Sometimes the best way to know a person is by asking questions, so let’s meet Su Lin.

What is your name?
Chen Su Lin. Chen is my family name, but the Chens are known for blackmarket activities in Singapore, and most of the time I ask people to call me Su Lin or Su.

How old are you?
That’s a complicated question. I’ve been alive for 17 years. By Chinese reckoning (where a newborn baby in its first year of life is described as ‘one year’) I am 18 years. But if we were to meet today in August 2018, I would be 99 years old.

What is your profession?
Some day I’m going to be a professional journalist, like Henrietta Stackpole in Portrait of A Lady (I still love that book even though the woman who lent it to me tried to kill me). Since leaving school I’ve worked as a nanny, a teacher and a translator (I can speak English, Malay, Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese) but my family thinks the only decent profession for a female is wife and mother.

Do you have a significant other?
Not in a romantic sense, though there are plenty of significant people in my life.

What is his name and profession?
If I had to pick the most significant person in my life it would be Chief Inspector Thomas Le Froy. He is my sifu or teacher. Even though he was born in England, he is more Singaporean than many Straits born.

Any children?
Not yet. I love children and some day I would love to have my own.

Do you have any sibling(s)?
No. I had a brother who died before he was a month old. And then both my parents died soon after I was born. But my best friend Parshanti Shankar is like a sister to me.

Cats, dogs or other pets?
I’ve helped raise chickens, ducks and pigs at my grandmother’s house, but I wouldn’t really call them pets.

What town do you live in?
I live in Singapore. It’s a diamond shaped island on the equator twenty-six miles wide and fourteen miles top to bottom.

House or building complex? Own or Rent?
Most week days I sleep in my Uncle Chen’s shop in town. I like being in town. But the family home, Chen Mansion, is in Katong, in the East of Singapore, which is also where you find the best laksa.

What is your favorite spot in your house?
I don’t have a favourite indoor spot. I always prefer being outdoors, rain or shine.

Who is your best friend?
Parshanti Shankar. We were two of the first five girls in Singapore to go to English school.

Amateur sleuth or professional?
I’m not a sleuth. I think of myself as an investigative journalist and some day I hope to be a professional journalist.

Favorite meal?
Nasi kunyit. It’s a savoury glutinous rice dish, the yellow comes from turmeric and the richness comes from the coconut milk it’s cooked in. It’s a special occasion dish and the taste always makes me think of weddings and other special occasions.

Favorite dessert?
Bubor chacha. It’s a sweet coconut soup made of sago pearls, tapioca and yams and flavoured with pandan leaves, all things you can find growing in the garden. I could eat it for breakfast in the morning, for dessert after dinner and any time in between.

Favorite hobby?
I love reading more than anything. But I think that’s more a passion than a hobby.

Favorite vacation spot?
I love being near the sea (so it’s lucky I live on an island). Just being near water makes me feel connected to something far greater than myself. It’s bigger than words but makes me feel a part of the great cycle of Tao and the Christian God of Creation.

Favorite color?
Green. All the shades of green on leaves.

Favorite author?
Henry James. Especially for The Portrait of a Lady.

Favorite sports team?
I support the Singapore team in the Malaya Cup, though we haven’t won the Cup since 1925.

Movies or Broadway?
I love the movies, in any language. My favourite English movie is It Happened One Night with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. Oh, and King Kong.

Are you a morning or a night person?
Morning. When I was ten years old I was very proud to be put in charge of my grandmother’s chickens, and chickens start the day very early and ever since then, so do I.

In a few sentences, what is a typical day in your life like?
Most of the time my duties at the Detective Shack are very basic—filing and accounts. I take care of translations too. When I get stuck or bored I like to clean and organise things. Having things in order around me always makes me feel better.

Giveaway: Two readers selected at random will receive a print copy of both The Betel Nut and The Frangipani Tree mysteries. U.S. entries only, please. The giveaway ends August 15, 2018. Good luck everyone!

You can read about Su Lin in The Betel Nut Tree Mystery, the second book in the “Crown Colony” mystery series. The first book in the series is The Frangipani Tree Mystery.

The second novel in Ovidia Yu’s delightfully charming crime series set in 1930s Singapore, featuring amateur sleuth Su Lin.

What we came to think of as the betel nut affair began in the middle of a tropical thunderstorm in December 1937 . . .

Singapore is agog with the news of King Edward VIII’s abdication to marry American heiress Wallis Simpson. Chen Su Lin, now Chief Inspector Le Froy’s secretarial assistant in Singapore’s newly formed detective unit, still dreams of becoming a journalist and hopes to cover the story when the Hon Victor Glossop announces he is marrying an American widow of his own, Mrs Nicole Covington, in the Colony. But things go horribly wrong when Victor Glossop is found dead, his body covered in bizarre symbols and soaked in betel nut juice.

The beautiful, highly-strung Nicole claims it’s her fault he’s dead . . . just like the others. And when investigations into her past reveal a dead lover, as well as a husband, the case against her appears to be stacking up. Begrudgingly on Le Froy’s part, Su Lin agrees to chaperon Nicole at the Farquhar Hotel, intending to get the truth out of her somehow. But as she uncovers secrets and further deaths occur, Su Lin realises she may not be able to save Nicole’s life – or even her own.

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About the author
Ovidia Yu was born in, lives in and writes about Singapore. She turned to writing after dropping out of medical school—but that’s ancient history. Like her latest books, The Frangipani Tree Mystery and The Betel Nut Tree Mystery which are set in Colonial Singapore.

All comments are welcomed.