Storymusing Review: Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto

 

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

by Jess Q. Sutanto

I was perusing our library’s cart of returned mysteries when I came across Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers. It looked good, and the book recommendation on the cover from Elle Cosimano, another favorite humorous mystery author, clinched the deal.

Vera Wong runs ‘Vera Wang’s World-Famous Teahouse’ in San Francisco. Unfortunately, the teahouse has gone out of fashion and she only has one customer left. Vera is a lonely widower whose only son is too busy to spend time with her. She texts him frequently, though he doesn’t often respond, and thrives on her routine of walking daily and searching the internet. Surprisingly, it isn’t an online scam that brings trouble to her door.

One morning she gets up and goes downstairs to find a man named Marshall has broken into her teahouse and died on the floor. Vera isn’t too happy with how the police handle the situation and decides to investigate on her own. She starts by placing an obituary for Marshall in the paper to draw the guilty party back to the scene of the crime.

Her plan works and four people show up— Rikki, Sana, Oliver, and Julia, carrying her daughter Emma. Rikki says he is a reporter for Buzzfeed and Sana says she runs a true crime podcast. Oliver is most clearly Marshall’s twin brother. Julia is Marshall’s wife, though he left her the day before.

It is less of a mystery to the reader about why these people are here than it is to Vera, because we hear the story from their perspectives as well. (It also makes it seem unlikely that one of them is the killer, in my opinion.)

As I read further in this book, there were a few things that required a suspension of disbelief. Primary is that Vera makes these amazing teas, seeming to know exactly what you need, but she only has one customer. Not one other tea lover has found her and become a fan, telling other tea lovers they know about it? That seems a bit odd. Tea drinkers make up a hefty percentage of the population.

That being said, I still loved this novel. The writing just drew me in and allowed me to suspend disbelief.

And you can’t help intensely disliking the person who was murdered. The mystery of who murdered him plays a lean second fiddle to the master machinations of Vera as she maneuvers people into talking about themselves and the relationships she helps bring to life.

I recently came across a post in a book forum asking for books that feel like a big hug. As strange as it may seem to put a murder mystery in this category, I think it applies to this one.

I began to wonder if this was even a mystery? About two thirds of the way through, though I knew Marshall was a jerk, I wasn’t sure he was murdered. He certainly could have been, but it might have been an accident, and I had real trouble believing that any of the people Vera considered a suspect, could actually have killed Marshall.

Well, I definitely didn’t see the truth that came out in the end. I highly recommend this book.

Book Review of Queen Bee by Dorothea Benton Frank

 

Queen Bee

by Dorothea Benton Frank

My thematic book club selected the theme of “Queen” for May. I ran a little late in picking my book so I decided to grab an audio book from our Hoopla catalog that I could listen to on my commute. (Most books run 8 to 14 hours on audio so I can easily listen to it during the course of my weekly commute.) I did a quick search for the term Queen and scrolled down the list looking for something that would catch my interest.

My eyes alighted on Queen Bee by Dorothea Benton Frank. I have adored Frank’s writing since her first published novel, Sullivan’s Island. I have read at least half the novels she wrote but lost track of her at some point.

The atmosphere of the low country, the islands on the coast of South Carolina, the use of language, the characters, which are so real and far from perfect people, and the mystery just made for a perfect read for me.

I downloaded the audio book and started it in the car that night. By the time I got home, I was so hooked that I downloaded the ebook so I could keep reading that weekend.

In Queen Bee, Holly Jensen is a dutiful southern daughter, living with her mother, who she and her sister refer to as the QB (Queen Bee), to help care for her as she has grown into something of a hypochondriac.

Holly occupies her free time with tending her bees, volunteering at the local library, occasional substitute teaching as she tries to get a full-time job teaching at the elementary school, helping the widower and his two small boys next door, and then she gets a job decorating cakes at the local Publix store.

The truth is Holly has a very severe crush on the next door widower, Archie. But even as she is taking care of his two sweet young boys after school and bringing them meals, he goes out on a blind date with someone else. Someone horrible. What to do? Hold on for the roller coaster ride.

Then Holly’s sister, Leslie, returns home in tears when her accountant husband of six years reveals a hidden dream of his own to become a drag queen star in Las Vegas. (This is a fantastic story line that I did not see coming and Frank takes it in totally unexpected and beautiful directions.)

Meanwhile, Holly and Leslie’s mama, the QB, falls out of bed twice and gets taken in for some scans which reveal that she is not quite the hypochondriac the girls assumed. Again, unexpected twists and turns abound as the story unfolds in a beautiful way. Have your tissues ready.

Frank’s books are a truly immersive reading experience, transporting you to a different location. Just sitting here writing this review, I feel like I fell back into the book and traveled miles away.

I’ve already picked out another book by Frank and am listening to that one, All the Single Ladies. Sadly, Dorothea Benton Frank passed away in 2019 but, fortunately, she left us twenty wonderful novels to read and listen to.

One of my treasured possessions is a book of Frank’s that my sister had her sign for me, a copy of Pawley’s Island. In it, she wrote, “Dear Michelle, If I can do this, so can you. Keep writing! Dottie.” So sweet and full of the characteristic style of having her female characters prop each other up.

I was just thinking I might go back and listen to someone read Sullivan’s Island, if I can find a good recording of it.

It’s perfect summer reading.

Book Musing: Drama Free: A Guide to Managing Unhealthy Family Relationships by Nedra Glover Tawwab

 

Drama Free: A Guide to Managing Unhealthy Family Relationships

By Nedra Glover Tawwab

I’ve been following Nedra Glover Tawwab on Instagram for well over a year now, on the recommendation of a friend. She has been very enlightening and a wonderfully sane voice.

Tawwab is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a Masters in Social Work. Her first book, Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself, was a New York Times bestseller. I’ve just picked up a copy and I’m looking forward to it. Honestly, I think most of us could use work on setting and maintaining boundaries in our professional and private lives.

Drama Free is remarkably well laid out and clear. Tawwab clearly defines the terms she is working with, illustrates them with examples, and then gives just a few prompts for exploring how they apply to your own relationships.

Part One is Unlearning Dysfunction, while Part Two moves into Healing, and Part Three moves on to Growing.

Tawwab shares some hallmarks of dysfunctional families, including “forgiving and forgetting with no change in behavior, moving on as if nothing happened, covering up problems for others, denying that a problem exists, keeping secrets that need to be share, pretending to be fine, not expressing your emotions, be around harmful people, and using aggression to get what you want.”

If anything there sounds familiar, this book is for you. Honestly, I don’t know many people who couldn’t benefit from this book. I was glad to see our library has a copy and I’d like to see a copy in our digital catalog as well.

Tawwab assures us that, “It’s often said that we are a product of our environment, but we can also be a product of exposure to healthy relationships outside the home.”

I’ve heard people who grow and achieve in life to say that they had great role models or even that they found a vision of a different way of life on television or in books.

Sometimes it’s hard to know where our reactions come from, the traumas that may have shaped us, but when we’re unaware that leaves us subject to reacting without thinking. It’s therefore important to explore why we do what we do.

 “Awareness is what saves us from repeating patterns. Understanding your story is a process that unfolds over time, and your story is constantly evolving.”

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand themselves a little better and particularly to anyone who wants to make peace with difficult familial relationships in their lives. I’ve heard of so many people cutting others out of their lives these days, but I think it’s worth exploring a different way of understanding and setting boundaries first.

Happy Reading! (And Healing.)