Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

This light novel from Jesse Q. Sutanto carries a number of important ideas. Raised in southeast Asia, Jesse got her creative writing degree from Oxford (yes, the one in England) and so has the bona fides to bring these cultures together in her books. You'll notice that even the characters in the book come from different cultures with unique foods and customs, but all seem to share the fear of and respect for the formidable "aunties" whether or not they are actually related. 

Here is a plot summary from the publisher, which is pretty accurate. " Vera Wong is a lonely little old lady-ah, lady of a certain age-who lives above her forgotten tea shop in the middle of San Francisco's Chinatown. Despite living alone, Vera is not needy, oh no. She likes nothing more than sipping on a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy detective work on the Internet about what her college-aged son is up to. Then one morning, Vera trudges downstairs to find a curious thing--a dead man in the middle of her tea shop. In his outstretched hand, a flash drive. Vera doesn't know what comes over her, but after calling the cops like any good citizen would, she sort of . . . swipes the flash drive from the body and tucks it safely into the pocket of her apron. Why? Because Vera is sure she would do a better job than the police possibly could, because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands. Vera knows the killer will be back for the flash drive; all she has to do is watch the increasing number of customers at her shop and figure out which one among them is the killer. What Vera does not expect is to form friendships with her customers and start to care for each and every one of them. As a protective mother hen, will she end up having to give one of her newfound chicks to the police?"--"

Library Journal praises, " Sutanto excels at creating lovably flawed characters, the mystery has plenty of twists to keep readers guessing, and Vera's case notes at the end of some chapters add humor to the deductive process.... A mystery with warmth, humor, and many descriptions of delicious teas and foods." Publishers Weekly calls it a "stellar mystery" and concludes their review by saying, "The engrossing plot, which is full of laugh out loud humor and heartfelt moments, builds to a satisfying conclusion that will leave readers eager for more Vera. Sutanto has outdone herself with this cozy with substance." Booklist opens their review with this assertion, "Death shouldn't be funny or sweet or heartwarming, except maybe in a new cozy series starring Vera Wong, the widowed owner of San Francisco Chinatown's rather decrepit Vera Wang's World-Famous Teahouse." They go on to add some details of the plot: "when she discovers a corpse on the floor. The police arrive, refuse her amazing tea, barely investigate, and leave. Vera knows she's looking at foul play, no matter what the authorities insist. Of course, she'll solve the case by gathering (and feeding) the most likely suspects--an alleged reporter, a supposed podcaster, the dead man's wife, and his twin brother. Vera's next deadly installment hasn't yet been officially announced, but the success of Sutanto's best-selling Aunties series certainly points to more tales of murder."

It took me a while to warm up to Vera, but I stuck with it because my friend Anne Z. had given me the book. I am glad I did as it is both a good mystery and a warm-hearted story of unexpected friendships.

 

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

I believe this is a debut nobel by Robin Sloane. Definitely an entertaining and provocative read once you get into it, all tied up with a bow at the end. Book lovers will enjoy it; geeks will enjoy it; mystery lovers will enjoy it. In fact, this is my mystery book group's read for this month. This takes place largely in the Bay Area and for a while in New York City. It is early days of the Great Recession and Clay Jannon has just lost his job as a web designer and marketer for New Bagel. He finally takes a night shift job at the eponymous bookstore, which not only looks very odd in it's layout, but also has some pretty weird customers, most of whom appear to belong to an exclusive book club that allows them to borrow the enormous books in the back of the store that are shelved several stories high. Clay is under strict orders from Mr. Penumbra to NOT read those books, but to keep a detailed log of who comes in to borrow them. 

When one of Clay's friends stops by, he grabs a book and opens it and the mystery begins to deepen, for the tomes are clearly in some kind of code that looks like strings of numbers or letters--page after page. When a cute "Googler" walks into the store one night, Clay is attracted and they eventually become a couple. Kat is passionate about concepts like immortality and singularity and the role of technology in creating our future. I don't want to reveal any of the secrets that Clay uncovers with the help of his friends, but there will be a collaboration with Google and thousands of hackers and a trip to New York City. 

