Malice Preview

The Malice Domestic convention starts this Friday in Washington, DC and we'll be on hand to report on the action. For those of you who don't know, this is a conference devoted to mysteries written in the traditional style of Agatha Christie. 

Here are some of the Malice panels that feature friends of Mystery Playground:

Saturday

Rosie, Put Down Your Rivets: Sexism in Mysteries

10:30 am

Patti Ruocco (M)

Frances Brody

Sasscer Hill

Catriona McPherson

Kathryn O'Sullivan

Putting the Fun in Funerals: Balancing Humor and Murder

2:00 pm

Alan Orloff (M)

Donna Andrews

Brad Parks

Helen Smith

Nancy G. West

Sunday

Author Alley: Terrie Farley Moran, author of Well Dead, Then Read, will be hosting games
9:00 am

Double Trouble: Sleuthing Duos

11:45 am

Lori Rader-Day (M)

Arlene Kay

Michael Nethercott

Cathi Stoler

Andy Straka

We'll be back later in the week with photos and reports. 

TNT to Remake "The Librarian"

If you've never seen The Librarian movies starring Noah Wylie, Jane Curtain and Bob Newhart, and you like history, adventure and camp, you might want to check it out. And before TNT starts airing it's new remake.

The movies feature Noah Wyle as Flynn Carson casting about trying to retrieve historical objects of special significance. Think Nicholas Cage in the National Treasure movies with a little more camp. But the show may actually be a little closer to the SyFi Channel's Warehouse 13, currently in it's last season.

TNT's remake will be a TV series instead of movies, and they will add more Librarians to spread out the work load. The show will air later this year and TNT has green lit ten episodes.

Here's how TNT describes the show:

“The Librarians” centers on an ancient organization hidden beneath the Metropolitan Public Library that solves impossible mysteries, fights supernatural threats and recovers powerful artifacts from around the world. 

For the past 10 years, Flynn Carsen (Noah Wyle) has served as the Librarian, collecting and protecting these artifacts and preventing them from falling into the wrong hands. But as great as Flynn is, the job of Librarian has become more than one person can handle. 

To aid him in his duties, the Library has recruited four people from around the world: Eve Baird (Rebecca Romijn), a highly skilled counter-terrorism agent who is responsible for protecting the group and keeping them all alive; Jake Stone (Christian Kane), an Oklahoma oil worker with an IQ of 190 and an encyclopedic knowledge of art history; Cassandra (Booth), a quirky young woman with the special gift of auditory and sensory hallucinations linked to memory retrieval, known as synesthesia; and Ezekiel Jones (John Kim), a master of new technologies and aficionado of old classic crimes who enjoys playing the role of international man of mystery.  

Overseeing the new team of Librarians is the cantankerous Jenkins (John Larroquette), an expert in ancient lore who has been working out of the Library’s branch office for longer than anyone knows. Together, they must tangle with many adversaries, chief of whom is the Serpent Brotherhood, an ancient cult led by the mysterious immortal Dulaque (Matt Frewer).

I love the addition of new librarians and the promise of Wylie, Newhart and Curtain back, if only in guest appearances. John Larroquette will make an awesome addition, but the real success of this show will depend on the strength of the storylines and of course, the Librarians. I will give this one a shot. What about you?

Yes, that is Stania Katic who plays Castle's Kate Beckett

Happy California Bookstore Day

Next Saturday, May 3rd, is California Bookstore Day. This mean that ninety bookstores in more than eighty zip codes statewide are throwing parties today to celebrate the great independent bookstore.  

What a great way to spend a Saturday and Californians have a whole week to plan and prepare. 

Now all you have to do is find a celebrating bookstore near you.

