[BWF] Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto - 3 stars

[Theresa]

Vera Wong owns the long established Vera Wang World Famous Tea House in Chinatown, although she only seems to have one customer, someone who lives in the neighborhood. Her shop is not on a main street. It's forgotten. Until one day she comes downstairs from her apartment above the shop to find a dead man in the shop. Vera is convinced it is murder and also convinced that the police will do nothing. It's up to Vera to solve the murder. Next thing you know, people related to the dead man are coming to her shop and Vera, under guise of investigating the murder, interjects herself into their lives and suddenly it isn't only about solving a murder.

Vera is a great character and is the reason that kept me reading. The murder plot itself was so -so, the other characters often a bit irritating to me. An easy but not compelling read.

BWF - Letter S in Fantasy - no tag

[Booknblues]

I've seen many people rate this higher, but one of my friends rated it a 1 star and my niece, 2.5.

[Theresa]

As I commented in the Edgars thread, I was leaning very much to a 2 - rounded down from a 2.5 - when I realized that Vera was never going to let me hear the end of that! So I decided Vera gets 3 stars ... since she's now an echo in my head.

[Booknblues]

I'm going to hold off on it a bit.

I have a large enough tbr that I don't have to rush to add anything.

[Theresa]

Booknblues wrote: "I'm going to hold off on it a bit.

I have a large enough tbr that I don't have to rush to add anything."

I'd say save it for a day you just want to read something light - oh and has amazing food descriptions! I kept needing to order chinese delivery while reading it, LOL.

[Amy]

Yes to me, this was not remotely about the crime. It was about Vera and her character. Who is hilarious! It had everything to do with her, and the world that she creates.

[Theresa]

Yes. And all the tea lore! So interesting.

I also loved all the moments were her English is a little off -- as anyone who has foreign born parents/relatives will recognize (or even my 4th generation American father with only an 8th grade education from pre-WWII - he used to refer to the 'digitalis clock', LOL).

Here are a couple of my favorites from the book:

'hippotechnically' for 'hypothetically'.

'pot catch' for podcast.

'Bird of parrot ties?” Oliver imagines Emma drawing two parrots tied together. - Bird of Paradise - I think this was actually toddler Emma's expression.