Homicide and Halo-Halo by Mia P. Manansala Narrator: Danice Cabanela
Series: Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery #2
Published by Penguin Audio on February 8, 2022
Source: Purchased
Genres: Cozy Mystery
Length: 8 hrs 54 mins
Pages: 279
Format: Audiobook
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Things are heating up for Lila Macapagal. Not in her love life, which she insists on keeping nonexistent despite the attention of two very eligible bachelors. Or her professional life, since she can't bring herself to open her new cafe after the unpleasantness that occurred a few months ago at her aunt's Filipino restaurant, Tita Rosie's Kitchen. No, things are heating up quite literally, since summer, her least favorite season, has just started.
To add to her feelings of sticky unease, Lila's little town of Shady Palms has resurrected the Miss Teen Shady Palms Beauty Pageant, which she won many years ago--a fact that serves as a wedge between Lila and her cousin slash rival, Bernadette. But when the head judge of the pageant is murdered and Bernadette becomes the main suspect, the two must put aside their differences and solve the case--because it looks like one of them might be next.
Homicide and Halo-Halo is the second in the series, and while it would work as a stand-alone, Lila is still processing the events that happened in the first one a few months ago. Detective Park has given her the name of a therapist, but Lila is adamant that she doesn’t need help – and worries how her aunt would view counseling.
Lila has a lot going on. Not only is she dealing with PTSD, she is opening a new cafe with her best friend, Adeena, and Adeena’s girlfriend, Elena, but is having trouble coming up with new recipes to serve, She’s also a judge for the Miss Teen Shady Palms Beauty Pageant, which takes up an absurd amount of time. Do place still have pageants like this? At least it involves things like community service and creativity. It also brings up some of Lila’s body image issues and mixed feelings about her mother, who died when Lila was a child.
We’re not surprised when the pageant’s head judge is murdered. He’s not a good man and probably shouldn’t be allowed around teenage girls. When the police land on Lila’s cousin, Bernadette, as the main suspect, Lila and the crew have to try to clear her name, which means finding out who the real killer is. I thought Lila’s investigation was a little better this time around and not as repetitive.
Lila is isolating herself from her friends and family through a lot of this one, and I wish we had seen more of them. I do appreciate how Lila realized that maybe not everything she believes about herself and her family is true.
We get tons of good food and a few recipes at the end, which is always a good thing.
About Mia P. Manansala
Mia P. Manansala (she/her) is a writer from Chicago who loves books, baking, and bad-ass women. Her debut novel, ARSENIC AND ADOBO, garnered starred reviews from Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Shelf Awareness, hit the ABA Indie Bestseller List, and has won multiple awards. The New York Times stated, “Manansala peppers the narrative with enough red herrings to keep readers from guessing the killer, but the strength of the novel is how family, food and love intertwine in meaningful and complex ways,” which are common themes in her writing.
She is the winner of the 2025 Agatha Award for Best Children’s/YA Mystery, 2022 Anthony Award for Best First Novel, 2022 Macavity Award for Best First Mystery, 2022 RUSA Reading List for Mystery, 2021 Agatha Award for Best First Novel, 2021 Chicago Reader’s Best New Novel by a Chicagoan, 2018 Hugh Holton Award, the 2018 Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award, the 2017 William F. Deeck – Malice Domestic Grant for Unpublished Writers, and the 2016 Mystery Writers of America/Helen McCloy Scholarship.
A lover of all things geeky and cozy, Mia spends her days procrasti-baking, gaming, reading, eating, and staring adoringly at her dog, Gumiho. Her husband is pretty cool too.
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