Friday, May 31, 2013

Summer Breeze and Whiplash River by Lou Berney



Every Friday this summer Mystery Playground will be featuring a  a summer read recommendation with a matching drink. To start the summer off right, today's recommendation is Whiplash River by Lou Berney. Our drink today is the Sunset Breeze. 




The Sunset Breeze

3 parts champagne

1 part blood orange liquor
One slice of blood orange as garnish

And what should you read with The Sunset Breeze? I recommend 

Lou Berney's Whiplash River. It's a fun Carl Hiaasen-esque beach read. 

The book is about a criminal, nick-named Shake, who decides to make good after doing three years in the pen. He goes to Belize and buys a bar and restaurant called the Sunset Breeze. (I could have made my drink a shake, but they melt so quickly in the sun.)


His first mistake was borrowing the money to buy the establishment from a loan shark named Baby Jesus (great name by the way).  This is complicated because the restaurant doesn't bring in much money, and as you might expect, Baby Jesus doesn't care.


I won't tell you what Shake's second mistake is, but I will tell you that it results in this bar getting blown up and more than one person out to kill him. Not such a great retirement from crime, but it does make for a fun book with great humor, characterization and chase scenes.  


This book was nominated for the Edgar Awards in best paperback original and it's easy to see why.  You can read an excerpt to get more of an idea about it here.  


Next weeks guest drink and summer read blogger is the fabulous Catriona McPherson, and on the 14th we have the wonderful Gerald So from the 5-2 and My Life Called So.  So come on back, ya hear? 



1 comment:

  1. Okay, the book and the drink sound fabulous. And I think I could rink the a shake version fast enough, just afraid of brain freeze!

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