Dial A for Aunties

Meddy Chan and her aunts’ personalities are inspired by the real members of Jesse Q. Sutanto’s family. Sutanto has many reasons for drawing inspiration from her own family, from a disdain for research to a desire to share information about Indonesia with Westerners. Sutanto, who grew up living in Indonesia, Singapore, and Oxford—and currently resides in Jakarta with her family—has “forty-two first cousins and thirty aunties and uncles, many of whom live just down the road” (Sutanto, Jesse Q. “Meet the Sutantos: How My Wacky Indonesian Family Inspired a Murder Mystery.” CrimeReads, 29 Apr. 2021). Like Nathan Chan, Sutanto’s husband, Mike, is British. Sutanto has said, “[A]side from the dead body, my large family can produce situations as wild as the ones in my book [Dial A for Aunties.] [...] They may go a little overboard, but they always remind me of how loved I am” (“Meet the Sutantos”).

Sutanto, who, like Meddy, has also worked as a wedding photographer, exemplifies her family’s dynamic with Mike through a story about an instance of food poisoning.