for Patrick Pang after his partner’s death. Does your culture or family have customs around the grieving process? In what ways have you or those you know learned to heal?

  12. Commissioner Raja confesses at the end of the book that he was worried the Sungs might kill Aunty Lee. She, of course, takes this as a cue to reflect on what food might be served at her funeral, saying: “We may offer food to remember the dead, but funerals and feasts are for the living. . . . People must go on eating together to remind themselves why life is worth living.” Do you agree with Aunty Lee’s pragmatic outlook on life and death? What food would you have served at your funeral?

  Read on

  * * *

  Aunty Lee’s Easy Candlenut Chicken Curry

  (Because when in a hurry, any curry is better than none.)

  Buah Keluak can be difficult to find, even if you don’t believe it’s deadly. But a good alternative is the candlenut (the small round nuts also on the cover of this book). Aunty Lee loves the way candlenuts give a nutty, slightly bitter flavor to a curry mix. If you can’t buy candlenuts where you live, you can always substitute macadamias.

  Ideally the rempah curry mix would be pounded by hand, but for now, use your food processor. If you use fresh (deseeded) chilies and turmeric instead of chili powder and turmeric powder, good for you—they go in the blender too.

  This will make enough to feed four adults or two ravenous teenagers.

  Chicken

  1 onion (preferably red), peeled and chopped

  1 pound chicken cut into even-sized chunks

  2 potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

  1 cup chicken broth (or water and a bouillon cube)

  Rempah Curry

  5 candlenuts (or macadamias)

  2 cloves garlic

  Half an inch of peeled ginger

  2 teaspoons curry powder

  2 teaspoons coriander powder

  2 teaspoons cumin powder

  1 teaspoon chilli powder

  2 teaspoons turmeric powder

  1 teaspoon vinegar

  Add a little oil as you blend the ingredients in a food processor to a smooth paste

  Salt (approximately half a teaspoon)

  Freshly ground black pepper

  1 tablespoon sugar (the secret ingredient)

  1 cup coconut milk

  Heat a little oil in a frying pan and fry the chopped onion. Add the blender paste and fry that, too, until it darkens and becomes fragrant.

  Add the chicken and stir fry until the chicken is coated with the curry paste. Add the potatoes. Stir in the chicken broth, salt, pepper, and sugar. Let simmer on low heat for 15 to 20 minutes. After the liquid is reduced, stir in enough coconut milk to the consistency you like (soupy or just saucy) and simmer for about 5 minutes more. Taste and adjust the seasonings.

  Serve with bread or rice and Aunty Lee’s Amazing Achar!

  Cherril’s Ginger Lemongrass Doctail

  ��Why you want to call them duck’s tails? What have they got to do with ducks?”

  “Not ducks, Aunty Lee. You know, like cocktails and mock-tails, only these are healthy, like a doctor would recommend, so we call them doctails. I’m using green tea, barley water, soy milk, and brown rice tea as bases for the freshly juiced fruits.”

  This recipe makes 4 cups. (Two to drink right away, and two to put in the fridge to be chilled for later.)

  5 cups water

  An inch of fresh ginger root, peeled and chopped

  3 big stalks of lemongrass (or 5 little ones) including the juicy white bulbs, washed and chopped

  Honey to taste

  Bring the water to a boil in a pan. Add the chopped ginger and lemongrass and turn the heat down to simmer for at least 5 minutes. Stir in the honey to taste. Strain and serve.

  Aunty Lee prefers her Ginger Lemongrass drinks served hot, but you’ll find it delightful either way.

  According to both traditional Chinese medicine and traditional Malay jamu, ginger has many healing and balancing properties, including the ability to warm the blood and soothe the digestive system.
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  Aunty Lee’s Guide to All Things Singapore

  Her favorite places to check out for food, shopping, and everything in between!

  Aunty Lee’s Favorite Food Spots in Singapore

  Food courts and hawker centers are the best introduction to Singaporean food because they offer the widest variety of foods. As a general guideline, food courts are mostly air-conditioned, whereas hawker centers are not.

  BEST PLACE FOR FIRST-TIME VISITORS

  The Food Republic on Level 3 of VivoCity The decor here evokes the good old-fashioned hawker streets with wooden stools and tables, but with air conditioning, clean toilets, and clearly marked prices. And it is handy if you’re going across to Sentosa. Aunty Lee recommends their thunder tea rice, butterfly fritters, and egg pratas . . . and the kueh tutu (coconut and peanut).

  BEST PLACE FOR BREAKFAST OR LUNCH

  Tiong Bahru Market is the best place for an authentic heartland breakfast or lunch. It’s best not to risk trying to have dinner there, as most of the stalls close once they are sold out for the day, usually by mid-afternoon. Aunty Lee likes the chwee kueh there—chwee kuehs are tiny savory rice cakes served with a topping of preserved radish and eaten with chili sauce.

  BEST SPOT FOR LOCALS

  Lau Pa Sat (meaning “old market”) is what the locals call Telok Ayer Market. Unlike Tiong Bahru Market, you don’t want to get here too early. The stalls inside the pavilion are open all day, but every evening around 7 P.M. the road outside is closed off for the satay stalls to set up. Lau Pa Sat dates back to the time of Singapore’s founder, Sir Stamford Raffles. Aunty Lee recommends the barbecued prawns and octopus.

  Aunty Lee’s Favorite Shopping and Spots in Singapore