#COOKING WITH CLORIS--CHERRY GIN FIZZ AND A NEW COZY MYSTERY SERIES FROM AUTHOR MICHELLE HILLEN KLUMP

Michelle Hillen Klump is a former newspaper reporter who covered government, courts and crime throughout Arkansas and Central Texas. Although still a working journalist, she now also writes cozy mysteries. Learn more about Michelle and her books at her website. 

In A Dash of Death, Samantha Warren, the former reporter/amateur mixologist protagonist turns to her kitchen in times of trouble. With counters full of drying herbs and jars of infusing spirits, Samantha’s kitchen looks more like a high school chemistry lab than a place to relax. But she does her best thinking while she’s muddling, grinding, or straining one of her homemade concoctions. She’s an expert at handcrafting her own bitters, tinctures, and cocktail syrups, creating interesting flavor combinations, and pairing those flavors perfectly with just the right spirit to make them sing. 

 

At the beginning of the novel, Samantha’s fiancé ends their relationship a few weeks before their wedding, leaving Samantha with a broken heart and 300 bottles of the homemade cherry vanilla bitters she made as gifts for her wedding party. Hoping to help her make lemonade (or at least a fancy cocktail) out of the lemons she’s been dealt, her best friends finagle an invitation for Samantha to serve up cocktails and sell her homemade bitters at the Highland’s Historic Home Tour.

 

One of the cocktails she serves is the Cherry Gin Fizz. Her recipe is below:

 

Samantha’s Cherry Gin Fizz

 

Ingredients:

1-1/2 ounces gin

1/2 ounce fresh-squeezed lime juice

1/2 ounce cherry simple syrup (see recipe below)

2 dashes cherry bitters

Champagne or other sparkling wine

 

Add gin, lime juice, cherry simple syrup, and cherry bitters to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake until well chilled and strain into a coupe glass. Top with champagne. Garnish with a cocktail cherry.

 

Cherry Simple Syrup

 

Ingredients:

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

1 cup fresh pitted cherries, chopped

 

Boil water and sugar; stir until sugar is dissolved. Add cherries and simmer 8 to 10 minutes or until cherries have softened. Remove mixture from heat and mash cherries with a potato masher or wooden spoon. Allow mixture to cool and strain through a fine-mesh strainer, removing cherry bits. 

 

The mixture can be refrigerated for up to a month and used in cocktail recipes or to flavor lemonades or other drinks. 

 

A Dash of Death

A Cocktails and Catering Mystery, Book 1 

Bad news for Samantha Warren: the plucky Houston, Texas, reporter lost her job and her fiancé in rapid succession. But Sam has a way of making lemonade out of the bitterest of lemons. At a meeting of the local historical-homes council, she serves up the homemade bitters that she made as gifts for her wedding party. She intends to use that as her “in” to become an in-demand party mixologist. But the party’s over for one of the council members, who keels over dead soon after he sips the bereft bride’s bitter brew.

 

It turns out that the victim, Mark, was poisoned—his drink spiked with oleander. Since Sam mixed the drink that Mark imbibed right before his demise, she finds herself at the front of the suspect line. Now she’ll have to use all her reporter’s wisdom and wiles to clear her name.

 

Who could have wanted Mark dead? His wife, Gabby? His girlfriend, Darcy? Someone who wanted his seat on the council? Or another citizen of this sweet Texas town that holds some seedy secrets?

 

Job hunting, building her mixology business, and fending off late-night phone calls from her nearly betrothed don’t leave much time for sleuthing. But if Sam can’t “pour” over the clues to find the killer, it may soon be the last call for her.

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#COOKING WITH CLORIS--MOJITOS, MOCKITOS & JAZZ FROM MYSTERY AUTHOR M.A. MONNIN

An Air Force veteran and avocational archaeologist, M.A. Monnin enjoys traveling and makes a point to visit archaeological sites wherever she goes. Her short crime fiction has also been published in Malice Domestic 14: Mystery Most Edible. Look for her next short story in an upcoming issue of Black Cat Mystery Magazine. Learn more about her and her stories at her website where you can also find links to her other social media sites.  