Library Journal concludes their review by opining, "Though the depiction of Google as a utopian meritocracy seems rather farcical, Sloan has created an arch tale knitting the analog past with the digital future that is compelling and readable." Likewise, Booklist's favorable reaction is that "Sloan has crafted a delightful modern-day fantasy adventure, replacing warriors, wizards, and rogues with a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, a Googler, and a book clerk. Even nongeeks will appreciate the technological wizardry used by Clay and his sidekicks as they jet from San Francisco to New York in an attempt to unlock the secret message encrypted in a mysterious pattern of codes." Kirkus starts and end on a high note. "All the best secrets are hidden in plain sight. The trick is to notice the secret in front of you. Sloan’s debut novel takes the reader on a dazzling and flat-out fun adventure, winding through the interstices between the literary and the digital realms...From the shadows of Penumbra’s bookshelves to the brightly lit constellation of cyberspace to the depths of a subterranean library, Sloan deftly wields the magicks (definitely with a “k”) of the electronic and the literary in this intricate mystery"

I am including Publishers Weekly review in its entirety as it's fun to read. "For those who fear that the Internet/e-readers/whatever-form-of-technological-upheaval-is-coming has killed or will kill paper and ink, Sloan's debut novel will come as good news. A denizen of the tech world and self-described "media inventor" (formerly he was part of the media partnerships team at Twitter), Sloan envisions a San Francisco where piracy and paper are equally useful, and massive data-visualization-processing abilities coexist with so-called "old knowledge." Really old: as in one of the first typefaces, as in alchemy and the search for immortality. Google has replaced the Medici family as the major patron of art and knowledge, and Clay Jannon, downsized graphic designer and once-and-future nerd now working the night shift for bookstore owner Mr. Penumbra, finds that mysteries and codes are everywhere, not just in the fantasy books and games he loved as a kid. With help from his friends, Clay learns the bookstore's idiosyncrasies, earns his employer's trust, and uses media new, old, and old-old to crack a variety of codes. Like all questing heroes, Clay takes on more than he bargained for and learns more than he expected, not least about himself. His story is an old-fashioned tale likably reconceived for the digital age, with the happy message that ingenuity and friendship translate across centuries and data platforms."

The Nature of Fragile Things

This book by Susan Meissner is set primarily in and around SanFrancisco in the year leading up and following the earthquake that destroyed most of the city in 1906. Protagonist Sophie Whalen, a young Irish immigrant desperate to escape the tenements of New York City, answers an ad for a mail order bride to a supposedly widowed man with a young daughter. When she arrives, she finds a charismatically handsome man who seems totally uninterested in her, but also his mute child of 5, Katherine (Kat) with whom Sophie falls in love. Sophie has never lived in such a nice house, with enough food to eat but almost no freedom. She is discouraged from making friends with the neighbors by her husband, Martin Hocking; most of the neighbors are wealthier anyway and only one shows interest in Sophie and Kat, although it is more of the condescending rich helping the poor sort of attention. Martin supposedly travels for his work as an insurance assessor and is often gone for days at a time, offering Sophie neither the name of his employer, or a schedule of where and when he will be gone. One night a knock at the door brings Sophie's world to an astounding implosion. A young pregnant woman, Belinda, is looking for her husband, having found Sophie's address in his coat pocket. When she sees Sophie's wedding picture on the mantel, she breaks down, swearing the picture is of her husband, James Bigelow.  Martin/James shows up before dawn the next morning and, when he finds Belinda there, he advances toward the women in a threatening manner. But the earthquake's first tremors start and the world is literally upended. Martin ends up at the bottom of the stairs and Sophie drags him to the kitchen, barely conscious as she, Belinda and Kat endeavor to escape the falling buildings and raging fires. Sophie discovers that Kat's mother is not, in fact, dead, but in a sanitorium in Arizona and she makes the painful decision to reunite the two. When Sophie institutes a missing persons report for her husband six weeks after the quake in order to cover herself, a whole new chain of events threatens to put her in prison. 

Publishers Weekly says "The plucky and principled Sophie (who is hiding a few secrets of her own) captivates from the first page, while naive Belinda and sensitive Kat are standouts. Ingeniously plotted and perfectly structured, this captivates from beginning to end." Booklist calls it "an ultimately uplifting story of strong women and found family."

