title: Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (On a Dead Man)author: Jesse Q. Sutanto
series: Vera Wong #2
published: 4.1.2025
publisher: Berkley
genre(s): cozy mystery
pages: 321
source: library
format: eBook
buy/shelve it: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | BookBub | BookHype | StoryGraph | Goodreads
rating:
| series rating: the blurb
Vera Wong is back and as meddling as ever in this follow-up to the hit Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers.…
Ever since a man was found dead in Vera's teahouse, life has been good. For Vera that is. She’s surrounded by loved ones, her shop is bustling, and best of all, her son, Tilly, has a girlfriend! All thanks to Vera, because Tilly's girlfriend is none other than Officer Selena Gray. The very same Officer Gray that she had harassed while investigating the teahouse murder. Still, Vera wishes more dead bodies would pop up in her shop, but one mustn't be ungrateful, even if one is slightly...bored.
Then Vera comes across a distressed young woman who is obviously in need of her kindly guidance. The young woman is looking for a missing friend. Fortunately, while cat-sitting at Tilly and Selena's, Vera finds a treasure Selena's briefcase. Inside is a file about the death of an enigmatic influencer—who also happens to be the friend that the young woman was looking for.
Online, Xander had it a parade of private jets, fabulous parties with socialites, and a burgeoning career as a social media influencer. The only problem is, after his body is fished out of Mission Bay, the police can't seem to actually identify him. Who is Xander Lin? Nobody knows. Every contact is a dead end. Everybody claims not to know him, not even his parents.
Vera is determined to solve Xander's murder. After all, doing so would surely be a big favor to Selena, and there is nothing she wouldn't do for her future daughter-in-law.
a few notes
trigger warning: ❗human trafficking, suicide, abuse, murder❗
POV: 3rd person; multi
setting: San Francisco, CA
keywords/phrases: found family, friendship
tropes: found family, amateur sleuth
spice: 0🔥
language: 3🤬🤬🤬
mood reading: in the mood for a cozy mystery with interesting characters and a hilarious protagonist.
bonus points: Vera and Winifred’s “friendship”
my review
Vera Wong is exactly the kind of FMC I love in a cozy mystery. She’s hilarious, even when she’s not trying to be. But to have the level of self-confidence that she has? It might be borderline delusional, but I’m still jealous. She’s the epitome of sassy as she meddles in the lives of those she loves and those she barely knows. She fronts as a helpless old lady, but she is anything but. She’s full of life and love. And she loves a good mystery.
Along with her newfound family from the last book, she throws herself into a new mystery, determined to solve it herself. The story is told from multiple points of view, giving the reader a fully complete view of the story. Sutanto is so good at juggling the plethora of POVs, never allowing the pacing to suffer for it.
As much as it is a mystery, it’s really much more than that. It’s a story of cultural lifestyles and traditions, of found family and changing family relationships. It’s about loneliness and boredom. It’s about the lengths one will go in the name of greed and the lengths one will go in the name of love.
About Jesse Q. Sutanto
Jesse Q Sutanto grew up shuttling back and forth between Jakarta and Singapore and sees both cities as her homes. She has a Masters degree from Oxford University, though she has yet to figure out a way of saying that without sounding obnoxious. She is currently living back in Jakarta on the same street as her parents and about seven hundred meddlesome aunties. When she’s not tearing out her hair over her latest WIP, she spends her time baking and playing FPS games. Oh, and also being a mom to her two kids
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2025 Craving For Cozies Reading Challenge
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