This book was great fun. A bit of a slow start led to a story that was both funny and touching with a decent mystery thrown ion to the mix. Highly recommended.

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers
Jesse Q. Sutanto
Pub Date Mar 14: 2023
Berkely
Thanks to the author, publisher and Net Galley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Fascinating new cozy mystery. Told from five points of view , the novel gives readers extra insights into Vera, Julia, Riki, Sana and Oliver.
If you’re looking for an entertaining, heartwarming cozy mystery, I highly recommend this book.
4 stars

Vera Wong is not about to let anyone put a crimp in her plans or rain on her parade! She raised a successful son and buried her partner from a long, loving marriage. She rises with the sun and has a plan for every day and each person who comes her way in that day. Unfortunately, that's not many people. Vera would never say she is lonely. However, each day is a lot like the last. And, sadly, most of the interesting parts are over with by 8am. Then it's just waiting around till tomorrow. Until the morning Vera Wong comes downstairs from her apartment over her World Famous Tea Shop and find a man dead on her floor. Finally! Something exciting! But when the police come to the scene of the crime, Vera finds they are not at all perceptive or useful. They chalk up what is obviously a murder (in Vera's estimation) as a natural death. Who in their right mind breaks into a tea shop to die naturally? Vera knows the only way to bring a resolution to this new development in her world is by commencing her own sleuthing. In the end, the police will, no doubt, thank her. In the midst of the excitement of solving a crime, Vera meets four young people who all knew the murder vicitm and all have serious problems of their own. Vera Wong is rather disappointed because she has really come to care about these young people, but justice demands truth and Vera won't stop till the murder is solved.

A dead man is found in Vera's teahouse one morning. Vera thinks the police are doing a lousy job of investigating. She decides she will show them who the murderer is. She has four suspects: Julia, Oliver, Riki, and Sana. All four of these people lie. Vera though keeps on iinvolving herself in their lives; uncovering the lies.
Vera is an unique person. Discover what she knows as she feeds these four with delicious and overwhelming amount of Chinese food.
Jesse Sutanto has written a well-crafted mystery. Read and enjoy.

Before I started reading this, someone told me if I loved the Finlay Donovan books, I would love these. I would agree 100% with that assessment. This cozy mystery was pure fun! Vera Wong is an easy character to get to know and travel with this through this mystery. One thing that I love about this cozy mystery and others like it, is that it can take a serious subject, throw in some witty lines and hijinks and make it a hilarious good time! If you love cozy mysteries and tea, you are going to love Vera Wong. It is everything you are hoping for it to be and more.

This is trademark Jesse Q Sutanto: heartfelt antics and happy endings. A nice complement to her DIAL A FOR AUNTIES series with voicey characters and a fast-moving plot!

Widow, Vera Wong, is desperate to offer advice to people, especially her adult son, Tilly. However, he never calls and never wants her advice on anything. At 60 years old, Vera devotes herself to her San Francisco tea shop, which she calls “Vera Wang’s World-Famous Teahouse.” No, that’s not a typo. Vera Wong figures more people have heard of Vera Wang and it would attract more customers.

One morning, Vera walks into her tea shop and finds a dead man in the middle of her shop. She’s sure it’s murder and she’s also sure the police can’t handle the investigation on their own. Vera is determined to find the truth. She just had no idea how many potential suspects she’d come across.

This is a standalone mystery filled with offbeat characters and humor laced through from page one to the end. These characters, especially Vera, quickly become beloved characters in my eyes. I found myself caring about them all and hoping none of them would turn out to be killers.

This is so much more than a cozy mystery. It’s the story of a lonely woman and how she deals with people whether they are blood relationships or not. It’s packed with charm, drama, emotions and a whole lot of fun. It, also, keeps you guessing until the end. I couldn’t figure out how things were going to end up, but the ending put everything together very nicely.

I couldn’t put this one down and it’s now on my best of 2023 list. I never read any books by this author before, but it definitely won’t be my last. I’m already searching for her backlist. I love finding such great new-to-me authors.






FTC Disclosure: I voluntarily reviewed a free Advance Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.

This was a quick-paced mystery that unfolds when Vera Wong an elderly tea shop owner finds a dead body in her shop. She soon decides she must solve the mystery since the police are useless. A delightful journey through her sleuthing adventures that keeps the reader guessing and ultimately unearths the family and friend relationships developed along the way. An enjoyable, witty read! Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Books for this ARC. This is my honest review.

