After really enjoying Arsenic and Adobo, the first book in this series, I had no doubt that I would read this title. Unfortunately, I had to wait to read this one since it was not published yet! This time away from the world that Manansala created caused me to be a little confused when I first picked up Homicide and Halo-Halo, but after refreshing my memory I was okay. This novel lacked a certain magic that the first title had. While it is a cozy mystery and everything does not need to be realistic, I thought the conclusion of this story was just ridiculous. Will that stop me from reading the next book in the series? Of course not. But, do I hope it is more like the first one? Absolutely.