Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto | Book Review

"People always say that your wedding day is the happiest day of your life, but honestly, people should try solving murders more often."

A sassy Chinese grandma turns detective after finding a dead guy in her failing teahouse. Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers is that perfect mix of hilarious and heartwarming, like if Miss Marple was reimagined as a meddling Asian auntie who solves crimes while force-feeding suspects homemade dumplings. Vera’s convinced the cops got it wrong (obviously), so she takes over the case with a mix of nosy charm and unshakable confidence. What starts as a murder investigation quickly becomes something way sweeter, a story about lonely people finding family in the weirdest way possible. Between the mouthwatering food descriptions, laugh-out-loud interrogations, and a mystery that actually keeps you guessing, this book is basically a warm hug in novel form.

(Bayangin nenek-nenek Tionghoa nyentrik tiba-tiba jadi detektif abis nemuin mayat di kedai teh sepi miliknya. Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers itu kayak perpaduan sempurna antara lucu bikin ngakak dan baper, kayak Miss Marple versi Asia yang sibuk ikut campur urusan orang sambil maksa tersangkanya makan pangsit buatannya. Vera yakin polisi salah duga (tentu saja), jadi dia ambil alih kasus pakai modal kepo dan pede level dewa. Awalnya cuma investigasi biasa, eh malah jadi cerita tentang orang-orang kesepian yang menemukan keluarga di tempat paling random. Ditambah deskripsi makanan bikin ngiler, adegan interogasi kocak, dan misteri yang bikin penasaran, buku ini tuh kayak pelukan hangat dalam bentuk novel.)

TL;DR: A chaotic Chinese grandma turns amateur detective after finding a dead body in her failing teahouse. Cue nosy interrogations, excessive dumpling consumption, and a found family of traumatized suspects.

⚠️ WARNINGS 

• Cultural mom-isms: Vera’s guilt trips and unsolicited advice may trigger flashbacks if you have Asian parents.

• Food descriptions: Will ruin your diet. Have snacks ready.

• Mystery-lite: More about vibes than hardcore sleuthing.

• Emotional whiplash: You’ll laugh at Vera’s delulu theories then cry over a character’s backstory 2 secs later.

👍 PERFECT FOR YOU IF

✔️ You love messy but loveable characters

✔️ You want a mystery without nightmares (cozy > creepy)

✔️ You’ve ever felt lonely or left behind

✔️ Your love language is food or aggressively taking care of people

🚫 AVOID IF

✖️ You need dark, gritty crime (this is murder with a side of soup)

✖️ Slow burns aren’t your thing (the found family takes time to cook)

✖️ You’re easily triggered by Asian parent trauma (so. much. nagging.)

BOOK REVIEW 

"She’s very proud of her crime scene; it must surely be the most pleasant crime scene the cops have ever been to."

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto is the kind of cozy mystery that wraps you up in a warm blanket, except the blanket is a feisty, tea-obsessed Chinese grandma who won’t stop meddling in everyone’s business. This story follows Vera, a 60-year-old teashop owner in San Francisco who’s equal parts lonely and stubborn. Her son, Tilbert, is too busy living his modern life to humor her old-school ways, so when she finds a dead guy in her shop, she jumps at the chance to play detective. What starts as a murder investigation turns into something way more personal: a chance for Vera to shake off her loneliness and accidentally collect a bunch of misfits who might just become her new family.

I went into this book expecting laughs (and trust me, it delivers), but I didn’t expect to get feelings. Vera is a total riot, she’s nosy, judgmental, and 100% convinced she’s always right but somehow, you can’t help but adore her. Even better, the four suspects she drags into her investigation aren’t just cardboard cutouts because they’ve got their own messy lives and secrets, and watching them all stumble into this weird little family had me grinning like an idiot. The way Sutanto bounces between their perspectives makes the whole thing feel real and surprisingly deep.

Vera’s life was kinda sad before the murder. She wakes up at 4:30 a.m. every day, bugs her son about wasting his life, and then drags herself to her empty teahouse, where business is basically nonexistent. But when she finds that dead body? Girl suddenly has a mission. The cops write it off as an overdose, but Vera’s like, "Nope, I watch CSI, this is murder." And because she’s Vera, she picks something from the scene (obviously) and starts her own investigation. Her methods? A mix of Sherlock-level observation and aggressively mothering everyone into confessing.

So the actual mystery? Surprisingly solid! It’s got enough twists to keep you on your toes, but Sutanto plays fair so you can actually piece things together alongside Vera if you’re paying attention. And her detective style? Pure gold. One minute she’s dropping legit insightful observations, the next she’s straight-up rifling through someone’s purse while lecturing them about their life choices. But her meddling goes beyond just solve the crime, because it accidentally therapizes her suspects. By the time she’s done, everyone’s trauma-dumping over her oolong tea, and honestly? It works. This book nails that cozy-mystery sweet spot where the stakes feel real but never bleak.

