Reviewed: 16 August 2025

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

by: Jesse Q. Sutanto

Vera Wong - Book 1

Rating: (4.0/5)

It's murder, and I have the body outline to prove it

I dare readers not to laugh when Vera takes control. Vera Wong awakes one morning to find a body in her tea shop. She watches police shows on team and wants to do her part to help. However, the police don't seem interested. This tiny woman is investigating even when the police seem to have no interest.

Vera’s son annoyed me, but seemed to come around in the end. He seemed surprised that Vera had made so many new friends.

There is so much I enjoyed about this book. Not wanting to spoil things for others, I will keep them to myself (wink).

Not so much centered around the mystery, but more character-centered centered it could have been heavy with the themes cycling through, but it was not.

A fun and endearing story with Aunty/Grandma Vera saving the day.

Happy Reading!

Release Date: 14-March-2023

Mystery, Female-Led, Multicultural

Plot Summary

Put the kettle on, there’s a mystery brewing…

Tea-shop owner. Matchmaker. Detective?

Sixty-year-old self-proclaimed tea expert Vera Wong enjoys nothing more than sipping a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy ‘detective’ work on the internet (AKA checking up on her son to see if he’s dating anybody yet).

But when Vera wakes up one morning to find a dead man in the middle of her tea shop, it’s going to take more than a strong Longjing to fix things. Knowing she’ll 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 decides it’s down to her to catch the killer.

Nobody spills the tea like this amateur sleuth.