Here's about Independent bookstores from their website:

"Independent bookstores are not just stores, they’re community centers and local anchors run by passionate readers. They are entire universes of ideas that contain the possibility of real serendipity. They are lively performance spaces and quiet places where aimless perusal is a day well spent. Indie bookstores, whether dusty and labyrinthine or clean and well-lighted, are not just stores, they are solutions. They hold the key to your love life, your career, and your passions. Walking the aisles of a good bookstore means stumbling upon a novel from India that expands your heart. It’s encountering an art book that changes the direction of your life. It’s the joy of having a perfect stranger steer you toward the perfect book. In a world of tweets and algorithms and pageless digital downloads, bookstores are not a dying anachronism.  They are living, breathing organisms that continue to grow and expand. In fact, there are more of them this year than there were last year. And they are at your service."

I totally agree.

You can follow California Bookstore Day on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Lime Margaritas and The Corpse with the Emerald Thumb

For our Friday Drinks with Reads feature, today author Cathy Ace drops by to pour us a lime margarita while she tells us about Cait Morgan and The Corpse with the Emerald Thumb, published by Touchwood Editions. The lovely painting the photo above is the work of Laury Revenstein, a painter in British Columbia.

 

Here's a little about the book:

Criminologist and foodie Cait Morgan was looking forward to her dream vacation in Mexico with her boyfriend Bud Anderson. She wasn't anticipating a fresh corpse on the floor of a local florist’s shop, and she definitely wasn't 

expecting Bud to become the prime suspect.

With Bud’s freedom, and maybe even his life, at stake, Cait has to fight the clock to work out which member of the small community living in the seemingly idyllic municipality of Punta de las Rocas might have killed the locally respected florist, and why. Needing to investigate under the watchful gaze of the local police, Cait has to keep her relationship with Bud a secret, and she soon discovers she’s not the only one with something to hide. Peeling back layers of deceit to reveal even more puzzles, Cait struggles with a creeping sense of unreality, desperate to save Bud . . . and, ultimately, herself.

In the third book in the beloved Cait Morgan Mysteries, The Corpse with the Emerald Thumb, travel to the idyllic Mexican countryside as Cait Morgan works against the clock to clear her wrongly accused partner of murder.

CAIT MORGAN, HER TRIP TO MEXICO, AND TEQUILA

Cait Morgan visits the fictional municipality of Punta de las Rocas, near Puerto Vallarta on the Pacific coast of Mexico. Because her significant other, Bud Anderson, is wrongly accused of murdering a local plantswoman, she finds herself at a tequila-producing agave plantation sleuthing to save her man.

Usually Cait revels in wonderful food and drink—she’s a foodie and happy about it. But, on this occasion, she’s less than enamored of the food she gets too eat, and feels cheated. But her priorities have changed since she arrived. I’d like to think that Cait, at the end of the book, gets to enjoy the vacation she was looking forward to, and also gets the chance to put her feet up with a good book—and one of these lime margaritas. That said, since the victim’s name was Margarita, Cait might not be so keen, and, of course, she’s not mad about tequila….but I think she’d relent. No umbrellas though, please! Not Cait’s style.

Recipe for Cait Morgan’s Lime Margarita – courtesy of Cathy Ace

3 parts tequila – use blanco or silver tequila, and make sure it’s 100% agave

2 parts Cointreau – the consistency and sweetness takes the edge off the tequila/lime mix, and this is what makes the drink palatable

1 part lime juice – use freshly squeezed limes, but feel free to strain it…little pods of lime can be very tart!

Place all three ingredients in a cocktail shaker with a few ice cubes, and shake slowly, and luxuriously, not harshly. You want to shake for a couple of minutes, then set aside.

Take a margarita glass of your choice (the one in the photo above was made, by hand, in Mexico), and wipe the rim with a quarter of a lime. Place the rim onto a plate that you have covered with coarse salt and sugar, mixed together. Twirl the rim in the mix until the rim is coated, add a few lime wedges to the edge of the glass.

By now your cocktail shaker should be showing signs of condensation – this tells you that the margarita is properly chilled. Strain through the lid into the glass. Then add a couple of the ice cubes from the shaker, by hand, so you don’t waste any of the drink.

Drink from the rim, not through a straw – that way you get the sweet and salty rim flavors mixing with the sweet, sour, and tequila-fire of the drink.

