Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers ~ Jesse Sutanto

Thank you to those of you who suggested this book. I’m not really into the murder mystery genre, though when I read them I seem to enjoy them, so maybe I am into the murder mystery genre? Maybe I need to read some Agatha Christie books, my mom sure loved the hell out of them. Anyway, I loved Vera, though there are so many descriptions of her as being elderly and old, and she’s (ahem) 60. I mean, I guess when I was younger, 60 seemed pretty old to me, and my mom died at 66, and it’s close to retirement age…but still. I’m 59, so I took it personally.

Vera Wong is the widowed owner of a teashop in San Francisco’s Chinatown, one which has seen better days and now has only one customer on most days, her friend from down the street. One morning she comes downstairs from her apartment to her shop, and finds a broken door and a dead body. She calls the police, who don’t act like detectives on TV dramas, they don’t bother to dust the shop or collect DNA samples, and don’t seem to feel that a murder investigation is warranted. Vera decides that she will solve the murder herself. She knows that the murderer always returns to the scene of the crime, so she pays attention to who comes by in the days following the murder. They are a seemingly unrelated group of people – Riki Herwanto, a young man who is writing a story about the murder for Buzzfeed; Sana Singh, a young woman who has a murder mystery podcast; Oliver Chen, the twin brother of the murder victim; Julia Chen, the murder victim’s widow, and Emma Chen, their young daughter.

I loved Vera, she’s hilarious. I particularly enjoyed this bit, when Vera is reading a story to 2 year old Emma:

The reading goes like this: “‘The king says, “You are a beautiful girl, but if you can’t turn this roomful of hay into gold by sunrise, I will have you kill—”’ What? What is this silly story? Rumpy—Rum—Rumpapum? Even its name is stupid. Emma, you listen to Grandma Vera, this king is a very bad man. You hear me? Right, so . . . where are we? Yes, so . . . ‘With the help of Rumpy—Rumpapum, she manages to turn three whole rooms of hay into gold, upon which the king says, “Amazing! You shall be my wife!” And Anne is overjoyed—’ What? Emma, you listen to Grandma Vera. Are you listening? This Anne is very stupid. Very! Stupid! You hear me? Why is she happy that crazy king wants to marry her? She should be horrified. She should carry a dagger with her on wedding night. That’s what Chinese maidens used to do, you know. In old days, Chinese maidens don’t get to choose who they marry. They don’t even get to meet their husbands until the wedding day. So part of the traditional wedding outfit is a little dagger, just in case their husband turn out to be bad man. Emma, are you liste— Oh, you are asleep. Harrumph. Just as well, then. I will have talk with your mother about giving you stupid books.”

LOL. I adore Vera. Highly recommended. I was glad to see that there is another book with Vera coming in April. I’ll be putting it on hold via Libby as soon as it is available.