airing dirty laundry
Lila Macapagal’s godmothers are opening a new business venture, a laundromat and laundry service. Lila is already busy with the café she runs with her two close friends. Lila is the baker, and she brings her Filipino background to the seasonal flavors they are focusing on, while her friends focus on the coffees and drinks to go with the pastries. They also do some catering and offer up desserts for local restaurants.
When one of her godmothers, Ninang April, asks Lila to help welcome her niece Divina from the Philippines, Lila agrees. But once she meets the woman, she has second thoughts. Divina is not interested in helping out at the laundromat, and in fact doesn’t really know much about cleaning or laundry. She’s an art student, hoping to find a way to cultivate her curiosity. But whenever asks her about it, Divina gets evasive, not wanting to talk about what had happened in the Philippines for her parents to send her here to April.
But when the laundromat is vandalized shortly before their grand opening, Lila and all her family and friends wondered who would do such a thing. The words “Mind Your Business” were spray-painted on the walls and machines were broken. Lila wondered if that was a message to her godmothers, who were known for finding out gossip and involving themselves in other peoples’ drama. The latest had been letting the wife of a cheating husband know about his other activities, and they had no remorse for breaking up that marriage.
Could it have been the husband who vandalized the laundromat? Or was it the woman whose laundry business would be their greatest competitor? But when the next break-in at the laundromat ended with Divina’s death, Lila starts to suspect that there is more to the murder than just an angry soon-to-be-ex-husband or a competitor for washing machines. But in order to know for sure, Lila would have to find out what had happened to bring Divina to America, and if that could have somehow created an enemy who would do anything to make her mind her own business.
Murder and Mamon is the fourth book in Mia P. Manansala’s heart-warming Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery series. I have heard nothing but great things about this series since the first book came out (Arsenic and Adobo). I hadn’t had a chance to pick one of these up yet (although I have bought a couple, just waiting to carve out a little extra reading time), but I’m so glad I finally got the chance with this one. The characters are interesting and thoughtful, and the mystery really drew me in to figure out who was the one who would kill this young woman. And as a food nerd, I was loving all the descriptions of foods and flavors and so happy to see some of the recipes at the back of the book.
Since I was jumping in on the fourth book in the series, I will say that you do not have to read this series in order. That being said, there are a lot of characters in these books, and I have a feeling that while the first book starts with a bigger crowd than some mystery novels, many were added in each book. So reading the series in order would help readers keep track of all the members of the extended family and where they work, since they are being added slowly and not just ganging up on you all at once like they did me. There is a glossary and pronunciation guide at the front of the book, which helps a lot. It would also be nice to include a sort of family tree/map to refer to for the family, friends, and businesses that seem to grow like the herbs in the Brew-Ha Café.
Despite having to juggle the large cast and drooling over the pastries and savory dishes, I had a lot of fun with Murder and Mamon. There is clearly a lot of love in this family, and a lot of food, so I liked how they all worked together to protect each other. This was a fascinating look at Filipino culture, and I will need to dive into more of these Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mysteries very soon.
Egalleys for Murder and Mamon were provided by Berkley through NetGalley, with many thanks.
