Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

　　空巢茶店老太太，化身福爾摩斯查案去！
 
　　每天凌晨四點半，花甲之年的Vera Wong不需要鬧鐘就能自動起床，第一件事就是傳訊息給兒子Tilbert，提醒他不要再荒度時光。接著她會在舊金山的華人街裡散散步，才回家準備開門做生意－「Vera Wang的世界知名茶店」（這裡絕對不是打錯字，畢竟Vera Wang比Vera Wong有名嘛！）。以前每天還有許多人會光顧，但隨著時間過去，這間店就像Vera一樣，漸漸被世人遺忘，只剩少少的常客偶爾還會上門。不過Vera也不貪心，反正房子在年輕時就已經繳完房貸，沒有什麼生活壓力，每天只要來一杯好喝的烏龍茶，就是她最開心的事了。
 
　　某天早上，Vera正準備下樓進行每天的例行公事，卻意外發現一名男性倒在店裡，早已氣絕多時。作為一個良好典型公民，當然是立馬打電話報警，警察查驗現場後，認為這個年輕死者Marshall Chen，是闖空門然後吸毒過量暴斃而亡並快速結案。但Vera沒說的是這個死者手中緊握著一個隨身碟。噢對⋯⋯警察為什麼沒發現呢？因為Vera早在警察到場前，就神不知鬼不覺把它給抽出來了。這個獨居已久的老太太決定要自行破案，因為沒有人比閒得發慌的華人媽媽更會抓出可疑人物。Vera相信兇手一定會回來拿走這重要的證物，所以只要觀察可疑的新客人就好。沒想到隨著上門的客人增加，她對常客們的關切也越來越深，萬一兇手混在其中該怎麼辦？

(文／博客來外文館)

A USA Today bestseller

A lonely shopkeeper takes it upon herself to solve a murder in the most peculiar way in this captivating mystery by Jesse Q. Sutanto, bestselling author of Dial A for Aunties.

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 Gen-Z 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?

Jesse Q. Sutanto grew up shuttling back and forth between Indonesia, Singapore, and Oxford, and considers all three places her home. She has a masters from Oxford University. When she is not writing, she is gaming with her husband or making a mess in the kitchen with her two daughters.