Dial A for Aunties

After reading and loving Jesse Q. Sutanto’s The Obsession, I was delighted to get the ARC for her upcoming novel Dial A For Aunties.

This is a murder / comedy / family drama, all set at an over-the-top wedding. I read this one right after Knit, Purl, A Baby and a Girl, which was sweet new characters set to a very familiar formula.  In Dial A For Aunties, I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen next. NO IDEA. I kept wondering how Meddy and the aunties were going to get out of this one, but then something even crazier would happen.

Without any more spoilers than the back of the book, Meddy accidentally kills her blind date when she’s defending herself from his advances. They’re on a deserted road in the middle of nowhere, where he was planning to have his way with her, so when Meddy finds herself completely alone with a corpse, she panics and calls her mom and her mom’s three sisters. They immediately spring into auntie-action.

The Chans are also putting on a massive wedding at the same time, in a family business where Big Auntie bakes wedding cakes, Second Aunt does bridal makeup, Ma does the flowers, Fourth Auntie is a singer, and Meddy is the wedding photographer. They’ll need to hide the body, dispose of the body, concoct an alibi or five, and keep the massive wedding running smoothly. Oh, and there’s also a jewel heist, a surprise return of an ex and a surprise queer romance coming.

Meddy’s well-meaning aunties, their surprising resources in a crisis (Fourth Auntie’s  absinthe comes in a little too handy…), and the general high-drama of a massive wedding result in a ridiculous dark comedy with family loyalty at the heart.

Recommended for everyone, but especially for fans of lady heists, like in Pretty Things, over-the-top weddings, family dramas, and dark comedies in general. Also, if you like this one, read The Obsession and The New Girl.

 

Dial A for Aunties is written by Jesse Q. Sutanto and will be published by Berkley on April 27, 2021. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy, opinions are my own as always.

This is my Review of the Month for the review collection on LovelyAudiobooks.info