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

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto is my new favorite hapless detective and mystery series. Vera is a 60s Chinese mother who runs a tea shop in San Francisco.  She gets up every morning at 4:30 and takes a vigorous walk before opening her shop only to sit there mostly alone. One morning she finds a body in the tea shop and it derails her whole life in the best way.  Her son, Tilbert (great name), advises her to leave it alone and let the police to their job.  She, of course, ignores him and invites her suspects over for dinner.  I love good food descriptions and Sutanto does not stint.  There was a lot of mouth watering while reading, so I’ve warned you.  All Vera’s suspects are hiding something but it’s not murder.  She does solve it and a lot of her new found family’s problems as well, making her life and theirs a little bit bigger.

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