Notes From the Gimlet Lounge

In my short story “Siren Song”, Hawk Hathaway spends his evenings in the Gimlet Lounge, a current dive bar and former speakeasy. Like most of the patrons, he goes there to lose himself in the music and to forget the hard facts of life.

Greta, the bar owner’s daughter and bartender extraordinaire, claims to make the best cocktails in the city—Kansas City, Missouri. And who am I to argue with a sassy woman in a plaid miniskirt and biker boots? She takes care of her customers, and has certainly caught Hawk Hathaway’s eye.

Cocktails and mocktails are her specialty. Here’s one that’s popular on hot summer nights, a sure-to-please Mojito, followed by a non-alcoholic version. Because sometimes you can’t, shouldn’t, or simply don’t want to drink alcohol.

Mojito

One tall serving.

2-3 sprigs mint (12-15 mint leaves)

Frozen limeade concentrate, partially thawed, 2 heaping tablespoons

Bacardi Superior rum—3 oz. or two shots

Ice cubes

Perrier- plain or lime flavored.

In a pint glass, muddle mint sprigs or just mint leaves with limeade concentrate and rum. Mix well. Top with desired amount of ice, then fill glass with Perrier. To preserve the Perrier carbonation, stir gently with a swizzle stick.

Mockito

Follow the above directions, simply leaving out the rum. Still delicious and refreshing. And family friendly, too!

Greta says the cool mint and limeade are particularly satisfying when enjoyed in the evening with the sultry sounds of jazz playing in the background. If you, like the patrons of the Gimlet Lounge, want to lose yourself in the world of nightclubs, music, and mystery, check out All That Weird Jazz. 

All That Weird Jazz

Jazz. A music of improvisation, of passion, of its very own kind of magic. Considered by many to be the only truly original American form of music, it has, since its birth in a smoky room somewhere, also been tied to the strange, wrapped up in the supernatural, associated with the occult, at least in hints and shadows. In All That Weird Jazz several of the most innovative writers in genre fiction today tell tales of the unusual between the notes, the magic behind the music. From straight up pulp action to ghostly noir to a dragon who digs jazz more than anyone else, All That Weird Jazz takes love for this unique musical styling to an all new level, complete with adventure, thrills, and even a chill or two.

Stories include:

“Siren Song”

by M. A. Monnin

Hawk Hathaway is a man in need of redemption. Righting a 90-year-old wrong will either save his soul or cost him his life. To live with himself, he has to try.

“Trane Blue—A Cornelius Dex Story”

By Kimberly Richardson

One man’s life changes in the course of a night, thanks to good jazz and a surly dragon.

“Ghost in the Jazz”

By E. W. Farnsworth

‘Gone’ and ‘Lost’ jazz performers Max and Sixie continue their musical partnership after Max’s murder to solve the crime and exact revenge.

“Django in Paris”

By Davide Mana

In occupied Paris, Django Reinhardt moves like a ghost, and his music is an inspiration for those that oppose the Nazis. Now, people in Berlin and Wewelsburg want to learn his secret. And stop him.

“Jazz Juice”

By McCallum Morgan

The discovery of a rare record with a supernatural secret will send Nyle on a search for the soul of music. Retracing the footsteps of his favorite trumpet player from the 1920s, he will encounter voodoo and discover just how much he’s willing to give for music.

“Sounds and Sweet Airs” 

By Sharae Allen

Headstrong psychic Dorothy Baxter must save her jazz club haven from human and supernatural forces during Prohibition. As she grows into her powers under the watchful eye of a ruthless club owner and conjure woman, she learns that even though she can see the future, there is no way to escape it. 

