Unique & Entertaining

Vera Wong’s Guide To Snooping (On A Dead Man) by Jesse Sutanto is a unique contemporary offering that entertained me from the start. It is the second book in the Vera Wong series but can be read as a stand-alone.

Vera Wong is a vey likable lead character – a sixty-one-year-old Chinese lady living in San Francisco, with a compulsion to cook for everyone she meets. She has her fingers in many pies too. “She knows that ‘putting a stop’ to anything Vera is doing is probably going to be an exercise in futility.” Vera’s heart has a huge capacity, her meddling comes from her desire to care.

The novel is very light-hearted in tone which counter balances the serious themes of human trafficking and associated crimes.

There is also much humor, specially created by Vera Wong. “I am Chinese mother, all I do is create conflict. You think the C.I.A. know anything about destabilizing? They know nothing compare to me!” Sometimes the humor comes from malapropisms and observations. At other times it is from Vera Wong speaking her mind.