Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

I loved that book! I laughed many times, and it was also touching and annoying and stressful and nail-biting and everything else a good summer novel should be. This was a perfect book to rest my poor brain after the death-focused summer (events and readings) I’ve had so far*.

Vera Wong is an old Chinese woman whose husband is dead and whose son is ignoring her. She owns a tea shop, but only one client comes regularly. Then, one morning, she finds a dead man in her tea shop and starts doing her own investigation, because she thinks that the police are not doing their job properly. During her investigation, she meets four young people, who become her four suspects, and indeed, they all would have had excellent reasons to have killed that man. But she becomes friends with them, learns about their pasts, their mistakes, their dreams, their fears, and she really hopes that none of them is the killer.

There are some sad moments, and difficult moments, too, in this story, but overall, it’s a story of life being sometimes really shitty and fortunately also giving you second chances at happiness. It’s about really shitty people and about really good people, and about family. And it made me crave Chinese food, which I sadly won’t find, in my small town, or at least not anything that resembles the real thing. Excellent summer reading!

*Speaking of death, I LOVED the beheaded women holding their heads in their hands and the blood spewing from everywhere. I am quite anti-Olympic Games in general, but that was absolutely fabulous! The most creative and funniest part of any Olympic Games ceremony I’ve ever watched!