MYSTERY AUTHOR JANE GORMAN ON COCKTAIL GARDENS AND CAPE MAY MURDER

The Author's Cocktail Garden

Jane Gorman is the author of the Cape May Cozy Mysteries with a Twist series and the Adam Kaminski Mystery Series. Formerly an anthropologist, then a diplomat, then a park ranger, she has settled down and now calls New Jersey home. Learn more about Jane and her books at her website. 

Growing a Cocktail Garden

Have you ever put your hand to something that seemed like it should be right up your alley, only to find that it was a lot harder than it looked? I have.

 

I spent a few years sweating over a vegetable garden. My tomatoes do great (I live in New Jersey, so that’s a given!), but everything else I grew seemed unhappy. It could have been the soil. Or the sunlight. Or the drainage. But it also could have been insufficient effort on my part. Gardening isn’t easy, is it? 

 

Then two years ago, I came across a book that seemed like it was written just for me. Have you ever encountered a book like that? I know it sounds like it should be a philosophy tome or something just as serious. But no, for me it was a book about cocktail gardens. 

 

Yep, cocktail gardens! Did you know there was a such a thing? I didn’t, though it seems kind of obvious now. 

 

A cocktail garden makes a lot of sense for me, because I write the Cape May Cozy Mysteries with a Twist series. That means that when I sit down to write about Cape May, I’m also writing about cocktails. Each of my books involves a classic cocktail – including the recipe and a bit of the drink’s history. So far, I’ve written about the Scofflaw, the Bee’s Knees, and the Kir Royale. This means I spend a lot of time reading about cocktails, learning about liquors, and, obviously, tasting them. 

 

Last year, for the first time, I planted only herbs, and only those that I regularly use in cocktails or that I wanted to use but could never get my hands on. I got to try new recipes made with each of the herbs I grew. I made lavender bitters and lavender simple syrup. I muddled scented geranium into gin and made mojitos with fresh mint. 

 

Not all my plants grew. There are two I still have hopes for next year since they’re perennials. Others I’m going to replace with new herbs, to create new recipes. I’m using my time this fall to make plans for next year: getting ready to plant seeds indoors when appropriate, making sure the bed is cleared out and the soil refreshed, and going through my cocktail recipe books to figure out what I want to try new next year. 

 

I haven’t told anyone else this yet, but next on my list is the Hot Toddy! It’s a perfect drink for a cold fall or winter’s day, made with whiskey, honey, lemon and a variety of spices. I’ve been trying out a few variations while working on my next book: Heroes and Hot Toddies. 

 

Thanks for allowing me a few minutes of your time as a guest on this blog. I love sharing my thoughts about my writing and my interests, and if I’ve given you any ideas, even better! With winter coming, I’m looking ahead to a few short, dark, cold months in my part of the world, but thanks to the Jersey shore and my cocktail garden, I have so many fun plans to make! 

 

Scones and Scofflaws

A Cape May Cozy Mystery with a Twist, Book 1

 

Her scones might be killer, but someone else was responsible for this murder. Now Anna must rely on the town’s gossip mill and her anthropology background to catch the real killer.

 

It all seemed so simple: fix up the Cape May Victorian mansion she’d inherited from Great Aunt Louise and re-open it as the exceptional B&B it used to be. Everything’s going great, until her very first guest turns up dead at the breakfast table, crumbs from Anna’s blueberry scones scattered on the lace tablecloth. As the town’s gossips go into overdrive, Anna leaps into the fray to save her reputation, her business and Great Aunt Louise’s legacy.

 

With help from a handsome handyman eager to solve all of Anna’s problems and a young police officer new to murder investigations, Anna does her best to find the real killer and convince the town – and her future guests – that staying at her B&B doesn’t have to be deadly.

 

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#TRAVEL TO WARSAW WITH GUEST AUTHOR JANE GORMAN

Jane Gorman is the author of the Adam Kaminski mystery series. Having worked as an anthropologist, diplomat and park ranger, she turned to writing mysteries as yet another way to visit new worlds and meet new people. Learn more about Jane at her website. 

In A Blind Eye, the first book in the Adam Kaminski mystery series, Detective Adam Kaminski is sent to Warsaw as part of a political delegation from Philadelphia. Why did I set my first book in Warsaw? Let me take you on a little tour to show you.

Warsaw is a modern metropolis. But sheltered against the western banks of the Wisła River, north of the city center, lies the historic old town.

We’ll start at the Field Cathedral of the Polish Army (above) on the corners of Miodowa and Długa, my home for a couple of memorable years. The cathedral stands opposite the memorial to those who fought – and died – in the ill-fated Warsaw Uprising of 1944. If we turn right on Długa, it will take us toward the Wisła River. Another right turn will bring us onto a narrow cobblestone street lined with aged and heavy doors. Stand with your arms spread wide and you can almost touch the buildings on either side.

The path ahead curves so you can’t see your destination, but soon the space opens up before you. Walking from the dark to the light, you suddenly find yourself in a large town square attached to a smaller open space that houses the Royal Castle.

photo by Alina Zienowicz

It is not the brightest or most picturesque old town square in Poland. Visitors from Poznań or Kraków might describe it as small and muted. This square is historic not because the buildings have been preserved from the city’s youngest days but, on the contrary, because they were not.

Warsaw was destroyed during the war, its old town turned to rubble, first by the invading Germans and later by the occupying Russians. When I was young, my mother told me stories about collecting tin cans when she was a child in western Poland. Though she was far from Warsaw, the funds she and her friends raised all went to the Warsaw rebuilding effort.

I love this story about Warsaw, a story written on the face of the city. It’s a story of devastation and destruction. It’s a story of hope and optimism. A seeming contradiction, just like the rest of the city.

Another of my favorite sites to visit is the Powązki cemetery. Like many other cultures, Poland has a strong tradition of caring for the graves of lost loved ones. Take a trip to Powązki, particularly on All Saints Day (as Adam Kaminski did), and you will find yourself surrounded by crowds of young and old, men and women, visiting those who have passed, decorating their graves and sharing their memories.

The capital of Poland for over 400 years, Warsaw is a city of contrasts: a thriving metropolis of commerce and government, home to a vibrant and longstanding artistic community, and a place of profound historical changes, of brave battles and quietly kept secrets.

The enthusiasm and zest for the future – and the past – is tangible on the streets of Warsaw. Where better to set a present day murder mystery whose solution lies in history?

A Blind Eye

It was a quiet death, a young woman falling into the frigid waters of Warsaw's Wisła River. The police accept it as suicide, the pressures of a political internship too much to handle. Her father knows it was murder. Philadelphia Detective Adam Kaminski, visiting Poland on an official delegation, gets drawn into the investigation over the objections of his superiors back home. For the dead girl was family, her father a cousin Adam had only just met, and Adam was raised to put family first.

He begins uncovering the clues that point to the killer, clues that lead him inexorably into an investigation of the close-knit community of Polish politics and the legacy of the Secret Police. But the past isn't always black and white, as Adam is forced to accept as he learns more about the killer and about his own family legacy. Murder can only beget murder, driven by even deeper secrets.

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