Arsenic and Adobo

Arsenic in the Dobo tells a story of a mid 20s  filipino woman who comes back to her hometown after several years of being away following a nasty break up with her boyfriend.

Lila is trying to find herself again and mend her broken heart while working at her aunts, restaurant and reconnecting with her aunties and her cousins and her grandmother. Things aren’t easy as her ex-boyfriend, now the small towns food critic, Derek, is targeting her family restaurant for, it would seem, no good reason. 

But one day when he visits the restaurant he ends up, passing out while eat and is sent to the hospital. Later Lila finds out that he has passed away, and that the main detective on the case is targeting her and her aunt’s restaurant for wrongful death charges. 

As Lila tries to get to the root cause behind Derek‘s death, she finds out that not only was her restaurant being targeted with nasty reviews, but a whole slew of other restaurants in the town were also targeted. 

She dives deep into  Derrick’s life to figure out where to figure out why he was doing all of these nasty reviews around town. And who was actually behind his death to save her aunt’s restaurant and clear her name. There’s a lot of lies, secrets, and insidious intentions that are connected to Derek’s death. And Lila is just beginning to scratch the surface of them. 

Reading this book, I really enjoyed the character development, the way the friendships and family characters storyline is woven into the main story.

 I love that Lila is trying to find herself after coming back to her hometown and re-integrating with her family and extended family. I was cautious about giving this a full five star rating just because Detective Park was so annoying and he really did harass Lila and her family. It wasn’t really just about the case. 

He had her as his main suspect and did everything he could to twist all of the other situations that happened following the death of Derek against her and her family. But things that happened outside of his investigation really cinched it for me, as a cozy, mystery reader. I found the narrative to be intriguing, funny, mysterious, and it’s a great book for other foodies and food lovers. 

I loved Lila and Adeena’s enthusiasm when it came to food and trying out new recipes. That was something that I really could relate to as a novice Baker and cook myself.