Dial A for Aunties

A meek wedding photographer's disastrous blind date, arranged in secret by her overbearing mother, ends with the man accidentally dead, and rather than call the police she calls the only people who will help her hide a body: her mother and three loud, meddling, fiercely loving aunties, all while the family is catering a lavish billionaire wedding on a resort island that weekend. Sutanto turns this grim setup into a screwball comedy, as the corpse refuses to stay hidden and keeps threatening to surface amid the flower arrangements, the disapproving groom's family, and the reappearance of the heroine's college ex, who happens to run the resort. The engine of the book is the four women's chaotic, overlapping bickering in a blend of English and Indonesian, and the affection underneath their constant interference. This suits readers who want a fast, silly, warmhearted farce, cross-cultural family comedy, and a rom-com wrapped around an increasingly frantic cover-up. It fits less well anyone wanting a serious mystery or realism, since the plot runs entirely on comic contrivance and everyone's worst timing. The detail that the body keeps nearly turning up during the most public moments of a high-society wedding, again and again, powers the escalating slapstick. Breezy, ridiculous, and genuinely funny about immigrant mothers and daughters, it rewards readers looking for pure entertainment. Those wanting plausibility or tension should look elsewhere, since this book cheerfully abandons both in favor of laughs and a big-hearted portrait of a family that would bury a body before letting one of its own down.

Best for readers who want genuine wit: sharp, clever writing that earns its laughs. The prose is accessible: you can read this quickly and it never asks too much of you. It moves quickly: once you're in, it's hard to stop. If you need emotional weight in your reading, the lightness here may frustrate.