When her long-lost cousin comes back to town just in time for the holidays, Lila Macapagal knows that big trouble can’t be far behind in this new mystery by Mia P. Manansala, author of Arsenic and Adobo .   It’s Christmastime in Shady Palms, but things are far from jolly for Lila Macapagal. Sure, her new business, the Brew-ha Cafe, is looking to turn a profit in its first year. And yes, she’s taken the first step in a new romance with her good friend Jae Park. But her cousin Ronnie is back in town after ghosting the family fifteen years ago, claiming that his recent purchase of a local winery shows that he’s back on his feet and ready to contribute to the Shady Palms community. Tita Rosie is thrilled with the return of her prodigal son, but Lila knows that wherever Ronnie goes, trouble follows.   She’s soon proven right when Ronnie is suspected of murder, and secrets surrounding her shady cousin and those involved with the winery start piling up. Now Lila has to put away years of resentment and distrust to prove her cousin’s innocence. He may be a jerk, but he’s still family. And there’s no way her flesh and blood could actually be a murderer . . . right? "The perfect cozy and lighthearted mystery."— The Washington Post "Hands down the tastiest whodunit you’ll consume this year."— Kirkus Reviews "Filipino American culture and family take centerstage in the third mystery by Agatha Award–winning Manansala ( Homicide and Halo-Halo; Arsenic and Adobo ). There’s an emphasis on humor, friendship, and food in this cozy that’s lighter in tone than the previous ones.”— Library Journal "Manansala’s breezy style makes for another brisk entry in this flavorful series, recipes included. Readers will be hungry for more.”— Publishers Weekly “Blackmail and Bibingka spins on well-devised twists, and readers will savor myriad descriptions of Filipino dishes.”— Florida Sun-Sentinel Mia P. Manansala is a writer from Chicago who loves books, baking, and badass women. She uses humor (and murder) to explore aspects of the Filipino diaspora, queerness, and her millennial love for pop culture. Chapter One Adeena, can you please shut that off? If I have to listen to that Mariah Carey song one more time . . ." I scratched out the third mistake I'd made while trying to finalize the menu for the annual Shady Palms Winter Bash. It tied with the Founder's Day Celebration as the biggest event in my tiny town of Shady Palms, Illinois (population: 18,751), and this was the first year my business-my dream-the Brew-ha Cafe, would be participating. Considering what a mess the Founder's Day Celebration had turned out to be, I really needed to wow at this party. Despite obsessing over it for the past month, I had less than two weeks till the big bash and hadn't finalized anything. My best friend and business partner, Adeena Awan, turned the cafe's speaker system down to a decibel that didn't make my ears bleed. "Way to be a humbug, Lila. Ms. Mariah cannot and will not be silenced. Her lambs will make sure of it." "Hon, you don't even celebrate Christmas. Why do you have all of these?" Elena Torres, Adeena's girlfriend and the third and final member of the Brew-ha Cafe crew (aka our voice of reason), scrolled through the cafe's playlist on Adeena's laptop. It currently had no fewer than ten Christmas music compilations that she'd had on repeat since December 1. It was only December 4, and I was ready to ban her from programming the shop's playlists ever again. Elena raised her eyebrows at the mix of both religious and secular Christmas songs. "Were you secretly raised in an intensely Catholic family like Lila and me? Because this is a lot." Adeena laughed and handed Elena her morning cup of yerba buena tea. "No, I just like the music. It started as me being rebellious as a kid. Well, as rebellious as you could be in my house. You didn't grow up here, but Shady Palms has a pretty big Muslim and Jewish population, so it was easy to keep Christmas out of schools. But there were still all the commercials and Christmas specials on TV, so I got kind of obsessed with the holiday. I'm mostly over it now, but I still love the music and movies. And also the parties because Lila's family goes all in on the holiday." Despite my "humbug" response, as Adeena put it, I really did love the holidays. The food, the parties, the gifts, the karaoke, the fantastically cheesy and comfortingly predictable holiday romance movies . . . what wasn't to love? I mean, I wasn't like the rest of my family, who used to put up Christmas decorations in September (something about the Christmas season starting in the -ber months) until I convinced them to at least wait till the day after Thanksgiving, but I already had a Google spreadsheet prepared for all the holiday movies the Brew-has and I were going to watch, and had no fewer than ten cookie recipes I wanted to test. There's a reason it was taking me so long to finalize things for the winter bash.