Salud!

Don't forget to come back next Friday for another book and drink pairing.

A Prayer of Thanksgiving for Readers of Crime Fiction

Brad Parks is back at Mystery Playground today and is graciously letting us print his super official Toastmaster toast from Left Coast Crime, a benediction of sorts. The photos here were taken by Darrell Hoemann Photography. 

Delivered at Left Coast Crime Opening Ceremonies

By Brad Parks

Fellow crime fiction readers, let us bow our heads with meekness and humility... 

Oh God of Chandler and Christie, Oh Deity of Dorothy L, Oh Maker of MacDonalds – Ross and John D… We come to you today to express our thanks for the many blessings you have bestowed upon our genre.

We thank you for knitting shop owners whose places of business act as magnets for unexplained corpses... for busybody old ladies whose mah-jong groups end up having more crime-solving wherewithal than the state police... and for small towns in the Adirondacks where the body count resembles the Battle of Gettysburg.

We thank you for law enforcement officials who go rogue more often than breakaway Russian Republics... for conspiracies whose tendrils reach all the way to the White House... and for highly trained ex-special forces demolitions experts who hang out their own shingle as ham-and-egg private detectives.

We thank you that while our characters sometimes have sex, our authors have enough decorum not to describe it in forensic detail.

We thank you for strong female characters… yet we also pray fervently for the day when we can stop having to use the words “strong female character.” 

And while I’m at it, oh Elohim of elocution, can you please also retire the phrase “transcend the genre.”... And go ahead and tell certain Chilean authors that if they’re not a fan of mysteries, we’re perfectly comfortable with them not writing one.

Yes, we know you by many names, oh heavenly reader spirit. To some you are the King of Kinsey. Or the Giver of Gamache. Or the Lord of Leduc. Or the Maharajah of McCone... or the ... dangit, Pronzini, how am I supposed to do something cute and alliterative when you don’t give the detective a name!

However it is we summon your spirit, we thank you for conferences such as this one, where we can have perfectly normal conversations in the elevator about our favorite ways to administer poison... and we admit, we sort of like it when that causes the other people in the elevator to start slowly backing away from us.

At this gathering in particular, oh most holy of Hemingways, we in the congregation who call ourselves authors would like to thank you for the bar. Let me try that again: will the authors please make a joyful noise for the bar. 

Guide us, oh creator of nouns and adjectives, to fabulous debut authors whose work is ripe for discovery... to rising stars of the genre who will someday be our bestsellers... and to established authors whose work may have been unfairly overlooked—not that we’re going to mention names.

We thank you in particular for the Guests of Honor. May you bless Sue Trowbridge, who venerates so many of the authors present both in person and in web design; bless Cara Black, and see that her characters never run out of Parisian underworlds to explore; bless Sue Grafton, so that Kinsey may continue to have horrible taste in men; bless Bill Pronzini, because anyone who has written that many books needs to be blessed; bless Marcia Muller, because I have this sneaking suspicion she could kick my ass; and bless Louise Penny for not being nominated for the Lefty Award... because I believe I speak for every writer here when I say: I’ve lost enough awards to Louise already.

Let us also extol our librarians, who spread the gospel of good books, one patron at a time. Let us raise up our booksellers, who are the high priests and priestesses of our world, even though they’re often paid like monks who have taken poverty vows. Let us ordain our publishers: may they make the size of our advances be fruitful and multiply.

And whether we enjoy traditional mysteries or cutting edge thrillers, whether we like our heroes hard-boiled or soft, whether we prefer series or standalones, we thank you – above all – that our extensive reading has given us at least five foolproof ways to make a body disappear forever... because you just never know when that’s going to come in handy.

Oh alpha and omega of red herrings, may you increase our herds and our flocks and our TBR piles. May our spouses remain blissfully ignorant of just how much we spent during our last trip to the bookstore. And may you see to it the Toastmaster doesn’t go to hell for this prayer. 

May the words of my mouth, the meditations in our hearts, and the volumes on our nightstand remain acceptable in your sight. Amen. 

