Arsenic and Adobo – A Filipino author for a Filipino reader

For AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) month, I chose to read Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala. I’m half Filipino, and like many others like me, I love to discover new works by my own people. This book is the first of her cozy mystery series A Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery, with a fourth installment coming in September of this year.

The book centers around Lila Macapagal, who studied restaurant management in Chicago and lived with her fiance until she caught him cheating. Heartbroken, she moved back to her fictional hometown Shady Palms, Illinois to help with her Tita Rosie’s struggling restaurant. The restaurant does of course serve only Filipino food, so prepare to crave adobo by the end of the book.

In typical Filipino fashion, the whole family is involved in the restaurant and in her personal life. Lila’s godmothers Ninang April, Ninang Mae, and Ninang June all love to gather and dine at the restaurant, while her Tita Rosie and Lola Flor run it. Despite their lack of business know-how, the restaurant managed to stay afloat because Tita Rosie’s cooking is widely regarded as amazing. Unless that is, if you’re reading a restaurant review written by Lila’s high school sweetheart Derek Winters. The couple broke up shortly after high school, and while Lila went off to college, Derek started writing negative reviews about all the family-owned restaurants in Shady Palms, even reviewing Tita Rosie’s several times.

The book starts with Derek visiting the restaurant with his stepdad (who happened to also be the landlord of the restaurant), looking to leave what was likely another terrible review. As usual, Derek ordered plenty of food and noticeably enjoyed it – scarfing down every bit in front of him and even making sure to sample all the new dessert recipes Lila was experimenting with. By the time he reached the desserts he was sweating and looked pale, which seemed to be a symptom of his diabetes until he dropped dead face-down into his food. Lab results found that arsenic was present in his food, and Lila became the number one suspect after other suspicious items were found in her work locker. Detective Park, a big-time detective from Chicago was assigned to the case and hit the ground running with accusations and investigations pointed toward Lila even though he was a regular patron of the restaurant and seemed to genuinely care about Tita Rosie.

Lila spends the rest of the book doing her own investigation with her best friend Adeena and ignoring the legal warnings of Adeena’s brother Amir, who also serves as Lila’s lawyer/childhood crush. Lila and Adeena visit the other restaurants with bad reviews from Derek and notice a pattern across the board. All the while, Lila enjoyed some intermittent baking, put up with her family’s match-making attempts, had some cousin rivalry, found herself in a very very PG love triangle between her cute dentist (Detective Park’s brother) Dr. Jae and Amir, got framed for other crimes, and generally did everything you shouldn’t do as a murder suspect before the big “so you’re the killer” reveal.

Before I get into my feels about this book, I should disclaim that this was my first cozy mystery and it was the first book I’ve read in a while without any….spicy scenes. I’m not sure if that’s what the issue was, but I didn’t feel any sort of anticipation or excitement from this read. This book had baking, mystery, small/hometown vibes, and meal descriptions that made my mouth water but I felt like it was… missing some ingredients… to make it worthwhile. As someone estranged from their family, it was also hard to read the point of view of someone who so clearly takes her family for granted and sparingly realizes how lucky she is to have supportive people in her life. Nevertheless, I’m glad I read it for sheer curiosity’s sake, and I thought that including the recipes was a cute idea, but I wouldn’t recommend this book to someone coming down from a smut binge. I would, however, recommend this book to someone looking for an easy read with no emotional drain. Also, be sure to have snacks on hand or a Filipino restaurant nearby because the food sounds GOOD.

As with most of my reads, I listened to Arsenic and Adobo on Audible and enjoyed the narrator Danice Cabanela because she had no issue with the pronunciation of Tagalog words. If you’re interested in giving the book a chance you can get it here: Arsenic and Adobo on Amazon.