Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers. Jesse Q. Sutanto. 2023. 352 pages. [Source: Library]
First sentence: Vera Wong Zhuzhu, age sixty, is a pig, but she really should have been born a rooster. We are, of course, referring to Chinese horoscopes. Vera Wong is a human woman, thank you very much, but roosters have nothing on her. Every morning, at exactly four thirty, Vera's eyelids snap open like roller shades shooting up.
Premise/plot: Vera Wong is the owner of VERA WANG'S WORLD-FAMOUS TEAHOUSE. World-famous it is not. She can count on only one consistent customer per day. But she keeps on keeping on. You never know--something might happen that boosts her business. It is quite a shock when she discovers one morning a DEAD BODY in her shop--someone having broken into her shop just to die?!?!?! How peculiar. The police don't appreciate Vera taking the time to make them tea--in fact, they find her overly pushy. It is a mutual UNappreciation society. Vera just KNOWS that the police are not handling this murder the right way. Left to their own devices, they are sure to bumble it. Vera may just have to solve this murder herself...
She has a strong feeling that the murderer will return to the scene of the crime....and when business indeed picks up quite a bit in the next week...she begins making a list of all the suspects in the case. She has her own unique way of getting to know [aka interrogating] these suspects....
My thoughts: I really LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this one so much. It was a delight to read cover to cover. The characters were great. The mystery was interesting. The alternating narrators surprisingly worked well. I wasn't even annoyed by all the transitions. It was just a great mystery. It felt, at times, more like a comedy. It worked for me.
© 2023 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
1 comment:
I've seen this one a couple of times, but you've sold it to me. I may have to buy it as a Christmas present for a friend... but read it first! Have you read Cooney's Before She Was Helen? That's one I think about so much that I might have to reread it. Curious to see how OLD 60 is portrayed in this book. A lot of 60 year old #MGLit grandparents are increasingly infirm, mainly because the authors are in their twenties and don't really have any comprehension! Thanks for this review.
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