Brad with his newly minted Lefty

You can read can read an in-depth interview with Brad by Kim Hammond here. 

Harry Potter Forever Stamps

I love the invention of the Forever stamps, especially not having to worry about using up all of the old stamps you found in the back of a drawer with the wrong postage on them. 

And these limited edition Harry Potter stamps from the postal service have made Forever stamps fun.

They come in a cute booklet of twenty and they'd make a great stocking stuffer (I know it's only April, but I plan these things all year round.)

Judith Leiber Stacks of Books

Judith Leiber is known for her crystal covered handbags that come in whimsical shapes. I do love a fun handbag and book inspired clutches are among my favorites. These Judith Leiber book inspired clutches are fabulous to look at, but more than pricey, even on the secondhand market. The designs are fun though, especially the bag above. So colorful and detailed. You can see a bigger photo of the side of the bag directly below. 

Side of the book above

Board Stiff by Annelise Ryan

Board Stiff by Annelise Ryan is the 5th in the Mattie Winston Mystery series about a small-town coroner who'll investigate the death of a nursing home owner.

Mattie Winston is a nurse-turned-coroner by profession, living in a small town in Wisconsin. Mattie is tough, never dainty, and sweet on Steve Hurley, a local homicide detective whose ex-wife, Kate, just moved back in with him. When Kate shows up on his doorstep, Hurley finds out that she’s not so much his ex-wife as his current wife (since she never signed the divorce papers) and she’s not so much alone, as she's traveling with the 15 year-old daughter that he never knew he had. Feeling bad, Hurley lets them stay with him, causing Mattie to enter a downward slide. Losing your boyfriend is one thing, but finding out he’s still married and has a daughter is more than most people can handle.

As the story opens, we find Mattie attending a mandatory therapy session, ordered by her boss, Izzy, at the coroner’s office. It’s a requirement to getting her old job back, which she desperately wants. She might as well work for the coroner if she’s not going to date Hurley. Since they broke up, the conflict of interest issue is a moot point. In addition, she’s been spending a little too much time at the casino, and kind of needs to stop.

You can read the rest at Criminal Element. 

A Fistful of Collars and Bourbon Plain & Simple

Sue Carpenter joins us today to match the book A Fistful of Collars by Spencer Quinn to Bourbon Plain & Simple. Sue is on the committee for Bouchercon, the world's largest mystery convention. 


Here's a little background on A Fistful of Collars:

Hoping to bring some Tinseltown money to the Valley, the mayor lures a movie studio to town to shoot their next production, a big-budget Western in the classic tradition. The star is none other than ruggedly handsome—and notoriously badly behaved—Thad Perry. When the mayor decides that someone needs to keep an eye on Thad so that he doesn’t get into too much trouble, Bernie and Chet are handpicked for the job. The money is good but something smells fishy, and what should have been a simple matter of babysitting soon gets more complicated—especially when they discover that Thad has a mysterious connection to the Valley that nobody wants to talk about. What kind of secret could Thad have left behind when he went to Hollywood to seek fame and fortune? The only people who might know the answer have a bad habit of turning up dead before they can talk.

As Bernie’s relationship with his longtime girlfriend Suzie goes long-distance, and Chet’s late-night assignations appear to have resulted in an unexpected dividend, it’s all our two sleuths can do to keep Thad and his motley entourage of yes-men, handlers, and hangers-on in their sights. Worst of all, Thad is a self-proclaimed cat person, and his feline friend Brando has taken an instant dislike to Chet.

Like the winning books before it, this fifth book in the series combines a top-notch mystery with genuine humor and a perceptive take on the relationship between human and dog that will stay with you long after the case is solved.

Here's what Sue has to say:

A Fistful of Collars is a great blend of good mystery and humor. The main characters, Chet (a dog) and Bernie, are the perfect team even if both of them are bit flawed. They are both dedicated to their profession and one another. Seeing the action through Chet's eyes makes for an easy and totally enjoyable read. I laughed out loud throughout this book. If you need a humorous escape and have a great sense of humor, I highly recommend A Fistful of Collars. 

