Saturday, August 17, 2024

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Vera Wong's life is very routine.  Since her husband died her days rarely change.  She gets up at the crack of dawn, opens her tea shop and serves her one customer of the day, her faithful friend from down the street, and texts her lawyer son with advice that he does not want.  Though Vera is very proud of her tea shop and her formulas for every ailment and complaint made from ancient, quality ingredients that she imports, the customers for her tea are just not there anymore and she leads a very lonely life.  So when a dead man turns up in her tea shop and all of a sudden she has customers she has never seen before, Vera embarks on a mission to solve the mystery herself as she feels the police are just not doing a good job.  

I chose this book for a light  summer read and I got exactly what I wanted. Thoroughly enjoyed this story.   It's quirky and fun in spite of being a murder mystery.  The characters draw you in as you wonder what they're connection to the dead man is.  Vera is quirky and frustrating and lovable as an almost senior Asian lady (it's mentioned she's 60 and is called old throughout the book, I may or may not take offense to that 😄😁😕).  She brings her culture to the table as she takes it upon herself to bring this strange cast of characters together and pokes her nose into their lives so she can figure it all out.  There were many laugh out loud and heart warming moments as the story unfolds into more than just a mystery solved. While not the most mind blowing mystery I've ever read it was exactly what I wanted in a summer read.

I rated this 9/10




2 comments:

Faith said...

this sounds like a fun one! thanks for the review

nikkipolani said...

Oooh, I'm keeping an eye out for this one. Sixty as "old" and that cover art....