👵🏻 If you aren't yet familiar with Vera Wong, she is a Chinese woman of sixty-ish of age, who lives in Chinatown of San Francisco; and owner of a teahouse she named: VERA WANG'S WORLD FAMOUS TEAHOUSE. Of course it's an exaggeration, and her deliberately mistyping "Wang" (you know who Vera Wang is, don't you?) instead of "Wong', is a typical Chinese people. After her successful first murder-solving, Vera Wong cheekily added "Investigator" after teahouse owner. Maybe "matchmaker" should also be added, since two of her suspects list on the first murder case have been a couple ever since. These two appear once again in this story, along with some other characters, who now become Vera's big family. She only has one son - Tilly - and he, too, has been in relationship with the police officer who investigated the first murder, Selena. On their moving in together, Vera has started to regard Selena as a daughter-in-law - again, typical of Chinese mothers; they are always way ahead of us!
👵🏻 It all begins when Vera's credit card was scammed. When she went to the police station (to meet Selena - her daughter-in-... ahem, her son's girlfriend), she met a confused, and definitely distressed, girl called Millie. Vera brought the girl to the teahouse; and after brewing her a cup of tea (Vera always knows what kind of tea for every person and circumstance), and giving her something to eat, she had no difficulties to extract what had bother the girl. Vera always has the knack to do so - it's the charm of a Chinese mother, no doubt, which she always mentions. Millie told Vera about her missing friend, a guy called Thomas, who is a successful online influencer. And when Vera was snooping on Selena's files, she found information concerning the missing guy, marked as John Doe, who has been found dead. That's how Vera's snooping has brought her just another murder case to solve.
👵🏻 Like in her first case, Vera begins with compiling a suspects list. This brings her to the "glittering" world of content creators and social media influencers. She attends an influencers party, and even starts her own social media account, and hey.... her first video (of her calmly brewing tea, taken by one of the suspects-slash-new-friends) became viral in one night. And boom... Vera could have added "social media superstar" to her already numerous titles. These videos, along with her delicious foods, her fragrant tea, and her knack of comforting people, are Vera's weapons to solve the murder case.
👵🏻 I have been prepared for what this story might bring (which it does): many hilarious moments, delicious Chinese foods, and heartwarming scenes when all the people related to the case (plus Vera's entourage from book one) gather around her as one big family. What surprised me, though, is the depth (and rather dark) of the theme Jesse Sutanto brought as a background, which she acknowledged, was inspired by real occurrences she's been told while visiting an Asian country (Sutanto is Indonesian-born who currently lives in America). It resulted in a mix between light-hearted murder mystery (but not so mysterious after you'll get to the background) and grim reality. A delicious read, as always, and I can't wait for the next book!
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2
Read for:
Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge 2026