Bernie is a bourbon guy and it fits him. Plain, simple and gets the job done. Chet’s favorite smell is a mixture of bourbon, pepper and sweat, which is how his favorite human Bernie smells. 

You don't even need the recipe for Bourbon Plain & Simple which is really the point, just pour it in a glass at room temperature and enjoy! 

Crafty Thursdays: Library Notecards

In celebration of National Librarian Day yesterday our craft today is library note cards. We made these out of the check out pages from damaged books withdrawn from our local library, but you can use any type of paper -- even children's drawings (we've made them with Nancy Drew illustrations, too). 

Materials & Tools:

• Blank note cards (I got these at Michaels)
• Photo corners (also purchased at Michaels)
• Paper trimmer (you can use scissors but it's hard to get perfectly straight cuts
• Card catalogue pages from damaged and withdrawn books from the local library sale (don't use these pages from library books still in circulation.)
• An Exacto knife

Step One: Cut out your book page (I use the exact knife for this). Then use the paper trimmer to cut it to the right size with clean straight edges.

Step Two: Use photo corners to attach to the card. And you're done! 

National Librarian Day

Today is National Librarian Day and now you can become
your own pseudo librarian with one of these personal library kits from Knock Knock. It comes with a stamp and check out cards so you can keep track of books you loan out. 

It doesn't help you collect overdue library fines though...and my friend, Pat, the librarian tells me that it can't teach you the Dewey Decimal System (which I'm actually OK with). She also points out that it doesn't let you borrow from every library in the state, but many real libraries do. That is pretty cool and she does help me order random books for whatever crazy thing I am researching from all over the state. 

I asked Pat (who's one of the Mystery Playground craft, photo and drink development crew) and another librarian friend of mine, Michele (contributor extraordinaire), what three things they wish every library patron knew and this is what they told me:

Pat:

1. Librarians are not judgmental. Bring any question to us and we'll help you.

2. Tell all your friends that you are a library user!  Help spread the word about all the wonderful resources and people that are at the library. Help us build support  and awareness in the community.

3.  Libraries are not just about printed books anymore (but as a good library patron they probably already know this).  We have electronic resources, speaker programs, study areas, white boards, WiFi, computers, printers, great people, and more.

Michele:

1. It is easier to find authoritative sources if you use the library's resources and suggested strategies.

2. Everything is not on the free Web.

3. In higher education the librarian will not simply provide you with an answer, instead she will teach you how to find it yourself.

Then I asked them to confess what the last book they read was...

Pat:

The last book I read was:

Longbourn by Jo Baker

Think Pride and Prejudice from the servants' point of view.  Not only a fun read, but I felt like I was back in that era.  I highly recommend it.

Currently I'm reading:

Endangered by Eliot Schrefer

I'm totally hooked by the situation: a young girl, bonobo monkeys, armed rebellion in The Congo.  It is really well written, I feel like I'm right there in the middle of it all.

Michele:
Last book I read: Armistead Maupin's The Days Of Anna Madrigal.

I am also currently in the middle of three non-fiction books for two courses I am taking: Race, Class, & Gender: An Anthology, Luck is No Accident: Making the Most of Happenstance in Your Life and Career, and Fail Fast, Fail Often: How Losing Can Help You Win.


Come back tomorrow for a special librarian inspired craft and a giveaway...

No librarians were harmed in the development of this blog post. 

Melissa Bourbon's A Killing Notion

Melissa Bourbon joins us to today to answer a few questions about her new book, A Killing Notion. And don't forget to enter the giveaway at the end of the post.

Here's a description of the book:

Harlow Jane Cassidy is swamped with homecoming couture requests. If only she didn’t have to help solve a murder, she might get the gowns off the dress forms....

Harlow is doing everything she can to expand her dressmaking business, Buttons & Bows—without letting clients know about her secret charm. When she has a chance to create homecoming dresses with a local charity and handmade mums for several high school girls—including Gracie, whose father, Will, has mended Harlow’s heart—she is ready to use her magical talents for a great cause.

