Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping on a Dead Man

by Jesse Q. Sutanto

narrated by Eunice Wong

When I began reading Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping on a Dead Man, I realized I was missing something. That something was supplied by an audio book: English spoken with a Chinese accent. Immediately the humor began to rise to the top and the feisty Chinese grandmother (wanna be) emerged. Formerly quite lonely, in Sutanto’s first book, the owner of “Vera Wong’s World-Famous Teahouse,” in the process of solving her first mystery, gathers an unlikely group of people under her wing and they become her family. In addition to her biological son Tilly, she discovers more people in need of “community.” Everyone, it seems, has a hard time saying “no” to Vera.

With Vera, one thing leads to another, and she befriends a distraught girl, Millie, outside the police station. In the process of trying to find Millie’s missing friend Thomas, Vera becomes an overnight sensation on “the Instagram” and “the TikTok.” She really is quite funny as a character, and is charming in her attempts to help others and to make sense out of social media. She unwittingly puts herself in danger much to the dismay of Tilly who is a lawyer and his girlfriend Selena, a detective. Tilly does his best to support his mother, and Selena tries to convince her to stay away from investigating, especially after her teashop is vandalized.

Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping on a Dead Man is a humorous mystery, but delves into dark crimes. I enjoyed it, but won’t be going back to read the first in the series or future books. For me, it is simply a matter of preference. I try not to choose books with inappropriate language. Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping on a Dead Man includes a lot of crude language and swearing that I consider unnecessary to tell a good story. I did not let my aversion to the author’s use of profanity affect my rating of this book, however, as I realize the wording may not offend some readers.

Eunice Wong, the narrator, made the Chinese characters come alive and was able to revert well to standard English as appropriate. I did a read/listen for most of the book, but I found that when I just read passages I could “hear” them with the narrator’s voice. That’s how good she is. 

I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Rating: 4/5

Category: Mystery, Women’s Fiction

Notes: 1. #2 in the Vera Wong series, but I had not read the first book in the series, and I found that this book held up well as a standalone. 

    2. Is much more enjoyable as an audiobook.

    3. Contains a lot of unnecessary swearing and crude language.

Publication:  book: April 1, 2025—Berkley

      audiobook: April 1, 2025—Penguin Audio

Memorable Lines:

She serves Winifred her tea, then leans back and takes a bite of the Korean-French abomination. Of course, as luck would have it, the croissant actually tastes amazing. Quite possibly the best pastry Vera has ever had. The richness of the cheese is perfectly cut through by the sour, spicy kimchi, and all of it wrapped up in buttery, flaky layers.

Last night, Vera has learned that young people are very, very good at faking it. Maybe it has something to do with social media.

“It’s not,” Vera says. I know my rights.” She doesn’t. But she’s hoping she looks like she does. Sometimes, looking like you know things is more important than actually knowing things.