Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

Jesse Q. Sutanto

Mar 2023 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Eunice Wong

About this audiobook

A USA Today bestseller
Edgar Award Winner for Best Original Paperback
Audie Award Winner for Mystery
Libby Award Winner for Best Mystery


A lonely shopkeeper takes it upon herself to solve a murder in the most peculiar way in this captivating mystery by Jesse Q. Sutanto, bestselling author of Dial A for Aunties.

Vera Wong is a lonely little old lady—ah, lady of a certain age—who lives above her forgotten tea shop in the middle of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Despite living alone, Vera is not needy, oh no. She likes nothing more than sipping on a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy detective work on the Internet about what her Gen-Z son is up to.

Then one morning, Vera trudges downstairs to find a curious thing—a dead man in the middle of her tea shop. In his outstretched hand, a flash drive. Vera doesn’t know what comes over her, but after calling the cops like any good citizen would, she sort of . . . swipes the flash drive from the body and tucks it safely into the pocket of her apron. Why? Because Vera is sure she would do a better job than the police possibly could, because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands. Vera knows the killer will be back for the flash drive; all she has to do is watch the increasing number of customers at her shop and figure out which one among them is the killer.

What Vera does not expect is to form friendships with her customers and start to care for each and every one of them. As a protective mother hen, will she end up having to give one of her newfound chicks to the police?

Ratings and reviews

I laughed, I cried, I missed my grandma. It's a very well written cozy murder. If you had or have an unstoppable force of a female relative, like my very Jewish New England Nana (and her best friend Dodo), you will recognize her in this San Francisco Chinese "tea doctor." No one stands a chance of standing against them, they will over feed you and call you fat. They will love you with their whole heart while making you absolutely crazy. Vera is so embarrassing, pushy, inappropriate and completely undeniable. The world turns because she won't allow it to stop. I am lucky enough to have a Chinese "Vera" MIL, and the narrator really captures the sounds she makes. Those sounds are full sentences in a single syllable. absolutely worth your time.

love

About the author

Jesse Q. Sutanto grew up shuttling back and forth between Indonesia, Singapore, and Oxford, and considers all three places her home. She has a masters from Oxford University. When she is not writing, she is gaming with her husband or making a mess in the kitchen with her two daughters.