Four Aunties and a Wedding

In Sutanto’s sweet, hilarious second Aunties mystery (after 2021’s Dial A for Aunties), Meddy Chan, who’s Chinese Indonesian, and Nathan, who’s half English and half Chinese, are getting married at an over-the-top Chinese-Indonesian destination wedding at Christ Church College in Oxford. As much as Meddy’s looking forward to her nuptials, the first meeting between Big Aunt, Second Aunt, Ma, and Fourth Aunt, her endearing but totally crazy family, and Nathan’s prim parents is a humiliating disaster. Fortunately, the wedding itself is in the capable hands of Meddy’s new friend, Staphanie Tanuwijaya, a fellow Chinese Indonesian, whose family-run business is packed with relatives as eccentric as Meddy’s. But things go spectacularly awry when Meddy overhears a phone call and realizes Staphanie’s family are Indonesian mafia planning to take out one of the wedding guests. But the mafia doesn’t reckon with the Aunties, who have no boundaries when it comes to protecting their Meddy. Charming, chaotic, and sometimes ridiculous, this tale will appeal to anyone who both adores and is embarrassed by their family, which is just about everyone. Agent: Katelyn Detweiler, Jill Grinberg Literary. (Mar.)