But when Gracie’s date for the dance is accused of murder, Harlow knows things won’t be back on course until she helps Gracie clear the football player’s name. If Harlow can’t patch up this mess before the big game, her business and her love life might be permanently benched.

And now let's talk to Melissa:


1) What was your favorite book growing up and why?

I loved Gone with the Wind in high school (and beyond). I don't reread many books, but that’s one I’ve reread several times. I love that Atlanta is really a character in the book, and Scarlet is such a well-drawn heroine. Complex and layered, so great inspiration. And Rhett Butler?  Love.

2) If your protagonist were actually a real person, would you be friends with them? Why or why not?

I absolutely would be friends with Harlow Cassidy (and Lola Cruz from my other series).  I think that’s one of the requirements of the main characters I create… I want to write about people I want to spend time with (because I spend a lot of time with them!). Harlow is a down-to-earth woman who could easily be a neighbor, friend, confidant. 

3) Have you ever come close to missing a deadline?

Too many times! I have come to realize that I work better under a tight deadline. I work slowly, plugging away, but I usually don’t make my daily quotas because my day job is so busy. So when it comes close to deadline, I’m always behind!  But I find inspiration comes when I’m forced to create. Sometimes I think I’m a masochist! But it works. 

4) Do you ever have doubts when you are in the middle of the writing process? How do you get past them?

I think doubts are part of the process. I have a love/hate relationship with the book I’m writing. I alternately think it’s the best and the worst thing I’ve ever written. But the great thing is that the revision process allows me the time and process to work through any issues I’ve had and to make it the best it can be.

5) Do you ever get writer’s block? How do you get past it?

I think writer’s block is part of the creative process. Even though I plot, the actual development of characters and the world come as I write. And sometimes that development doesn’t come when I need it to. When I get blocked, I put the project aside for a day or two and just mull things over. Invariably I figure out the way past the wall I was against.

6) How long did it take you to get your first draft done of this book?

I had the luxury of taking a year and a half to write my first book. When you have a contract, things change and you can’t take that time. I have a nine month time period between publication of A Magical Dressmaking mystery series, which means I have about six months to write each book. After that comes revisions. Of course, if I’ve procrastinated, then I have less than those 6 months.

Bio:
Melissa Bourbon, who sometimes answers to her Latina-by-marriage name Misa Ramirez, gave up teaching middle and high school kids in Northern California to write full-time amidst horses and Longhorns in North Texas.  She fantasizes about spending summers writing in quaint, cozy locales, has a love/hate relationship with yoga and chocolate, is devoted to her family, and can’t believe she’s lucky enough to be living the life of her dreams.

She is the Marketing Director with Entangled Publishing, is the author of the Lola Cruz Mystery series with St. Martin’s Minotaur and Entangled Publishing, and A Magical Dressmaking Mystery series with NAL. She also has written two romantic suspense novels, a light paranormal romance, and is the co-author of The Tricked-out Toolbox, a practical marketing guide for authors.

You can find Melissa on Twitter (http://twitter.com/melissabourbon) and Facebook.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Hard Way by Cathi Stoler

Gambling. Murder. Mayhem. It's Vegas all the way...as author Cathi Stoler stops by to talk about her new book which debuts tomorrow, The Hard Way. Lucky for us, she's also giving away a copy. 

Just comment below to be entered to win on something to do with ritzy, glitzy, risky Las Vegas...

Laurel Imperiole and Helen McCorkendale are in trouble again in The Hard Way, the latest installment in the Laurel and Helen New York Mystery Series. 

This time, they’re headed to the neon fueled, high-roller world of Las Vegas where anything can happen, and usually does. 

Helen’s friend Jimmy Scanlan has just opened January, the most lavish casino and resort on the Las Vegas strip. When a mysterious woman is murdered poolside, Jimmy calls on Helen to investigate. She’s instantly thrown into a whirlwind of diamond dealers and International jewel thieves, all of whom might kill her in a heartbeat to obtain the world’s most precious diamond, the DeGroot Red.

