Only two point twenty-five years into the 2020s, and the decade is shaping up to be a lot. From the pandemic to a crazy economy, it feels like these few years will go down as both Historically and personally memorable. And while some days I wake up ready to dive right in, other days all I want is a day full of everything cozy and warm and soft. When it’s uncertain outside, sometimes you need a reminder that there are steady and supportive places in the world.

This month has been a strange one – lots of travel, combined with various work and life uncertainties. (The recent bout of atmospheric rivers in California haven’t helped my mood either… I’ve been missing the sunshine.) And so picking up the recently published Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers was an unexpected balm. I figured going in that I’d enjoy the cozy mystery about an aging SF tea shop proprietor… But I didn’t realize how much I was craving the steady comfort of a community-based cozy.

The experience was so comforting that it made me want to dig deeper, to understand it. What about the writing – the plot, the narrative structure, the characters – made this hit differently? While most cozy mysteries involve some form of community, few feel as much like a warm hug as Jesse Q. Sutanto’s latest. And while I recognize that some of this is simply personal preference / experience / wish fulfillment, Sutanto’s also created something distinct.

Forging a family

Most cozy mysteries feature a family element – either a found family or a renewed relationship with one. This family typically offers both practical and narrative value. On the practical side, expanding the cast allows for a broader sets of skills and specialization. It’s easier to believe that our baker protagonist knows a doctor and a botanist, rather than having an encyclopedic knowledge of baking, medicine, and local flora. And on the narrative side, the found family gives a clear character arc – as protagonists settle in and learn to care for the people around them.

On the surface, Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers simply follows this pattern. Our protagonist, Vera, is a lonely old tea-shop proprietor. One day, murder happens. As she investigates, she meets new people and brings them closer, until they end up a found family. Tale as old as Miss Marple (at least).

Vera – making the best of it

But Sutanto structures her story in a way that increases its meaning. It starts with her portrayal of Vera, the titular protagonist. Most cozy mysteries stories start with a protagonist who knows she’s lonely. Perhaps she’s just moved to a new town, or his life has just fallen apart – the typical cozy mystery lead is stressed and lets everyone know it.

Sutanto takes a different approach with Vera, letting her narrate a day in her own life. Vera wakes up early, she exercises daily, and she cares for her regular at the tea shop. She texts her son daily and is frustrated when he won’t text back. Vera’s lonely and a bit bored, but can’t admit it to herself. If you’re not a Vera, you know someone like her – someone who is making the best of a bad situation. And if you know someone like Vera, you know how hard it can be to watch them struggle.

Because of Sutanto’s skillful portrayal, we can see how Vera’s life changes. She meets new people and makes them her friends. She blossoms with the opportunity to care for others, to feel connected. When her son finally starts paying attention to her, she doesn’t need him (though she’s happy to have him back in her life). And while I love self-aware protagonists in cozy mysteries, it’s particularly fulfilling to see someone achieve a life they didn’t realize they needed.

Lonely lives in a Big City

It’s not just Vera that Sutanto writes differently – she gives the same care to her entire cast. The cast reflects the diversity of today, but Sutanto kicks it up a notch. Because not only does the cast feature the full diversity of the Bay Area – you’ve got Sana and Oliver, third-culture kids; Julia, a young stay-at-home mother; and Riki, an Indonesian immigrant – it reflects the reality of a world where we all move away from our families. Vera’s young friends are far from home, struggling with challenges they don’t know how to face. They need more than friends or advice – they need family, the type of trusted relationship that feels so hard to achieve in today’s hyper-connected world.

Sutanto take the unusual step of explicitly having each of the supporting cast narrate multiple chapters. It feels like a simple change, but because Sutanto’s writing about loneliness and human connection, seeing inside each character’s mind adds a different layer of perspective. It’s one thing to cognitively understand that someone is lonely; it’s another to see them struggle – and consider – and love. So when the friends ultimately forge a community on their own terms, it feels like a joint victory. It’s not just that Vera’s found friends – it’s that they’ve all found each other.

An unusual mystery

Sutanto’s approach to the mystery itself is also distinct from others in the genre. Often, cozy mystery protagonists’ first case involves some kind of break-in or invasion – something that feels aggressive. So it’s no wonder that the stories are full of conflict, with the protagonist set against the suspects. While the mystery may lead our protagonist to make new friends, they’re usually distinct from the suspects. The found family and the “likely to be murderers” list are basically exclusive.

But Vera reacts very differently to a random murder than her cozy mystery counterparts. While she decides to investigate the murder, she leads with a sense of curiosity. And this leads to some interesting results, most notably that Vera’s found family is composed entirely of her murder suspects. For Vera, you can suspect someone of murder and still trust them as a friend.

This softer approach to a murder applies across the whole story. There are no chase scenes or desperate villainous murder attempts. The climax of the novel focuses on emotional damage, not physical damage. And the solution, once uncovered, is treated as a sad one. Vera and her new found family fully understand the murderer – even if taking a life is a bridge too far.

A Sunday wish for stability

By creating a cozy mystery so focused on loneliness and the emotional arc of the story, Sutanto’s created a stable, supportive escape. When the novel begins, Vera’s social life has withered away before she could notice. But she’s able to build new relationships, in large part by making the effort to listen and understand strangers when it matters most.

Reading Vera Wong’s Advice for Murderers is a reminder that friends can be forged, even far from home; that the inexplicable can be explained and even forgiven; and that everyone deserves a supportive community. In times like these, when it can feel hard to truly connect with others, it’s a message worth reading. This is the kind of book that made me love cozy mysteries as a distinct genre – and it’s why I’m glad I’ll be reading a broader diversity of them this year.

Until next time – stay cozy, and stay curious!