People always say that your wedding day is the happiest day of your life, but honestly, people should try solving murders more often.
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers
by Jesse Sutanto
Genre: Contemporary Mystery
About: Vera Wong isn't the kind of person who accepts setbacks. So what her son doesn't call or answer her messages like a filial son should. So what her teahouse only gets one customer a day, and who she usually doesn't charge. When a dead body turns up in her shop one morning, she's told to stay out of the investigation, but what do the police know about solving murders? They don't even fingerprint her place. No, Vera will have to solve this one herself.
Thoughts
This was a really fun read. Vera is hilarious without being too much of a caricature. There are real tender moments as the novel progresses with this beautiful found family vibe. I enjoyed Jesse Sutanto's Dial A For Aunties, but I much preferred this one because I think switching POVs helped bring everything together and made me care about everyone. It's definitely Vera's show, but I enjoyed watching the other characters slowly fall in as much love with Vera as I was.
The mystery is also good. Character backstories all fall into place and it was fun to see Vera's tactics for getting the truth out of her suspects. I did guess the solution but the reveal was still enjoyable and made sense.
The only negative I had was more of a personal one as I didn't feel very comfortable with how Emma's behavioural differences were presented in the novel. At times the novel seems to suggest that she's on the spectrum with her development shown as very delayed in front of strangers, her tantrums extreme and her need for calm, quiet, sensory-focused areas. She's more baby than toddler in the beginning, and as a parent of a toddler who is going through the assessment process for an autism diagnosis, I found it difficult to read about behaviours my child has being represented as more of a performance of Emma's. Her behaviour is completely dependant on how adults talk and behave around her, suggesting that 'good' behaviour and development magically happens if the people the child is surrounded with are loving and understanding. While that's great to see a child flourish because they're loved and supported, it was quite painful at times to read as I don't think it was necessary to give Emma this outward appearance of being on the spectrum when she so very clearly is not. Her simply being severely shy would have served the story just as well without suggesting that these behaviours can be altered simply by the way you speak or act around the child.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this as a light-hearted, fun mystery with a great found family component. Vera is a very memorable character and there were a lot of heart-warming moments.
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