As with my other novels, I based part of the story on what’s going on in the world around us, a bit of real life to ground it in the realm of the possible. 

And so part of the tale takes its cue from a real red diamond, the Kazanjian diamond, a 5-carat stone, which is on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. I also modeled my jewel thieves on the daring and audacious gang Interpol has dubbed The Pink Panthers. Their name derives from the movie staring Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau, and their copycat move of hiding a precious stone from one of their heists in a jar of face cream. They’ve stolen millions of dollars worth of gems, all with very few arrests, and were recently profiled on 60 Minutes, which you can read about in my recent post on Women of Mystery.

These are the bad guys Helen and Laurel take on—masterminds of crime for sure. To get the job done and see the case through to its conclusion, Laurel and Helen need to become masterminds of crime themselves— using all their skills and cunning to solve a murder and doing it “the hard way”, working together and going for doubles while hoping their luck will hold.

And if you're in a Vegas sort of mood, you can check out Kim and Kerry Hammond's trip to the Las Vegas CSI Experience and Las Vegas Speakeasies, The Lady Silvia and The Laundry Room. 

You Don't Own the E-Books on Your Kindle

Joel Johnson over at NBC News told me something that I didn't know about my Kindle account this week. I don't own the ebooks I buy there. You just license them and if Amazon decides to take that Kindle account away, your books disappear.

In an odd moment or two I have had thoughts of the Twilight Zone episode where the last human left on earth is so happy that he has lived and that he is left with a gigantic library and nothing but time to read in. As soon as he sits down to read, he breaks his glasses.  Of course he's the last man left, so there isn't anyone to make him new glasses. The Amazon meltdown equivalent would be if the system crashed in some catastrophic destruction of technology and all this information we've stored on computers - including books would be lost to mankind. 

Or Amazon could just decide to change the terms of the book licenses. Or close your account. Which they probably won't do because it doesn't make sense. Until it some day it does. 

I buy books both on paper and screen. If it's reference or travel books or novels by my favorite authors, I go for paper. Most everything else I get in electronic form. Ebooks are easy to read on the road and I don't have as many piles of books lying around the house, I still have piles mind you, but not as many. I know the paper to ebook paradigm shift is well in motion. I just have one more thing contemplate that I don't particularly like now. 

If you haven't already, you might want to go take a look at Joel's article.

The Collector of Dying Breaths and The Vodka Smoked Rose

Today marks the opening of our 2014 Drinks with Reads series starting with MJ Rose's new book, The Collector of Dying Breaths. Our drinks with reads series matches great reads with great drinks every Friday through the fall. You can see earlier posts here. 

First a little about The Collector of Dying Breaths before I get to the drink I've paired it with: The Vodka Smoking Rose. Since The Collector of Dying Breaths goes back and forth between two time periods, we need to know a little bit about each:   

Florence, Italy—1533: 

An orphan named René le Florentin is plucked from poverty to become Catherine de Medici’s perfumer. Traveling with the young duchessina from Italy to France, René brings with him a cache of secret documents from the monastery where he was trained: recipes for exotic fra­grances and potent medicines—and a formula for an alchemic process said to have the poten­tial to reanimate the dead. 

In France, René becomes not only the greatest perfumer in the country, but also the most dangerous, creating deadly poisons for his Queen to use against her rivals. But while mixing herbs and essences under the light of flickering candles, René doesn’t begin to imag­ine the tragic and personal consequences for which his lethal potions will be responsible.

Paris, France—The Present:

A renowned mythologist, Jac L’Etoile—trying to recover from personal heartache by throw­ing herself into her work—learns of the sixteenth-century perfumer who may have been working on an elixir that would unlock the secret to immortality. She becomes obsessed with René le Florentin’s work—particularly when she discovers the dying breaths he had collected during his lifetime.

