Mia P. Manansala Books In Order

Publication Order of Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Mia P Manansala is an author and book coach from Chicago who is best known as the author of the “Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery” series of novels. She is known for her love of badass women, baking and books and use of humor to explore aspects of Filipino queerness, the Diaspora and her love for millennial pop culture. She is the winner of the Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award at the Eleanor Taylor Bland Awards in 2018, won the Hugh Holton Award in the same year. Manansala has won the Helen McCloy/Mystery Writers of America Scholarship in 2016 and is a 2018-2020 Pitch Wars mentor and alumnus. Mia loves all things geeky and spends much of her day playing JRPGs, procrastibaking, reading cozy mysteries, dating sims and cuddling her three dogs, Bayley Banks, Max Power and Gumiho. “Arsenic and Adobo,” her debut novel in the “Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery” series, was first published in 2021.

According to the author, her stories are cozy amateur sleuth mysteries with a heavy slant towards the idea of community. Most include the disruption of a peaceful façade and the idea that the only person to set things right has to come from the community. As an author of color, she has said that she often feels a certain ambiguity in the mystery fiction writing world. However, Mia has also met some of the most welcoming and kind people in the community. As an author, she is given to diversifying the genre and as a young black woman she ticks off several boxes on the Diversity Checklist. Still, she is thankful that Sisters in Crime and other similar organizations are working to change the mystery fiction world. She has been described as the future of the genre as she successfully combines traditional approaches to mystery fiction writing with geek culture.

“Arsenic and Adobo” by Mia P Mansala is the first novel of the first novel of the “Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery” series. With delectable dishes and sharp humor, it introduces Lila Macapagal, a woman who is back home following a terrible breakup. Her life is becoming the classic romantic comedy with all the tropes to boot. She has to save the failing restaurant of her aunt Tata Rosie, and ward off several matchmaking aunties that are showering her with judgment and love. But her ex boyfriend who also happens to be a notorious food critic dies soon after a nasty confrontation with Lily. Her life goes from boring to a classic Agatha Christie thriller case. The incompetent police have marked her out as their only suspect even as the shady landlord believes he finally has a reason to kick out the Macapagal’s and put the storefront up for sale. Lila has no choice but to start her own investigations. Assisted by her barista best friend, her nosy aunt network and her trusted dog, she takes on the twisted but tasty case. But she soon finds her life on the line. She is an interesting character who musters all the appetite, savvy and wit to solve a homicide that threatens to put her in jail and destroy the family restaurant. It is a Michelin star mystery that comes with heavy emotional punch and a lot of laughs.