Friday, November 18, 2016

Matthew B.J. Delaney, Bourbon and Hard Cider



Matthew B.J. Delaney joins us today on Drinks with Reads to pair his book, Black Rain, with the perfect drink. Matthew B.J. Delaney published his first novel, Jinn, in 2003. Winner of the International Horror Guild Award, the novel was optioned for film by Touchstone Pictures, was featured as People magazine’s Page-Turner of the Week, and received a Publishers Weekly Starred Review. 

Now onto Black Rain and the perfect drink...

In the near future, lucrative disease cures are brokered on Wall Street’s Genetic Stock Exchange. And the hottest consumer products are artificially synthesized humans that serve as everything from domestic slaves to combatants in savage gladiatorial games. For Jack Saxton, the young heir to genetic design powerhouse Genico Inc., these Synthates are just a fact of life…until the murder of a high-profile genetic scientist leads a pair of seasoned NYPD detectives to Genico’s door.

As a small band of Synthate rebels steps up its attack on the status quo, Jack encounters a pleasure-parlor girl who opens his eyes to their cause. When he dares to sympathize with the rebels, Jack is hunted down and arrested for the murder. Sentenced to die in the brutal games on Bloomberg Island, Jack will be forced to fight—for his life, for the future of all Synthates, and for a chance to uncover the mind-bending secret buried in his past.

Bourbon has always had a place in the liquor cabinet of my heart since I first watched the classic film It’s a Wonderful Life.  Finding themselves in Potterville, a town fueled by greed and desperation, George Bailey and his guardian angel Clarence wander their way into Nick’s Bar, a place that “serves hard drinks for men who want to get drunk fast”.  George orders a double bourbon.  For me, bourbon instantly became the drink of the down and almost out.  A drink for a desperate man who wants to get drunk fast but still has a good heart and some fight left in him. 

Black Rain is filled with desperate characters living in a world as bleak as Pottersville.  Take a little of George Bailey’s Bourbon, mix with a punch of New England Hard Cider, and you’ve got the perfect drink for my book.


Bourbon and Hard Cider

2 ounces Maker's Mark bourbon
3/4 cup Woodchuck Vermont hard cider
1 dash Ground Cinnamon 


Combine in a shaker and shake gently.  Pour.  Enjoy!


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