Then, Vera’s whole "fixer" complex? Totally about her own loneliness. Her son’s basically ghosting her, her teahouse is empty, and suddenly here’s this murder aka her excuse to mother-hen a bunch of strangers. Sure, she says she’s investigating, but half the time she’s just shoving food at people and yelling, "Eat! You’re too skinny!" Classic Asian mom move. The weird part? It works. These messed-up suspects start actually leaning on her, and Vera who’s spent years feeling irrelevant, realizes she’s not just needed, she needs them too!

Nobody in this book is perfect, and that’s why they’re great. Vera’s a glorious mess, she’s bossy, has zero filter, and 100% believes she’s a genius (she’s not). Her suspects aren’t much better: one’s a hot mess of secrets, another’s drowning in guilt, etc. But throw them all together in Vera’s teahouse, and magic happens. Sutanto could’ve made them caricatures, but instead, they feel like real people you’d low-key want to hug (even when they’re being idiots). The best part? Their changes feel earned, not forced.

And can we talk about how this book sneakily makes you think about justice? Vera’s out here playing judge, jury, and chef, convinced she’s right and the cops are clueless. Normally that’d be annoying, but Sutanto keeps it fun, so you’re laughing even while side-eyeing Vera’s ethics. By the end, though, the real takeaway isn’t "who done it?" but how they all fix each other. The murder’s solved, sure, but the bigger win? Vera and her squad proving that healing happens when flawed people choose to show up for each other preferably with dumplings involved.

(Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers oleh Jesse Q. Sutanto tuh kayak misteri cozy yang nyaman kayak selimut hangat, cuma selimutnya ini berupa seorang nenek Tionghoa galak yang terobsesi sama teh dan punya karakter gemesin banget buat ikut campur urusan orang. Ceritanya tentang Vera, pemilik kedai teh berusia 60 tahun di San Francisco yang kesepian dan keras kepala. Anaknya, Tilbert, sibuk banget hidup ala anak zaman sekarang sampai gak ngerti gaya old school mamanya. Pas Vera nemuin mayat di tokonya, langsung deh dia jadi detektif dadakan. Yang awalnya cuma penyelidikan pembunuhan, malah berubah jadi sesuatu yang lebih personal: kesempatan buat Vera keluar dari kesepian dan tanpa sengaja ngumpulin sekelompok orang aneh yang bisa jadi keluarga barunya.

Awalnya aku baca buku ini cuma cari hiburan (dan beneran lucu banget), tapi gak nyangka bakal ikut baper juga. Vera tuh kocak, nyebelin, sok tau, dan yakin banget kalau dia selalu benar. Tapi anehnya, kita pasti bakal jatuh cinta sama karakternya. Yang bikin lebih seru, empat tersangka yang dia paksa buat diinterogasi bukan karakter biasa, mereka punya kehidupan berantakan dan rahasia masing-masing. Melihat mereka pelan-pelan jadi keluarga kecil yang aneh bikin kita senyum-senyum sendiri. Cara penulis mengganti sudut pandang mereka bikin ceritanya terasa nyata dan dalem banget.

Sebelum ada pembunuhan, kehidupan Vera tuh sedih sih. Setiap hari bangun jam 4.30 pagi, ngomelin anaknya karena "buang-buang waktu", terus ngos-ngosan buka kedai teh yang sepi banget pelanggannya. Tapi pas nemuin mayat itu? Nenek-nenek ini tiba-tiba punya misi hidup baru. Polisi bilang itu overdosis, tapi Vera kayak, "Nggak lah, gue sering nonton CSI, ini pasti pembunuhan." Dan karena dia Vera, ya udah dia ambil barang bukti (tentu saja) terus mulai penyelidikan sendiri. Caranya? Gabungan antara observasi ala Sherlock Holmes dan memaksa semua orang mengaku sambil dikasih makan.

Soal misterinya sendiri? Jujur aja kaget, ternyata seru banget! Plot twistnya bikin tegang, tapi penulis gak ninggalin pembaca jadi kita bisa nebak-nebak bareng Vera kalau cukup jeli. Gaya detektifnya? Gokil abis. Satu saat dia ngomong sesuatu yang tajem banget, eh besoknya udah ngobrak-ngabrik tas orang sambil ceramahin hidup mereka. Tapi ikut campurnya Vera gak cuma buat nyelesein kasus, tanpa sengaja dia jadi semacam terapis buat para tersangka. Pas udah mau akhir, semua orang curhat masalah hidup sambil minum teh oolongnya Vera, dan yang anehnya, berhasil! Buku ini berhasil nemuin titik nyaman di mana cerita misterinya seru tapi gak bikin stres.