Homicide in Hardcover

I have discovered a wealth of new mystery series recently with bookish themes. This one by Kate Carlisle is the first in her "Bibliophile Mystery" series that features rare book restorer Brooklyn Wainwright. She has opened her own business in a live-in/work-in loft in San Francisco after studying since childhood with her mentor, Abraham Karastovsky. She is delighted to receive an invitation to the opening of a fantastic new collection Abraham's been working on because they have been estranged ever since Brooklyn struck out on her own. After a cheerful reunion, he invites her to come see the rare edition of Faust that he is restoring in the basement workrooms later in the evening. But when she shows up, Brooklyn finds Abraham bleeding to death on the floor, living only long enough to whisper to her "Remember the devil." The copy of Faust he is clutching is supposed to be cursed, and when a 2nd --admittedly somewhat shady--book restorer dies, and Brooklyn herself is threatened, she begins to believe it might be true.  Brooklyn decides to investigate, not only because Abraham deserves justice, but because the police, and a handsome private security consultant,  think she might be involved. Brooklyn is a quirky and endearing character who will hopefully grow with future installments. There's certainly enough here to keep me going....and there are 12 more in the series!

Jump the Gun

This fluffy little mystery from Zoe Burke is the first of a proposed series starring Beatrice Annabelle Starkey, book sales rep. Unlikely that she would meet the man of her dreams at a book convention in Chicago, but there he is, and even more unlikely is that she agrees to accompany him to Las Vegas for a little vacation after knowing him just one day, but she does. Before they even get unpacked in their luxury suite, she is kidnapped at gunpoint while Mickey is downstairs in the gift shop. Turns out Mickey gets kidnapped too, but they knock out the bad guy and tie him to a table with ....the big roll of dental floss that Annabelle always keeps in her purse. While escaping from this thug, who turns out to be a bent LV policeman, they run into a woman who used to be in the same nursing home as Annabelle's recently deceased Nana. Then they barely escape more bad guys posing as cops by hopping in a cab being driven by a suspended LV policeman. When Annabelle finally has a chance to call home and tell her cat sitter Cassie that she will be a little delayed getting back, the phone in her apartment is answered by yet another policeman who tells her Cassie has been murdered. Mickey and Annabelle hop a flight to San Francisco and, yet another coincidence, the investigating officer is a former college chum of Mickey's. The coincidences keep piling up and it's hard to tell who is on the up and up and who is part of the conspiracy. References to movies are liberally sprinkled throught as Annabelle is a big movie buff. Reminds me of another somewhat preposterous and thoroughly enjoyable book called Agnes and the Hitman. Read both for some light entertainment.

The Warlock and The Enchantress

These are the final two volumes in "The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel" series by Michael Scott. I have read, and in fact own the four earlier installments: The Alchemyst, The Magician, The Sorceress, The Necromancer.  You will probably feel hopelessly lost if you try jumping into the series without having read the preceding volumes. Josh and Sophie are 15 year twins residing with their Aunt Agnes in San Francisco while their parents travel the world on archaeological digs. Josh works in a bookstore and Sophie across the street in a coffee shop. The bookstore is owned by Nick and Perry Flamel, the several-hundred-year-old immortals seeking the "twins of legend," who are--you guessed it--Josh and Sophie. The adventures are fast and furious in what turns out to be a battle for the future of the world as Josh and Sophie know it, being fought by Dark Elders and their minions, versus those magical beings who value the humani (as humans are referred to) and want them to continue existing. Read the earlier reviews to get a sense of the vast cast of characters who enter into this battle. In The Necromancer, Dr. Dee has apparently helped Josh gain the power to bring back the dead, and convinced him the Flamels are evil. This has split the twins for the first time in their lives, and they are now working towards very different ends.  Dee will use Josh, Machiavelli, Virginia Dare, Billy the Kid and others to free the accumulation of mythical monsters and evil forces he has collected on Alcatraz in order to destroy San Francisco. Sophie and the Flamels, who are no longer immortal and powerful, also have allies in trying to stop this, but they seem grossly outnumbered and overpowered. These two volumes are full of surprises though as we find that Aunt Agnes has actually been watching over the twins and their predecessors for thousands of years, Josh and Sophie are not really twins, and their parents are ... well you better dive in for a wild ride and read the series. Will the prophecy really come true about the gold and silver twins--one to destroy the world and one to save it? Is it possible for both to happen? These last two books could probably have been condensed into a single volume, i.e., I think this series went on a bit too long, but I enjoyed it nevertheless and highly recommend if you are a fantasy fan.