Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) | Jesse Q Sutanto

This is the second Vera Wong book and it's a very fun read. I also have on good authority that it's a good listen if you're an audiobook person. Vera Wong is a Chinese grandmother who, apparently like all Chinese grandmothers, knows pretty much everything about everything and will just keep moving (bulldozing?) forward to resolve things as she things they should be resolved.

Vera owns a small tea shop in San Francisco and always has the right tea for whatever is ailing, bothering, niggling people she cares about. She attracts people who need people like some people adopt cats. In the first book, Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, Vera finds a dead guy in her shop and goes on to solve the (murder) case ahead of, or in spite of, the police. This convinces her that she's pretty much the best detective around. So when she hears about a social media influencer who shows up missing--well, obviously she's needed.

Vera is warm, pushy, arrogant and all-around delightful, if not a little frustrating to people. She has a grandmother's antennae to know what people need or lack and to provide it. She builds community around her, all while dabbling in crime-solving and irritating local police.

It's fun, it's fast and it'll leave you feeling like a good cup of tea can solve almost anything.