"Well, here we are. The final book in the Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery series," writes author Mia P. Manansala in the acknowledgements of her delectably entertaining novel Death and Dinuguan. Since returning to Shady Palms, Ill., after escaping a toxic relationship in the series opener, Arsenic and Adobo, Lila Macapagal has been lovingly surrounded by her extended Filipino American family and running the deliciously successful Brew-ha Cafe with her Pakistani Muslim BFF, Adeena, and Adeena's Mexican American girlfriend, Elena. Her relationship with everyone's favorite dentist, Dr. Jae, is solid, and his (much) older brother, Jonathan, a private detective after leaving the Shady Palms Police Department, is happily dating Lila's Tita Rosie.
Newly welcomed into the fold is Jae and Jonathan's cousin Hana and her three-year-old daughter, Aria; Hana's just started working with local chocolatier Blake. Despite a rash of burglaries over the last month, Lila's enjoying some well-earned contentment, at least until her cousin Bernadette calls Jae to report that Hana's in a coma after being attacked--and Blake is dead. The SPPD couldn't be slower, so as usual, Lila needs to take the lead to get real answers.
Over six satisfying volumes, Manansala has the main ingredients down--unreliable witnesses, misleading clues, red-herring suspects. And in the series finale, she deftly, sharply exposes racism, misogyny, stalking, and generational disconnects. Discontent and murder get sweetened with culinary decadence: Tita Rosie's Filipino feasts, Lila's baked confections, Adeena's inventive refreshments--a few of which readers can try at home with Manansala's appended recipes. "Despite all the pain and tragedy, I couldn't help but be grateful for it all," Lila muses. Readers will too. --Terry Hong