Vera Wong’s Guide To Snooping (On A Dead Man) by Jesse Q Sutanto

At the end of 2025, I hit pause on my overloaded schedule to try to get to books I’d been greatly anticipating this year that I just didn’t have the time for before this. So yeah, I basically used my industry-wide two-week end of year break to do more work but oh wow, was that worth it for this novel!

When I read the first book in this series back in 2023, it quickly became one of my favorite books of the year, and definitely my favorite book of Jesse Q Sutanto’s so far. Before then, she had two distinct writing sides when it came to her adult fiction: the zany fluff of her Aunties series, and the dark social commentary of her standalone psychological thrillers. She combined the best of both worlds in Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice For Murderers, and is back for more of that winning formula in the sequel.

And look, when I say formula, I mean it, and not at all in a bad way. As in the first book, our title heroine falls into a mystery, collects the people around it, and mothers them with kindness and kepo (the Malay language equivalent for busybody) until she not only improves everybody’s lives, but solves the crime to boot. This time, however, Ms Sutanto adds a diabolical and highly relevant modern day twist, in the form of a criminal issue that desperately needs more coverage in media outside of the Southeast Asia beat.

Obviously, I’m not going to go into greater detail, because part of the impact of the story depends on the mystery at its heart. And that has to do with a young man named Xander Lin, an up-and-coming social media star, who apparently committed suicide. His roommate Milly refuses to believe it, but has to admit that she didn’t even know he was such a big deal online. In fact, she’d been torn as to whether to report him missing to the police at all… until Vera encounters the young woman outside the police station where Vera was bringing food to her future daughter-in-law. Vera immediately senses that Milly needs a friend, and proceeds to involve herself in both Milly’s life and the mystery of Xander’s death. And what a gut-wrenching mystery it is!

Vera is a wonderful creation: irritatingly nosy but in the very best way. As with many older generation Asian parents, she doesn’t understand the concept of privacy and has only the dimmest understanding of boundaries, but she’s got a kind, unselfish heart and a good soul, even if she’s not above a little manipulation and cheerful hypocrisy to get her way. I always finish these books wishing she were an actual part of my family, too.

I’m super glad I got to squeeze this in as my last review of 2025 here at TFC. I’ll be taking tomorrow off then coming back with another roundup post on Friday, before diving back into reviews next week, when, sigh, work starts again for real. Have a wonderful turn of the year, dear readers! Here’s to a better 2026 than 2025!

Vera Wong’s Guide To Snooping (On A Dead Man) by Jesse Q Sutanto was published April 1 2025 by Berkley and is available from all good booksellers, including