Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

I really enjoyed Sutanto’s Dial A for Aunties, but Vera Wong was even better.

First, it’s hilarious. Just the premise: a 50-something-year-old widower who owns a tea shop in Chinatown in San Francisco thinks she can solve a murder better than the police. And then she does.

It’s written from multiple perspectives of various suspects, but the whole thing is super lighthearted and still a great mystery. My wife and I read it aloud to each other, as we often do. If you enjoy the Thursday Murder Club series, this one is definitely for you.

Vera Wong is an outspoken, opinionated, but lonely lady. Her adult son has no time for her. Her once thriving tea shop is frequented only by a single regular customer. The 60-year-old widow is looking at life in the rear view mirror until she finds a dead man on the floor of her shop.

The sexagenarian now has an exciting mystery to solve, and she believes she’ll be much better at it than the police. Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murders is more than a cozy mystery, it’s a story about friendship and family dynamics.

It’s a witty, fun, and… show more.

I was lucky enough to read an early copy of this book, and I am blown away at how Jesse Sutanto continues to smash both her novel concepts and character voices out of the park!

Vera Wong herself is the ultimate amateur sleuth, but she is not reluctant whatsoever. When a dead body turns up in her tea shop, Vera Wong—the most wonderfully grandmotherly non-grandmother—decides the police aren’t up to the task of realizing the young man was murdered, obviously, and so she decides to hunt down the suspects and interview them herself.

Vera is at turns heartwarming and… show more.