I just finished listening to the audiobook, Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto. I saw this title on a friend’s Want to Read list so when it came up as a “Skip The Line” loan I jumped on it. The book usually has a long wait time at my library (currently it is 11 weeks!), and after reading it I understand why. Sutanto has a fun yet compelling writing style that makes it easy to fall into rhythm of the book.
The story surrounds Vera Wong, a sixty-year-old Chinese woman who runs a tea house in San Francisco. When we meet Vera she doesn’t have much going for her, other than being highly driven and set in her ways. Her husband has passed and her son is an attorney without much time to devote to his “filial duties.” The tea house she has poured herself into is, to put it bluntly, failing, with an average of one customer per day. Things change for Vera when she wakes up one morning to find a dead man in her tea house. The police see the case as cut and dry, but Vera is convinced otherwise and takes things into her own hands.
Throughout the course of the book Vera meets and befriends four people she suspects of killing the man. Vera cooks a lot of delicious meals, using food as a bribe and a way to care for others while making the reader crave every dish described. Sutanto alternates between Vera and the four suspects’ points of view so readers are privy to each of their stories. She paces the book in such a way that the reader is kept guessing who the real murderer is, or if a murder even occurred at all.
Sutanto shines in her character development and pacing. We slowly grow to understand and love each character for their individual quirks and their hearts. The way they approach problems makes sense when you learn what each has had to overcome in his or her life. Sutanto gives you just enough information to keep you interested, but still in the dark about key points until the last possible moment.
I did find it difficult to buy into a few aspects of the plot. Primarily, why the four murder suspects keep coming around to see Vera (and each other) after she essentially accuses them of murder. They keep saying things like, “how can you say no to Vera?”, but if someone thinks I’m a murderer, even if I’m not, I think I’d peace out for good.
Overall, I still enjoyed the book. I won’t say it was a fun, light read the whole way through as it certainly had some dark moments. But Sutanto balances the dark with plenty of light and ties everything up satisfactorily for those who like their stories tied in bows.
Catherine Michalk 