Hands down the tastiest whodunit you’ll consume this year.
Lila Macapagal and the gang at and around Tita Rosie’s Kitchen return for a third round of murder most savory.
Even before he left the home of his mother, Lila’s Tita Rosie—the most celebrated Filipina restaurateur in Shady Palms, Illinois—Ronnie Flores was nothing but trouble. Now that he’s breezed back into town with plans to open a winery specializing in Filipino vintages, he promises more of the same, as an anonymous note about “Ronnie Flores and Co.” demanding $50,000 from Tita Rosie “or the world will know what they did in Florida” darkly hints. This time, though, the trouble seems to be centered on the “they” Ronnie’s gathered around him: his engaged partners, charming Isabel “Izzy” Ramos-Garcia and taciturn Pete Miller; his principal backers, Xander Cruz and his fiancee, Denise Sutton; and their assistants, Olivia and Quentin March, who also happen to be Denise’s stepchildren. Wasting no time after their arrival, Denise concludes a welcome party by collapsing with a dose of alcohol poisoning that Det. Jonathan Park suspects is something even worse. He’s right, of course: Denise has been treated to a fatal dose of methanol, and it’s up to Lila to take time out from her nonstop baking for her Brew-ha Cafe to mingle with the suspects, ask nosy questions, and figure out which of them most wanted Denise defunct before anyone else follows. The mystery, as in Lila’s first two cases, is upstaged by a parade of food and drink so exquisite that most readers, even before peeking at the four sumptuous recipes that are the real climax of this drama, would happily share Denise’s last libation even if it meant risking her fate.
Hands down the tastiest whodunit you’ll consume this year.Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-20171-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: July 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
Focus on people and places; leave the red herrings to someone else.
Perrin’s third Castle Knoll mystery moves to London, where Annie Adams investigates the murder of her mother’s protégé.
Acclaimed painter Laura Adams is known for her solitary ways. So Annie is perplexed, and a little piqued, to learn that her mother has taken art student Felicity Rowe under her wing, even allowing Fliss to share her Chelsea town house. Annie isn’t hard up for lodgings, since she inherited a fortune from her great-aunt Frances, but her concern over her mother’s new living arrangements brings her down from rural Dorset to assess the situation in person. That concern rises to the level of panic when Felicity turns up dead in a dumpster behind the house. Laura’s clearly hiding something, and to unravel the complex puzzle, Annie needs the help of her old friend, police Detective Rowan Crane. Felicity’s murder turns out to have roots in the decades-old death of socialite Vera Huntington, who partied with Frances in London’s jazz clubs back in the 1960s. Perrin handles the twin narratives deftly, giving careful attention to each and permitting their connection to develop richly. She allows the love interest in each story to follow their own peculiar trajectory. And she draws a vivid picture of London, both past and present. The solution to the puzzle, on the other hand, is easily foreseen and too long in coming. Perrin is at her considerable best when she concentrates on drawing sympathetic, believable characters facing tough emotional issues.
Focus on people and places; leave the red herrings to someone else.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9798217047505
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
High-concept and highly entertaining.
Fiction writers compete to finish a famous author’s abandoned novel.
Seven writers, all but one published, have received invitations to spend the weekend with crime novelist Arthur Fletch, the world’s most successful author, on his private island off the coast of Scotland. When they arrive at his cliffside castle, they expect to take part in one of the literary salons for which Fletch is famous; instead, they’re greeted by his agent, who informs them that Fletch is dead. Why has there been nothing about this in the press? Because “there are some…loose ends that must be tied up first.” Fletch has left his eagerly anticipated final novel unfinished, so the agent has summoned the writers to the island for a competition: One of them will get to complete Fletch’s book. As premises go, this one’s a humdinger, courtesy of fantasy writer V.E. Schwab and YA author Cat Clarke, here joining forces as Clarke. The story contains an amusing throughline about the indignity of being an uncelebrated novelist; as the agent tells the assembled writers, the contest winner will receive both cash and something equally valuable: “a way out of the midlist.” The novel’s wandering perspective allows each writer to vent their private frustrations, especially with the publishing industry and with the book world’s genre hierarchy (the YA writer among the competitors understands that she and the romance writer are “supposed to support each other against the general snobbishness of the other genres”). Readers who have come for the crimes and the twists, both of which are plentiful, might grow impatient with all the characters’ backstories, but these readers will likely warm to the shop talk, which at its funniest plays like a kvetchy midlist-writers’ support group.
High-concept and highly entertaining.Pub Date: April 7, 2026
ISBN: 9780063444614
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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