Murder on Bamboo Lane: Good cops ride bicycles too

What is this about?

Ellie Rush is a bicycle cop in LA when she gets drawn into a murder invesigation of a girl she knew at university. Slowly, she begins to understand that, Jenny, the co-ed was nothing like anyone expected. She also discovers that her friends, the people she thought she knew the best, would have things to hide.

What else is this about?

Ellie is finding her way as a cop, and niece to the highest-ranking Asian American officer in the LAPD because her aunt is her mentor. It makes for a compelling beginning.

Blurb

Trouble awaits rookie LAPD Officer Ellie Rush as she patrols the mean streets of Los Angeles on her bicycle…

Bike cop Ellie Rush dreams of becoming a homicide detective, but it’s still a shock when the first dead body she encounters on the job is that of a former college classmate.

At the behest of her Aunt Cheryl, the highest-ranking Asian-American officer in the LAPD (a source of pride for Ellie’s grandmother, but annoyance to her mom), Ellie becomes tangled in the investigation of the coed’s murder—with equal parts help and hindrance from her nosy best friend, her over-involved ex-boyfriend, a smoldering detective, and seemingly everyone else in her extended family…only to uncover secrets that a killer may go to any lengths to ensure stay hidden

Murder on Bamboo Lane was an unexpected gem to say the least.

The book introduces readers to Ellie, a young cop on bicycle patrol in LA. She’s trying to find her place in the force, and is proud that she’s a cop, even as she knows how hard she’s got to work to get promoted. However, when she finds a missing person’s poster, with the email of one of her closest friends as a contact on it, she finds herself drawn into the case of a missing coed, Jenny, that becomes a murder case.

Mind you, Ellie has never seen a dead body before, she’s that new. This proves to be the beginning of finding that her friends had more contact with Jenny than she thought.

Along with Ellie, we are introduced to three of Ellie’s closest friends – Rickie, Nay and yes, even her ex, Benjamin. They’ve been close for years, and are kind of like the family she’s made, instead of the one she was born with. Rickie is not reliable at the best of times, and Benjamin broke her heart in many ways, but both had links with Jenny. Then there’s Nay, her bestie with whom she shares everything, and who during the book proves to be quite good at investigating with Ellie.

Then there’s the family she was born into: Noah, her younger brother, who happens to have a slight weed problem, her parents, who are a wee bit over-protective and adore her ex, and her grandmothers. This is the family she’s grown up with, who she loves, but none of them quite understood why she would go into law enforcement – none of them except her aunt Cheryl. And her Aunt Cheryl and her mother who have been at odds for years, including over Ellie and the high regard she holds her aunt.

When her aunt convinces her to look into the case on her own, Ellie begins to uncover Jenny’s secrets all of which lead her into the path of detective Cortez, who is working the case too – and it proves to be the first time Ellie finds herself interested in someone besides her ex — for which I was eternally grateful because I feared this book would be Ellie pining for her ex all the time. Thankfully NOT.

In between figuring out what happened to Jenny together, they find themselves having dinner and enjoying themselves… and meeting Ellie’s parents accidentally, who up until that point didn’t know she had broken up with Benjamin, her ex three months ago. Not the ideal way to meet the parents!

But the more Ellie looks into the case, the more driven she becomes to find out what happened to Jenny. However, along with the truth about Jenny, she finds out the truth about her aunt, and what Cheryl wants from her, and for her. There’s always a point when we have to get rid of our rose-coloured glasses, and see the truth of what is in front of us — and nothing can be harder when that happens with family, the ones we are supposed to trust above everyone else.

So in addition to a mystery that explored Asian culture, and communities, there’s the story of family, and Ellie’s new reality. So to speak. Totally worth putting the next book on my TBR.