Soal sifat Vera yang selalu pengen "benerin" orang? Jelas-jelas itu cermin dari rasa kesepiannya sendiri. Anaknya ghosting dia, kedai tehnya sepi banget, terus tiba-tiba ada kasus pembunuhan yang jadi alasan buat dia ngurusin orang-orang asing. Katanya sih nyari pembunuh, tapi ujung-ujungnya cuma nyodorin makanan sambil teriak, "Makan! Kurus banget sih kalian!" Klasik banget gaya emak-emak Asia. Yang lucu? Cara anehnya ini beneran bekerja. Para tersangka yang awalnya berantakan hidupnya malah mulai nyaman karena ada Vera, dan Vera yang bertahun-tahun merasa gak dibutuhkan, akhirnya sadar dia gak cuma dibutuhkan, karena dia juga butuh mereka!

Gak ada karakter yang sempurna di buku ini, dan justru itu yang bikin keren. Vera tuh berantakan tapi gemesin, sok bossy, gak ada filter, dan yakin banget dirinya jenius (padahal enggak). Tersangka-tersangkanya juga gak kalah chaos: ada yang kebanyakan rahasia, ada yang tenggelam dalam rasa bersalah, dll. Tapi pas mereka dikumpulin di kedai teh Vera, malah timbul chemistry. Penulis bisa aja bikin mereka jadi karikatur, tapi malah dibikin kayak orang beneran yang bikin kamu pengen peluk (meskipun kadang nyebelin). Yang paling keren? Perubahan mereka terasa alami, bukan dipaksain.

Ngomong-ngomong, sadar gak sih buku ini diam-diam bikin kita mikirin soal keadilan? Vera sok-sokan jadi hakim, juri, sekaligus koki, yakin banget dia yang bener dan polisi pada gagal. Biasanya sih bakal bikin jengkel, tapi penulis bikin tetep seru, jadi sambil ketawa kamu juga geleng-geleng lihat kelakuan Vera. Ujung-ujungnya, yang nempel di kepala bukan "siapa pelakunya", tapi gimana mereka saling menyembuhkan satu sama lain. Kasus pembunuhannya memang terselesaikan, tapi kemenangan terbesarnya? Vera dan krunya membuktikan bahwa penyembuhan itu terjadi ketika orang-orang yang nggak sempurna memilih untuk hadir satu sama lain, tentu saja sambil makan pangsit bersama.)

THINGS I LOVE

■ Vera Wong, the ultimate chaotic queen. Vera MAKES this book. She’s that loud, nosy auntie who’ll call you out for wearing mismatched socks while shoving a steaming bowl of soup into your hands. I adore her zero-filter confidence, her stubborn "I’m always right" attitude (even when she’s wildly wrong), and the way she weaponizes tea and dumplings to get confessions. Under all that bossiness? A big, squishy heart that’ll sneak up on you when you least expect it.

■ Found family feels for the win. What starts as "who killed this guy?" turns into "who’s adopting who?" The four suspects, each a beautifully broken mess, somehow become Vera’s accidental therapy group. Watching them go from strangers to a weird little family had me grinning like a fool. Bonus points for how their messy, real growth never feels cheesy.

■ Laughs + feels = perfect combo. One minute Vera’s accusing someone of murder because they "look shifty" (ma’am, he’s just tired), the next you’re blinking back tears over a character’s backstory. Sutanto nails that balance where the humor lands but never undercuts the emotional punches.

■ Food descriptions that’ll ruin your diet. Warning: Do not read hungry. Vera’s tea rituals and feast spreads are so vivid, you’ll taste the tea and smell the fried shallots. Food here is how Vera loves, manipulates, and ultimately heals her ragtag crew. (RIP to my self-control during those food scenes.)

■ "Hello, loneliness my old friend" done right. Vera’s loneliness feels so real, especially if you’ve ever felt left behind by life or family. But her journey from "invisible old lady" to "leader of a misfit squad" is chef’s kiss. It’s a love letter to finding your people, even if they’re a bunch of murder suspects you strong-armed into eating your cooking.

