Is this book part of a series?

This novel is the first installment in the Aunties trilogy, which continues with Four Aunties and a Wedding and concludes with The Good, the Bad, and the Aunties.

What inspired the characters of the aunties?

The author drew inspiration from her own large, meddlesome family and the witches from Terry Pratchett's Witches series, who similarly assume they are always right and frequently interfere in the lives of others.

Is there a film adaptation of this book?

Netflix and producer Nahnatchka Khan have teamed up to develop a film adaptation of the story.

Dial A for Aunties

Comic Fiction Mystery

Pages: 352
Published: 2021
Language: English

Synopsis

Meddelin "Meddy" Chan photographs weddings for the family firm, which her mother and three aunties run. The Chans are a Chinese-Indonesian immigrant family, and every one of them has opinions about Meddy's life. Then a blind date ends with Meddy accidentally killing the man.

Her mother summons the aunties, who are even more meddlesome, and together they set about getting rid of the body. It proves harder than any of them expected. The corpse ends up shipped inside a cake cooler to the job the family is working that weekend. It is a billionaire's extravagant wedding for roughly two thousand guests, held at an island resort on the California coast.

It is the biggest commission the business has ever taken. The aunties intend to protect their buttercream flowers and the perfect event, and a dead man is not going to get in the way. Meanwhile Meddy's great college love, the person who broke her heart worst, turns up in the middle of the chaos.

So Meddy has a single weekend to stay out of a murder charge, win back her ex and see the wedding through. The book is a comic mystery caper, with family, meddling and immigrant identity running through the farce. It won the 2021 Comedy Women in Print Prize and opens the Aunties series.