Book review: Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Muderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto

I had just finished reading Jesse Sutanto’s YA novel “Well, That Was Unexpected” when the author announced that she had a new novel coming out in March 2023. I remember thinking, how on earth can she be this productive?! And also: I really need to get my hands on “Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers.” Thanks to @netgalley and @berkleypub I received an ARC for this murder mystery - and finished reading it in record time!

Vera Wong, the book’s incomparable heroine, owns a tea shop in Chinatown whose glory days are long past. Her daily routine comes to a screeching halt one morning when she discovers a dead body in the middle of her tea shop. The police officers aren’t doing a very good job at finding out what happened - at least according to Vera who decides to take matters into her own hands and solve the murder mystery. Soon, she has lined up a handful of suspects and follows the clues to find the killer.

This book gave me all the “Dial A for Aunties” vibes, and mind you, I loved the Aunties so much! “Vera Wong” is equally funny and heartwarming; the murder mystery is cleverly laid out; the characters are extremely lovable. Is it slightly over-the-top? Yes, it is! But never so much that it becomes annoying; it’s just the right amount of quirky and most importantly, it’s full of heart. Vera will win you over in no time. I’d love for the author to turn this into a series; I, for one, would love to spend more time with Vera Wong, her magical tea concoctions, delectable cooking and her relentless meddling in other people’s affairs (all for good reason, of course).

Oof. No thank you. I could not stand the writing style and gave up very quickly. There are too many good mysteries that fit the feel of this book to waste time on the bad ones.

3.5 stars

I just love the older/more mature main characters these days! I find them to be so wonderful and quirky and just lovable. This book was absolutely fun, with a well written mystery and great characters! This was such a pleasure to read and I hope to see more from Vera in the future.

Vera is a lonely widower who owns a tea shop that only has one customer. When she arrives at work one morning to find a dead body in her shop, she decides to solve Marshall's murder herself since the police believe it's an accidental death. Thinking the murderer will return to the scene of the crime, Vera's suspects are Oliver, Marshall's brother, Julia, Marshall's wife, and Raki and Sana, who claim to be journalists. It seems that they are all feeling a bit guilty. Vera doesn't expect to become friends with the four suspects and how they all in turn make each other's lives better. This was a fun mystery to read and I enjoyed all the different characters.