Arsenic and Adobo – Mia P. Manansala
Mystery, whodunit, fiction.
Rating 10/10
Lila moves back home and begins to work in her family’s restaurant. Her ex-boyfriend walks in with his dad ordering food again. Derek always complains about the cooking and makes horrible reviews. While he was eating the dish he passed out. Lila, thinking this is a joke, tells him to stop acting. She eventually finds out the hard way that he was slowly dying from eating the food. Her family is devastated to hear that they have to close down until Lila’s name and the restaurant is clear of being a suspect. She and her best friend go to all the restaurants that Derek has reviewed and talk with them. She finds out she wasn’t solely singled out for being horribly criticised for her family’s restaurant food. When the detective finds new evidence and that Derek’s toxicology report came up with loads of arsenic, this makes Lila race to find the culprit that was trying to frame her.
I loved this mystery novel. I got it through Book of the Month (not sponsored) as one of my book of the month options. I liked the synopsis and the cover was so interesting. I was expecting one ending but got another ending. This novel threw me into so many possibilities of who killed Derek. I don’t usually read whodunit novels because they all were cliched but this was rather new and fresh. Also this had food mentioned throughout so reading this will warrant an appetite for not only wanting to know Derek’s killer but also food. I recommend this novel.