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers begins immediately with a strong narrative voice. If you love sassy, meddlesome, but deeply caring main characters, Vera is for you. She has a depth of feeling in all accounts. And while her tea house was broken into, it gives her this new spark of life. She meets new people and embarks on a new adventure. With glimpses into other characters, Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers is like cozy mystery meets "Love Actually".

This was an absolutely adorable cozy mystery! I adored the characters. Vera was fantastic! She is funny and loving, and super bossy, but you can't help but love her. The plot was well thought out, and there were some surprises I didn't see coming. I absolutely recommend this one!!

Sixty-year-old widow and mother Vera Wong doesn’t have a lot going on in her life aside from running her tea shop. And even that has grown quiet with only one regular customer a day. But that all changes one morning when Vera comes down to her shop and finds a man dead on the floor. Vera is immediately on the case, determined to solve what is surely a murder. Vera quickly identifies four suspects but things get complicated as they all become close friends.

This was a quick, entertaining read with a great balance of story and character, humor and heart. The character of Vera was especially enjoyable, narrating her take-charge, no-nonsense approach in endearingly broken English. The story is also told from the perspectives of the other main characters who Vera happens to suspect of murder. I enjoyed following the entire group as their lives intertwined through mystery, love, suspicion and Vera’s amazing cooking.

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the advance copy of this book.

There’s nothing like a good cup of tea, or “cuppa,” as the British call it. The Brits were so keen about their tea that they colonized India to guarantee their supply; the American colonists fought a war when they taxed it. (Although, strangely enough, iced tea isn’t very common in England.) Asian countries have their own elaborate tea ceremonies. And in Jesse Q. Sutanto’s latest release, Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, the tea is the star of the show. Everything else, including murder, comes in second.

For the complete review, click on the link below.

It's rare I read a book so compelling that I finish it in just a couple of sittings, and this one I finished in two over less than a day. The mystery itself is well-thought-out with enough twists that I had to keep going to figure out how it turned out and an ending that both completely made sense and surprised me. Very satisfying. And the story of these characters who feel alone and broken coming together and finding wholeness together was beautiful. The Knives Out comp fits very well!

Can’t tell you how much I love love love this book. I am in love with Vera and hope this is the start of many books with her at the center. I laughed and cried and had so much fun reading this book. Pure entertainment!

I always find the idea of a cozy mystery involving murder a bit of an oxymoron. But this book is as cozy as the perfect cup of hot tea on a cold day. Full of tea, delicious food, found family and an absolutely delightful elderly lady, it’s everything a cozy mystery should be.

“People always say that your wedding day is the happiest day of your life, but honestly, people should try solving murders more often.”


With her only son grown, Vera spends her days running the family teashop in San Francisco’s Chinatown. But with only one regular customer at her teahouse, she’s aware that she’ll soon have to close the shop and equally aware of all the empty hours she’ll have to fill. Finding that a dead body in her shop is at least something new and exciting. So when the cops refuse to listen to any of her suggestions, of course Vera is forced to start her own investigation. After all, doesn’t everyone know that the murderer always comes back to the scene of the crime?

It took a while for the book to build up to speed for me. We start out with solely Vera’s POV, but then there’s a ramp up as each of the other POV characters are introduced and we slowly find out how they’re connected to Marshall, the dead man. There’s Sana, an artist; Riki, a software developer; Oliver, Marshall’s brother and twin; and Julia, his wife, and their toddler daughter, Emma. By the time Vera’s inviting them over to a suspect’s house for dinner, though? I was absolutely hooked straight to the heartwarming conclusion. And this is definitely one of those books that leaves you with all of the warm fuzzies.

“Destiny, Vera thinks, is something to be hunted down and grabbed tightly with both hands and shaken until it gives her exactly what she wants.”


Vera is of course the heart of the book. She’s tenacious, undeterred by setbacks or her own son’s (reasonable) protests over her meddling. But even while meddling Vera isn’t short on hospitality or heart. She insists on serving her suspects her own special blends of tea and introducing them to each other (as, hilariously, “other suspects”). And of course, while she’s solving the murder she might as well add a bit of matchmaking, career coach, nannying and cooking to the list as well, right?

“No one is perfect, making right decisions all the time. Only those who are so privileged can make right decision all the time. The rest of us, we have to struggle, keep afloat. Sometimes we do things we are not proud of. But now you know where your lines are.”


It’s no secret that I have a large soft spot for found families. There’s something absolutely amazing about the way Vera takes this disparate group of people brought together by a murder and turns them into something good. That’s not to say that each of these characters don’t have their own reasons for not wanting the police involved or their own actions that they regret. They’re all imperfect people trying to do what’s right and sometimes failing – and that includes Vera. But what this new family gives them is more purpose, too, to get up and try again when things get hard. Or, more simply and more profoundly, the opportunity to cook the same dishes she used to cook for her husband and young son, to share that food and how to prepare it with a new generation.

