Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mysteries is a series of mystery books by Mia P. Manansala. It follows the life of Lila Macapagal, who has returned to her hometown of Shady Palms after a broken engagement to help out at her aunt's restaurant (the titular Tita Rosie's kitchen).
The series was originally meant to be a trilogy, but its success led to another three books being planned, the next of which is Murder and Mamon.
Books in the series include:
- Arsenic and Adobo (May 4, 2021)
- Homicide and Halo-Halo (February 8, 2022)
- Blackmail and Bibingka (October 4, 2022)
- Murder and Mamon (September 19, 2023)
- Guilt and Ginataan (Announced for November 12, 2024)
As a whole, Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mysteries contains examples of:
- Alliterative Title: The titles in the series contain a word about crime and a Filipino dish with matching initials: Arsenic and Adobo, Homicide and Halo-Halo, Blackmail and Bibingka, Murder and Mamon, and Guilt and Ginatann.
- Crime After Crime: The initial murder tends to be followed by a string of assaults and other attempted murders.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The titles in the series alliterate a crime and a Filipino dish.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: While the sequels don't give away much about the mysteries of previous books, their blurbs do spoil the fact that Lila, Adeena, and Elena open up a cafe as well as the resolution of the Love Triangle.
- Love Triangle: Lila has reciprocated feelings for Amir Awan (her best friend's brother and her lawyer) and Dr. Jae Park (her dentist), but she chooses not to commit by the end of the first book. Amir writes himself out by the second book, leaving Dr. Jae as the sole love interest in the third.
- Mystery Magnet: Whenever something bad happens, Lila tends to be at the scene. Detective Park even asks her why she's always there in the first book.
- Never One Murder: The primary murder tends to be followed by at least one other casualty.
- Derek's murder is followed by Janet's assault and Edwin Long's murder.
- Rob Thompson's murder is followed by Oskar Weinman's suicide.
- Denise Sutton's murder is followed by Quentin's overdose, which was actually an attempted murder.
- Sympathetic Murderer: Except for the third mystery (which is motivated by pure greed), Lila can sympathize with the killers' somewhat twisted motives.
- Kevin killed Derek out of revenge for dragging his recovering sister back into her drug addiction, which killed her.
- Nancy killed her husband out of self-defense after she discovered that he was slowly killing Derek.
- Winnie Pang killed Rob Thompson when he found out about the existence of their daughter and tried to claim custody over her.
- Two Dun It: Each case tends to have at least two bad actors.
- Arsenic and Adobo: Kevin killed Derek, but Derek's stepfather had been slowly poisoning him with arsenic.
- Homicide and Halo-Halo: Winnie Pang is the killer, but she also enlisted the help of Oskar Weinman and made him take the fall so she could get away.
- Blackmail and Bibingka: Pete and Olivia both planned Denise's murder. Quentin was also involved in the blackmail scheme against them, but they tried to kill him when he found out about the murder plan.