(■ Vera Wong, the ultimate chaotic queen. Vera tuh bener-bener nyawa buku ini. Bayangin tante-tante nyebelin yang bakal komentar, "Duh kaos kakinya gak matching!" sambil nyodorin semangkok sup panas. Aku suka banget sama kepercayaan dirinya yang gak pakai filter, sikap "gue selalu bener"-nya (padahal sering salah), dan cara dia menggunakan teh dan pangsit buat bikin orang ngaku. Di balik sifat bossy-nya? Ada hati yang lembut yang bikin kita baper tanpa disangka-sangka.

■ Found family yang bikin baper. Awalnya cuma nyari "siapa pembunuhnya?", eh malah berubah jadi "siapa yang diadopsi siapa?". Empat tersangka yang hidupnya berantakan ini akhirnya jadi semacam grup terapi dadakan. Lihat mereka berubah dari orang asing jadi keluarga kecil yang aneh bikin kita senyum-senyum sendiri. Bonus point karena perkembangan karakter mereka terasa natural, gak dipaksain.

■ Kocak + baper = kombinasi sempurna. Satu detik Vera nuduh orang lain karena "mukanya mencurigakan" (lah, dia cuma capek), besoknya kita langsung mewek baca backstory karakternya. Penulis jago banget nyari balance antara humor dan adegan yang nyentil perasaan.

■ Deskripsi makanan yang bikin laper. Warning: Jangan dibaca pas perut kosong! Adegan minum teh dan makan-makan di sini digambarkan hidup banget sampai kita bisa bayangin aroma bawang gorengnya. Makanan di buku ini jadi alat Vera buat berbagi cinta, memanipulasi, dan akhirnya menyembuhkan teman-temannya. (RIP program diet tiap baca bagian ini.)

■ Kesepian yang relatable banget. Perasaan kesepian Vera tuh nyata banget, apalagi buat kamu yang pernah merasa kehilangan arah atau jauh dari keluarga. Tapi perjalanannya dari "nenek-nenek gak penting" jadi "pemimpin squad chaotic" bikin hati adem. Ini kayak surat cinta buat mereka yang nemu keluarga di tempat yang gak terduga, meski itu cuma sekumpulan tersangka yang dipaksa makan masakannya.)

FAVORITE QUOTES

"So what if I think you might be a killer? That doesn’t mean I think you are a bad person."

"In her experience, it’s best to nod and agree with what people say before doing exactly what you wanted from the very beginning."

"Destiny, Vera thinks, is something to be hunted down and grabbed tightly with both hands and shaken until it gives her exactly what she wants."

"This is the problem with creative people; their self-image is divided into two parts—one thinks that they’re a genius who will one day create a masterpiece of such breathtaking brilliance that it will still be discussed with reverence hundreds of years later; the other part thinks they are trash raccoons rooting around in the dark and coming up with nothing but more trash. There is no in-between. It’s either “super genius” or “trash raccoon,” and somehow these parts coexist within the head of one very tortured artist."

"Maybe you do something slightly bad, so what? Now you learn from it. You have a better judgment now. Better morals, because you learn from your personal mistake."

"No one is perfect, making right decisions all the time. Only those who are so privileged can make right decision all the time. The rest of us, we have to struggle, keep afloat. Sometimes we do things we are not proud of. But now you know where your lines are."

CONCLUSION 

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers is about how messy, imperfect connections can save us. Sure, the mystery’s fun (and the twists actually deliver), but the real magic is watching Vera and her ragtag crew of suspects go from strangers to something like family. One minute you’re cackling at Vera’s outrageous theories, the next you’re getting misty-eyed because these broken people are finally seen. By the time you finish, you’ll be desperate for a cup of oolong, Googling "best dim sum near me," and maybe even texting your own mom. If you love books with big personalities, bigger heart, and enough food descriptions to ruin your diet, this one’s a must-read. Proof that sometimes, all you need is a stubborn grandma, some good tea, and the right people to share it with.

(Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers membuktikan bahwa hubungan yang berantakan pun bisa menyelamatkan hidup kita. Iya, misteri pembunuhannya seru (dan plot twistnya nendang banget), tapi yang bikin baper tuh lihat Vera dan kumpulan tersangkanya pelan-pelan jadi kayak keluarga. Satu detik kita ngakak gegara teori ngawur Vera, detik berikutnya kita mewek karena karakter-karakter bermasalah ini akhirnya merasa diterima. Habis baca, kamu bakal ngidam teh oolong, buka Google Maps nyari "dim sum enak terdekat", dan mungkin bakal nelpon ibu kamu buat bilang "I love you". Buat kamu yang suka buku dengan karakter unik, cerita penuh feeling, dan deskripsi makanan bikin laper, buku ini wajib dibaca. Intinya, kadang yang kita butuhkan cuma nenek keras kepala, secangkir teh, dan orang-orang yang mau nemenin kita buat minum teh itu.)