I needed a cozy mystery and Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers is indeed just that. Vera’s the stereotypical Chinese mom/grandma who runs a tea shop virtually no one goes to anymore. Then she finds a dead guy in there when she goes to open her shop, and people just start turning up (not just the police but them too, a little). Various folks who have some connection to the victim or crime including his wife Julia, “reporter” Riki, “podcaster” Sana, and the victim’s brother Oliver. Everyone one of them has some kind of guilty secret which may or may not be relevant; Vera decides that she has seen enough CSI/Law & Order type things to solve the crime herself. The getting to know and eliminating suspects takes most of the story; everyone has their backstory and maybe even a few motives, but everyone becomes almost friends, and Vera cooks for them all. Lots of cooking, and sometimes making tea.
The murder becomes almost secondary; this is really more of a friendship, found family sort of thing, and that’s ok. Everyone has their issues that maybe some of the others can help with, like Sana’s artistic block, Riki’s need to support his family back home, Oliver’s estrangement from family and his best friend, Vera’s supposed neglect (according to her at least) by her only child Tilly, Julia’s realization about her marriage and daughter, etc. Everyone naturally connects then almost disconnects from the group only to re-band when potential tragedy strikes someone, and everything including the murder becomes clear.
Nothing too deep, nothing terribly artful about the writing, the characters or much of anything. Just mildly entertaining fluff. In hindsight, Vera being an archetypal always thinks she’s right (and then actually often being right) little old lady is a little suspect, but it’s a minor thing. The perspective switching but not much change in the narrative voice could also be a thing, but then, this isn’t really the kind of story where that matters much. Likewise the ending, there’s a few things that could have been more interesting with a little more information or attention, but it’s the kind of finale you’d expect, and that’s ok too.