Dark Rooms and The Dark 'n' Stormy

We're pairing the perfect cocktail with Lili Anolik's debut novel, Dark Rooms, today on Drinks with Reads. See what Kerry Hammond has picked out for this novel published by William Morrow. 

When the story begins, sixteen year old Nica Baker is already dead. She was found in the cemetery near the prep school, shot in the stomach with a .22. When a young student commits suicide and leaves behind a note, the police close the case. Her sister, Grace, has never quite accepted that the police have identified the killer. Partly because she knew her sister better than anyone else, partly because the boy who committed suicide wasn’t connected to her sister at all, and partly because she knew that her sister had snuck out of the house that night to meet someone new.

I was completely drawn into Grace’s quest to solve her sister’s murder. The backstory to their childhood, how their family’s dysfunction shaped who she and her sister became, was fascinating. The story unfolded at a perfect pace and the clues were sprinkled in for the reader to find. The outcome was still a surprise, since I rarely pick up all the clues, and there were a few twists at the end that had my jaw dropping.

Dark Rooms is a wonderful debut and I have no doubt that we will see more from this author. 

I decided to pair the book with a dark rum cocktail (Dark Room…..dark rum). It’s called a Dark ‘n’ Stormy because the life of the main character, Nica, is both dark and stormy.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 oz Dark Rum

6-8 oz Ginger Beer

Lime Wedge

Directions:

Pour the rum into an old fashioned glass. Add the ginger beer and a few ice cubes. Stir gently and top off with a lime wedge.

This book was provided to Mystery Playground by the publisher. The review is fair and independent.

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