Lila Macapagal has moved back to Shady Palms after a hella-bad breakup, and is trying to help her aunt with her restaurant, which is in financial trouble. So its a surprise to everyone when she requests a two-month leave of, Whitney Whitaker is a little surprised by her cousin Bucks latest suggestion for their property-flipping business. Like a fresh onion about to be added to chicken adobo, this story has layers of secrets, rafts of suspects and ample red herrings to make a nice stew. It's even worse when hot, silver-fox Detective Park accuses Lila of Derek's murder. Her high-school ex-boyfriend, Derek Winter, comes by to lambast yet another dish in the restaurant but passes out and dies in the hospital. Not sure where to start? Everyone felt like a real, vibrant person with important 21st-century concerns. With the help of her resourceful best friend, Adeena Awan, and Amir, Adeenas lawyer-brother, on the case, Lila hopes to stay out of jail. Lila Macapagal This is the moment at which Lila discovers who poisoned Derek, her ex-boyfriend. Mia P. Manansala. L. D. Barnes writes mystery, historical fiction and poetry. Are all lolas the same?? I want a terrific mystery with characters I enjoy spending time with and a happy ending. In a book titled Arsenic and Adobo, expect food. Were glad you found a book that interests you! The mystery is somewhat repetitive, though I confess I didnt recognize the culprit working behind the scenes until nearly the end. I really want to thank my sensitivity reader, a homeland Filipino reader, who not only helped me realize I needed to include that Authors Note but also provided me with the resources to share. Lots of Filipino food and family, and some secrets only known to the people who have stayed in the small community. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempes own contact information? In this book, Lila Madricapal has returned home from Chicago after spending a few years trying to escape from the small-town she grew up in. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. Reviews aren't verified, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's identified. Penguin, May 4, 2021 - Fiction - 336 pages. Mia P. Manansala does an amazing job of planting red herrings as the bodies pile up and the pressure rises on Lila to find a murderer without losing her own life. GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE, by Born and raised in a Filipino immigrant family in Chicago, in a multigenerational home, she says, What I know of Filipino culture is based on the way my family operated and my experiences growing upI unfortunately wasnt part of a large Filipino community growing up, so everything Ive learned about our history, language, folklore, etc. If you like a culturally vibrant and delicious world with an unpredictable cast for your cozy mysteries, you might like this. Just Another Obstacle: A Review of "The Fell". It is a deeply complex novel about a young woman who stands up for herself by finding the person that murdered her ex-boyfriend with arsenic, a potent chemical. Mia P. Manansala I don't think the author had ill intent. Learn how your comment data is processed. The portrayal of food is not just a character, but builds the characters, too. Oh my gulay, as Manansalas glossary indicates is Taglish for OMG: Lila could be in real trouble. I mean A cute, cozy mystery with lots of food descriptions. I was basically lured by those two things to start this book and oh boy what a mistake it was. The recipes I chose to include were ones that I thought were a good representation of those elements, but also fairly easy to make so that people new to cooking or our cuisine wouldnt be scared off. Categories: A RUSA Award-winning novel! Murder. At the beginning, it seemed like part of the narrative would be the main character exploring her identity as a second generation Filipino in the US, but that didnt pan out. Food is culture. I am friends with and work with a vastly diverse group of people in terms of class, sexuality, race/ethnicity, religion, ability, etc. I love mysteries and whodunits but in the past few years, Ive grown weary of all the violence and anxiety that accompany a lot of true crime or murder mysteries. Lilas investigation mainly rests on her going to different restaurants, asking questions ineptly, eating a lot of different cuisines and describing them at length, then lather, rinse, repeat. Definitely adding to my tbr , yay im so glad!! I did feel like I had a few unanswered questions regarding side plots and characters, but I'm hoping those are addressed in future installments. Police corruption. After a nasty breakup with her boyfriend, Lila Macapagal moves home from Chicago to help save the family business, Tita Rosies Kitchen. With the story told in first person, readers will get to guess the killer and the reason from Lilas perspective. Go to Appearance > Customize > Subscribe Pop-up to set this up. Your email address will not be published. Soon after returning to Shady Palms, Lila reconnected with her high school sweetheart, Derek Winter, only to have to quickly douse any rekindling of their prior romance. This book is freaking gem!. Arsenic and Adobo is a suspense-filled story about a college-aged Filipino woman named Lila who returns to her hometown to help her family's restaurant business, only for her ex-boyfriend to die in said restaurant while interacting with her.Not an ideal situation. I also appreciated that the potential seeds of future books and future conflicts were planted in subtle ways, such as the shifting and sometimes tense relationship between Lila and her best friend, who have a history that isnt explained in full. At one point near the end, a tertiary character makes a decision that absolutely baffled me in context, to the point where I thought Id missed a chapter, but it was toward the end, so it was one more shrug in a long, long line of them. GENERAL & DOMESTIC THRILLER, by With the family business in jeopardy and her own freedom on the line, Lila must do a little amateur sleuthingwith the help of her friends and relationsto figure out who really killed Derek. The lead detective hounding Lila casually informs her that the police have been tailing her and have her under surveillance. I needed to figure out who killed Derek Winter. Available at Fully Booked, Omniana.com.ph and Amazon. Lila Macapagal has moved back to Shady Palms after a hella-bad breakup, and is trying to help her aunt with her restaurant, which is in financial trouble. (LogOut/ The inconsistencies both legal and emotional reached a point where, in order to keep reading, I had to accept that aside from the food and the culinary descriptions, this story was not connected to a reality I recognized. Turns out that in the years she was away, Derek has turned into a huge jerk, writing scathing, unfair reviews of local restaurants, including her familys. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our, Speak to recruitment advertising specialist, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. Lila Macapagal, smarting from a breakup in Chicago, returns home to tiny Shady Palms, Illinois, to help save her aunt Tita Rosies Filipino restaurant. She attended Northeastern University in Chicago and majored in English. I kept reading because I wanted to know what had happened and who had done what to whom, but I also wanted to yell at the characters frequently. This is a delightfully spicy take on banana bread, and it really does go perfectly with a nice cup of tea, especially ginger if you have it. And Lila and her family certainly get a lot done as a team. The perfect rainy day read . Let cool and enjoy with a nice cup of tea. That everyone will understand the references Im making or think similarly to the way I do. It would not be true to life if I didnt include these people in my work. ", Alone Together: A Review of Among the Hedges by Sara Mesa, The story is a simple frame, a moment in time, Dreamy in a Sinister Way: A Review of "Valleyesque". The first book in a new culinary cozy series full of sharp humor and delectable dishes--one that might just be killer.. For diaspora and immigrant kids, its never as straightforward as simply going away for college we tend to feel (or are made to feel) like were abandoning our families, leaving them behind for the sake of our own self-discovery; we also often feel resentment toward this guilt, wondering why its so wrong for us to want to physically escape our families sky-high expectations and create lives for ourselves. How does attempted murder sound?, Categories: That is exactly the case with Arsenic and Adobo, except in this case, it is a Filipino American protagonist. That part is terrific. To avoid spoilers, Ill be vague, but there weremultiplecrimes that the police outright accused Lila of committing when, in reality, they never wouldve been able to charge (or even legitimately suspect!) Lila asks the same questions over and over again, and despite us being handed an important piece of information at the 29% mark, she cant figure out how to work it into the case even though the reader is able to figure it out right away. They feature an amateur sleuth, small town setting, crime or violence off-the-page, and oftentimes a device or gimmick, like a hobby, interest, or pet that becomes an important feature.

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