Overall, an absolutely delightful cozy mystery. While the way the book wrapped up made me think that Vera’s days of solving mysteries are done, I will definitely be looking for mysteries from this author!

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I absolutely devoured this by turns heart-warming and heart-wrenching tale of a lonely old teahouse owner who finds a new lease of life by meddling in a murder investigation. As always, Jesse Q Sutanto writes about Asian and Southeast Asian diasporas with brilliant insight, empathy and humor. This is absolutely one of my favorite books, not only of hers but of the year so far.

We begin with the daily routine of the titular Vera Wong, owner-proprietor of San Francisco’s very own (and probably trademark infringing) Vera Wang’s World-Famous Teahouse. Unfortunately, business isn’t very busy. Worse, her only child Tilly rarely finds the time to reply to her constant texts. She’s very proud that he’s a big-shot lawyer now, but as her clientele dwindles, her loneliness increases, such that all the determination she begins each day with slowly turns into a glum longing for oblivion by the time she trudges up the stairs in her shophouse to bed.

That all changes when she comes down one morning to find a dead body in her shop. She’s watched enough television to know that she shouldn’t interfere with the corpse itself, but can’t help tidying up around it so that the cops will be impressed by the prettiest crime scene they’ve hopefully ever come to. She also prepares for them several pots of mind sharpening tea, and is put out when they rebuff her generous offer. In fact, the cops are being overall very disappointing, bringing in no crime scene investigators or any of the other exciting things she’s come to expect from TV. To her chagrin, they’re all too ready to consider the death the result of a freak accident. A crime-free corpse is not a verdict she’s willing to accept:

QUOTE
“What about drugs?” she blurts out.

Officer Gray stares at her. “Drugs? What do you mean? Ma’am, did you touch the victim? Did you go through his belongings?”

<i>Only very carefully</i>, Vera wants to snap out, but she manages to hold herself back and say, “Of course no. I just think he look like the kind that have drugs, you know? I can tell, very bad sort.”

Officer Gray’s eyes narrow and Vera feels like a wayward child being reprimanded by an elder. Oof, she hasn’t had that feeling in a looong time, and she is not a fan.
END QUOTE

Vera soon realizes that she’s going to have to take matters into her own hands. Reasoning that the killer will want to return to the scene of the crime – perhaps in order to recover the item that she may have, oops, forgotten to mention taking to the cops – she devises a plan to lure the murderer back to her teashop. When they arrive, she’ll be more than ready for them.

What Vera doesn’t count on is the appearance of not one but four viable suspects. First is Riki, who claims to be a reporter (he’s not.) Then is Sana, who claims to be a podcaster (she’s not.) By the time Vera has added the dead man’s distraught widow and estranged brother to her suspect list, she’s gleefully considering how she’ll figure out whodunnit, to the overwhelming acclaim of both the cops and her Chinatown neighbors, if not the world.

Trouble is, Vera finds herself growing more and more fond of her four suspects as she brazenly interferes with their lives, often changing them for the better. But someone is definitely a murderer, no matter what the police might say. Will Vera be able to find justice for the dead man, even if it means breaking her own heart in the process?

This cozy mystery is absolutely astonishing in managing to be simultaneously humorous, deeply intelligent, and a precisely delivered target strike to my many already complicated feelings regarding being both Asian and Asian American in the 21st century. Ms Sutanto has done excellent work in her previous books, mysteries or otherwise, but this novel may be her best yet. Vera is both deeply irritating and highly lovable, reminding me of my own relatives and reinforcing the importance of compassion in keeping relationships alive and healthy. The rest of Ms Sutanto’s main characters are equally imperfect but also charming, with often astute observations of their own on the many different kinds of immigrant experience, as told in each character’s viewpoint chapters:

QUOTE
Sana eyes the towering piles of old newspapers and magazines, the cobwebbed sewing machine, an old typewriter missing half its keys, and boxes probably filled with similar unusable items. It’s a familiar sight to her. Her parents’ house is pristine because her mother is ruthless about keeping her house immaculate for the many interviews and videos she shoots for her fans, but as a kid, whenever Sana visited her friends’ homes, especially the first-generation kids, she’d often find houses filled with crumbling boxes of stuff. Mementoes from their parents’ homeland, too old to use, too precious to throw away, too painful to look at. So they are left to age gently, a reminder of everyone who was left behind.
END QUOTE

I spent most of a Saturday devouring this book instead of doing anything else, and felt like I’d definitely chosen the best use of my time. I laughed and cried and felt very, very seen. I adored this tremendously large-hearted and cleverly crafted novel and hope you will, too.

