Arsenic and Adobo
Mia P. Manansala
If you’re the type of person who gets hungry while reading about delicious foods, make sure you have some snacks nearby while you read this excellently paced cozy mystery that enjoys poking the right amount of fun at its own melodrama while offering up a literary culinary feast the likes of which would make Brian Jacques proud.
A solid 4.5 stars from me, it hit all the marks with great protagonists, well-developed side characters, and the right amount of plot twists. The only reason it isn’t a 5 star read for me is I was able to figure out the culprit before the protagonist, so the reveal wasn’t too extraordinary, though I did love everything leading up to it.
Featured, of course, is one of my new favorite tropes, meddling family elders (usually aunties). I love the idea of big families, and have been immensely enjoying the various books I’ve read recently that feature them– Dial A for Aunties in particular (and seriously, go read that book too before it comes out on Netflix).
When Lila Macapagal moves back home to recover from a horrible breakup, her life seems to be following all the typical rom-com tropes. She’s tasked with saving her Tita Rosie’s failing restaurant, and she has to deal with a group of matchmaking aunties who shower her with love and judgment. But when a notoriously nasty food critic (who happens to be her ex-boyfriend) drops dead moments after a confrontation with Lila, her life quickly swerves from a Nora Ephron romp to an Agatha Christie case.
Goodreads blurb
With the cops treating her like she’s the one and only suspect, and the shady landlord looking to finally kick the Macapagal family out and resell the storefront, Lila’s left with no choice but to conduct her own investigation. Armed with the nosy auntie network, her barista best bud, and her trusted Dachshund, Longanisa, Lila takes on this tasty, twisted case and soon finds her own neck on the chopping block…
I usually find cozy mysteries with recipes skippable– and now I may need to reconsider my stance on them, though perhaps comparing them with Arsenic and Adobo isn’t fair. I think it’s more the puns instead of titles that sour my mood towards them, or maybe the little graphic saying “recipes included” on the cover — as if readers need to justify their “frivolous” reading by having something educational to market to others or themselves. Whatever the reason, I decided to give Manansala’s cozy kitchen mystery a try and I was glad I did.
Lila is complex, and while I can’t speak to the authenticity of her experience with her extended family, it was still a pleasure to see how she interacted with everyone, in addition to having people not like her and not hide that fact from her either. She has nuance and the kind of dark meta-humor us millennials are known for as we roll with the punches or tropes life throws our way. I thoroughly enjoyed reading her as a first-person narrator as well, a style choice that worked incredibly well here as I’ve grown accustomed to third-person stories lately, especially in the cozy mystery genre.
I also enjoyed the set up for love interests, another common trope in cozy mysteries, but even more so enjoyed that it wasn’t with the officer investigating the crimes. Jae and Armin are both well developed, and I am just as divided as Lila on who is the better choice for her (not that she’s making any choices right now, another position I love her taking because she takes it for the right reasons). The additional side characters include some LGBT representation with Ameena as Lila’s best friend, as well as a myriad of childhood rival family/friends, and elder family members and traditions.
This is a book that is written in full awareness of the tropes it is embodying, enough so that it can actively play with and even subvert them when necessary. I have already written about how amazing the food sounds in the book, and have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised to find recipes in the back after the author’s note. So, who knows? Maybe I will try one and add it to the review here. They all sound scrumptious, and since I have little cultural knowledge of the food first hand, I have no way to compare it to anything else I may have eaten or experienced yet. Something I think is where other cozy mysteries can sometimes lose their luster — we’ve all had death by chocolate cake, or at least a general cultural awareness here in the USA of what such a dish entails.
The pacing and plot twists are all building up to a fantastic climax even though I did figure out the culprit before Lila did (so did some other characters), so I think Manansala knew what she was doing there. I didn’t have a lot of time before figuring it out before Lila though, so I wasn’t annoyed with her in the slightest for not getting it sooner like has happened with some other mysteries.
Overall, and excellent read all around that I will be recommending to readers across genres as an exciting and hunger inducing-read where no page space is wasted, characters are complex, and there is a satisfying conclusion. I am immensely looking forward to the next book in this series, Homicide and Halo-Halo, and I am enjoying the shift in marketing for cozy mysteries, as well as romance, for their cover styles to freshen them up and appeal to more readers. If you’re looking for a great fall or winter read, this will keep you entertained from page one.
The Little Book Witch 