Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderer's

          

Title: Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

Author: Jesse Q. Sutanto

Publisher: Berkley, March 14, 2023

Pages: 348

Genre: Women's Crime Fiction

Vera Wong is a lonely little old lady—ah, lady of a certain age—who lives above her forgotten tea shop in the middle of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Despite living alone, Vera is not needy, oh no. She likes nothing more than sipping on a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy detective work on the Internet about what her Gen-Z son is up to. 

Then one morning, Vera trudges downstairs to find a curious thing—a dead man in the middle of her tea shop. In his outstretched hand, a flash drive. Vera doesn’t know what comes over her, but after calling the cops like any good citizen would, she sort of . . . swipes the flash drive from the body and tucks it safely into the pocket of her apron. Why? Because Vera is sure she would do a better job than the police possibly could, because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands. Vera knows the killer will be back for the flash drive; all she has to do is watch the increasing number of customers at her shop and figure out which one among them is the killer. 

What Vera does not expect is to form friendships with her customers and start to care for each and every one of them. As a protective mother hen, will she end up having to give one of her newfound chicks to the police?

Vera Wong is goals. I would be happy to grow into a woman like Vera. Meddling, bossy, a tiny bit deluded. What's not to love, right?! 

There's a lot to love about the rest of the book as well. The goofy cast of characters was a perfect mix of guiltily innocent. These good people were all taken advantage of and downright abused by this man. They all feel guilty for some piece that they played in the last day of his life. They're all keeping secrets and telling lies to cover up their guilty consciences. It was a perfectly jumbled puzzle of clues and red herrings and antics. 

The relationships that formed between this bunch of people were great, but my favorite by far, was the relationship between Vera and Emma! When we first meet her, Emma is an anxious toddler who has been living with a beaten down mother and her no good dad. She is clingy and "embarrassing" according to her father. But after only a few minutes with Vera, Emma is marching around the kitchen and giving and taking orders as well as any drill sergeant. They are so good for one another and I just love them together. 

This is a murder mystery. There are some heavy themes related to the case, definitely. This was not a good man, but justice is a fickle beast. But this is also about family and redemption. And I recommend this to anyone looking for a little more meddling grandmother energy in their life.

Ratings

Stars: 5/5