Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

Vera Wong is a 60 year old, slightly lonely (her only son is estranged from her, her point of view; she micromanages him, his point of view) tea-shop owner in San Francisco´s Chinatown with a strict, no-nonsense attitude. When one morning she wakes up to a dead body in her tea shop, she deems the police incompetent and embarks on finding the murderer - should there be one. With a simple plan, unconvential methods and a short-list of suspects she ventures out to find the culprit - and transforms the lives of her new companions and by that her own. While the title suggests that this is primarily a murder-mystery novel (and it does a decent job at being one), it is more so a comedy with a family trope. Given that the storyline isn´t all that surprising - some would say, extremely predictable, the book stands and falls with the fine line between stereotypical and comical descriptions of the characters and what the reader makes of them. Vera´s character, e.g. includes a lot of 'Asian mom' tropes; her being opinionated, forceful, loving and uncompromising can be adorable and annoying at the same time. This choice of character portrayal can be seen as either funny or clichéd, depending on the reader´s approach to the representation. The other characters in the story are diverse: Indonesian, Indian, Chinese-American but are missing a more layered portrait. The story switches between Vera and her suspects so the reader is exposed to multiple character viewpoints, their backstories (which sometimes trail off too much from the main story), thoughts and feelings. While Vera is able to carry the storyline, in my opinion the other characters are not nuanced enough to be relatable (general vanilla-flavored Gen Z/millenials) and thus lack her potential. What I did love where the scenes about mouthwatering dishes with which Vera cooks herself into the trust and heart of her suspects and readers. All in all, the book is a fun but slightly shallow novel for sheer enjoyment from an author with great future potential. A quick read that would have done well with some additional editing.