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

I mean...I was already a Jesse Q. Sutanto fan for life, but this book solidified it. This cozy mystery will leave you giggling feeling wrapped in a warm hug.

The book start's in Vera Wong's tea shop where a man is murdered, and the book takes us down a long very windy path of Vera's investigating. More than the mystery itself, the book's about relationship buildings and Vera's feisty way of bringing people together. The book's filled with food and laughs, mystery and then still more food!

I loved how the book brought us into this cast of characters and perspectives, where they're all united by their connection to Marshall, the dead man, but quickly their connections grow to Vera Wong, the perfect meddling Chinese grandma.

I loved this book, but dangggg if it doesn't leave you starving!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: cozy mystery, found family
Location: San Francisco
Pub Date: out now

Read this if you like:
⭕️ found family bonds
⭕️ vivid descriptions of Chinese food
⭕️ humor mixed into your mysteries
⭕️ meddling old ladies

Thanks to Berkley and #netgalley for an advanced e-copy of this book!

It's no secret I love Jesse and her Aunties series, and Vera is just as good! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC. I also love a good who dunnit and this book delivers, I honestly did not figure out who did it haha. This is a great cozy/feel good mystery, parts of it with Vera and Emma were like a warm hug. Also many laugh-out-loud moments, I hope we see more of Vera!

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murder by Jesse Q. Sutanto is absolutely delightful! Vera Wong found a dead body in her tea shop one morning. As she tries to solve the murder she meets and helps many people and we find out that things aren't always as they seem.

I absolutely love Vera Wong as a character, and wanted her to be my best friend by the end of the novel! She was funny, caring, and always looking for adventure. She is a little meddling, but honestly who isn’t? This character driven story is told from multiple POV, but I was easily able to keep everyone straight. This was a well set up mystery and you are not really sure who is responsible till the end. The author has interwoven the characters' lives and weaves the connections seamlessly. The story shares Asian culture in a way that is interesting and humorous, and she thanks her parents at the end of the story for giving her so much material.

I was so invested in this story. Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murder reminded me of the importance of family, friendship, and looking beyond the façade most of us put up. I enjoyed laughing and reflecting as I read the book. I highly recommend Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murders by Jesse Q. Sutanto.

I was given the book by publisher and not required to write a positive review.

Review will be posted on 3/29/23

Vera Wong owns a tea shop in San Francisco's Chinatown. Her son is grown and has a life of his own, so the tea shop is her world. Until one day, a man ends up dead in her shop. She finds him when she is opening the store and swipes his strange flash drive. After meeting with the police, she realizes that they don't seem to care about this dead man who was, according to Vera, clearly murdered. So, she takes it upon herself to figure out what happened and according to Vera there is nobody who can do it better than a Chinese mother. Jesse Q. Sutanto's Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers is a delightful novel that is equal parts comedy and cozy mystery.

Vera is a character I absolutely loved from the start of Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers. She is quirky, boundary breaking, inappropriate at times, and has the best intentions. I absolutely loved this about her and thought she was so entertaining. Her lists she created to hunt down the killer were hilarious. Specifically the first half of the novel was so much fun, because Vera is so lovable despite her ability to make questionable decisions.

The "found family" in Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers was another heartwarming aspect of the novel. They really come together, thanks to Vera, to figure out why a man named Marshall Chen ended up dead in Vera's shop. There's Marshall's twin brother, his widow, a reporter, and a podcast host. Each character is hiding their own secrets or complicated backstory and it was fun to get to know each one of them and their connection to Marshall. Sutanto jumps from character to character's point of view and it definitely had me guessing what happened to Marshall.

I read both the book and listened to the audio version and I have to say I preferred the audio. It was outstanding and the narrator really brought to life Vera. Also, the descriptions of Chinatown, the tea in Vera's shop, and the food were fantastic. It made me feel like I was in Chinatown with them.

While the murder mystery aspect of Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers wasn't entirely believable and a tad melodramatic at times, I still enjoyed Vera's story and uncovering the truth surrounding the murder. The big reveal wasn't entirely what I was expecting and a bit over-the-top, but this is to be expected in a cozy mystery. So, if you enjoy a cozy mystery with some laugh out loud hijinks, look no further!

Are you a fan of Jesse Q. Sutanto? I hope to read Dial A for Aunties next. Let me know in the comments below if you have read Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers or if it's on your TBR list.