Jac’s efforts put her in the path of her estranged lover, Griffin North, a linguist who has already begun translating René le Flo­rentin’s mysterious formula. Together they confront an eccentric heiress in possession of a world-class art collection, a woman who has her own dark purpose for the elixir . . . for which she believes the ends will justify her deadly means.

This mesmerizing gothic tale zigzags from the violent days of Catherine de Medici’s court to twenty-first-century France. Fiery and lush, set against deep, wild forests and dimly lit cha­teaus, The Collector of Dying Breaths illuminates the true path to immortality: the legacies we leave behind.

This is me trying to get a photo of the drink with the cover on the iPad, art shot, bad shot, you decide

My Review:
My first book written by MJ Rose was The Book of Lost Fragrances. I loved the ties to the family run perfumery, the french setting, the character of Jac L'Etoile and the fast paced plot. All of that perfumy wonderfulness is back with The Collector of Dying Breaths. I love the way the story moves back and forth between the present and the past. I love learning and thinking about perfume scents and how they are put together. 

I have to say that the title of this book ranks up there with the best ever: The Collector of Dying Breaths. Not only is it fresh and intriguing it fits the book in so many ways. The plot is fast moving but slow enough that you feel like you get to know the characters. 

The character of Rene de Florentin is a wonderful addition - when we meet him he's collecting breaths from dying people and then he winds up being Catherine de Medici's perfumer. That's a resume that would impress anyone on Linked In.

I loved the little homey details throughout the book, like when one of the characters, Serge, rattles off his great-grandmother's recipe for onion soup:

"One onion for every person, one knob of butter for every onion. Carmelize the onions.Then add one ladle of veal stock and one of white whine for every person and let it cook while you take care of the bread."

I can see someone being able to rattle that off if they have heard it a million times. 

If you like fast paced suspense, with a dash of history and a lot of scent, then you'll love The Collector of Dying Breaths. 

A free electronic copy of this book was provided in exchange for a fair review.

The Drink: The Vodka Smoked Rose 

It was hard to pick one single drink to pair with this book. The are so many scents and flavors throughout - coffee, lavender, cinnamon...

But in the end I decided to go with something completely different, so I selected a liqueur called Chartreuse (spell that three times fast). 

It was originally made in France by Monks and contains more than 130 different plants. You can see why it is so fitting for this book, just on the plant mixture alone. Chartreuse comes in green and yellow and the color chartreuse was named after the liqueur. I chose the green over the yellow because I liked the flavor profile a bit better.

One my recipe journey first I found a drink at About.com called The Smoked Rose. It contains Chartreuse, Whiskey, Rosemary Simple Syrup and dried, burned rosemary. 

It sounded perfect but I tried it and it was a little heavy for me so I swapped the whiskey out for some Gala Apple Vodka. Here's the adapted recipe:

The Vodka Smoked Rose

• 2 ounces Gala Apple Vodka
• 1/2 ounce Green Chartreuse
• One sprig dried rosemary
• 1/4 ounce rosemary simple syrup
• Garnish: one sprig fresh rosemary and one slice of lemon

You light the dried rosemary on fire carefully and then blow it out and put it in the glass while it's still smoking. Mix the other ingredients in a shaker over ice. When the rosemary is done smoking and cooled, pour the cold drink over it and remove the burned rosemary. I replaced it with fresh rosemary and added a lemon garnish. Serve cold. 

The view from the top

Rosemary Simple Syrup:

• Mix 1 cup water, 1 cup sugar, and 2 springs of rosemary in a sauce pan (I grow my own organic rosemary and submerge it in water for several minutes before using it)
• Bring mixture to a boil, stirring constantly until the sugar is dissolved
• Remove from the heat, cover, allow the rosemary to steep for 10 minutes.
• Using a fine mesh strainer, strain out and discard all of the rosemary leaves (sometimes I just use a regular strainer)
• Allow the strained syrup to cool completely
• Chill

Come back next Friday when Sue Carpenter tells us all about the drink she's paired with the book, A Fistful of Collars. 

Author MJ Rose