“Midnight Fugue” 

By Mark Barnard

1930s New Orleans—a city of hot jazz, good times and voodoo. It started with a broken reed, a severed head and a strangely glowing tarot card, and ended with something far worse.

“Dark Magus” 

By James Hopwood

When an ancient being that feeds on sound escapes from a confinement facility in Africa and threatens the very fabric of society, there’s only one man who can save us all—the coolest hepcat on the planet, Miles Davis.

“Starshine in Storyville” 

By Ernest Russell

Can music save us all? As long as the Guardians of Storyville are here to defend us, yes.

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#COOKING WITH CLORIS--MYSTERY AUTHOR SARAH E. GLENN ON BOOZY RESEARCH & A BEE'S KNEES COCKTAIL

A very classy Bee’s Knees, courtesy of the Vinoy Hotel

Sarah E. Glenn, a Jane-of-all-trades, has a B.S. in Journalism. She loves reading and writing mystery and horror stories, often with a sidecar of funny. Interesting tidbit: Sarah worked the Reports Desk for her local police department, and she can attest that criminals are dumb. Learn more about Sarah and her books at her website. 

Boozy Research

By Sarah Glenn and Gwen Mayo

I have an interesting conundrum: I don’t drink, but I’m writing a confirmed tippler. Teddy Lawless loves her drinks, especially cocktails. When I wrote my trunk novel, I researched gardening. When I wrote my vampire satire, I researched Irvine, California (the setting). Now, I’m exploring some of the older drinking establishments in Saint Petersburg, including one featured in Murder at the Million Dollar Pier.

The Jungle Prada Tavern

The Gangplank, built in 1924, was Saint Petersburg’s first night club, located in the then exclusive Jungle Prada area. It overlooked Boca Ciega Bay and would later have a splendid view of the Don Cesar Hotel. During Prohibition, rumrunners’ boats docked at the small pier a short distance from the building. From there, the booze was taken through a tunnel that opened in the fireplace of the club, keeping the Gangplank well supplied with high quality alcohol from the Caribbean. Al Capone was rumored to be one of the investors.

It was a must for our book. We discovered there was still a bar on the old site, the Jungle Prada Tavern, and we made a pilgrimage to Boca Ciega to see what was left of the club. The original complex has been broken into multiple buildings, but we still found remnants of the bandstand and the dance floor, shaped like the prow of a ship. In the 1920s, bright striped canvas awnings covered the open-air dance floor. 

Entering the bar was like stepping into a time machine. The bar where Babe Ruth was married and countless illegal bottles of rum were consumed, is much the same, though the fireplace is gone. The current drink menu features several cocktails inspired by 1920s recipes. We asked them to make watered-down versions for us, but they curled my hair anyway. I’m not ready to be a full-fledged flapper yet. 

The Bee’s Knees

(featured cocktail in Murder at the Million Dollar Pier)

In the 1920s, “the bee’s knees” was slang that meant “the best.” The Prohibition-era cocktail was a gin sour blend of lemon juice and honey that was created to mask the harsh “bathtub gin” smell. The earliest book to publish the recipe was the 1930 edition of San Francisco bartender and author Bill Boothby’s cocktail compendium World Drinks and How to Mix Them. However, the blend is believed to have originated in post-World War I Paris, where sugar was in short supply. The true origin of the drink is the subject of much debate and so far, there is no definitive answer.

There are several existing versions of The Bee’s Knees, including one that is still served at the Vinoy Park Hotel. They differ in some ways, but all of them agree on three basic ingredients: honey syrup, gin, and lemon juice. I’m partial to the version they serve at the Vinoy: so sweet, you could have it as dessert.

Ingredients:

1 cocktail shaker of crushed ice 

2 oz. gin 

1 oz. honey syrup  

1 oz. fresh squeezed lemon juice 

Shake the liquids with crushed ice and strain the drink into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon or orange twist and/or a sprig of fresh basil. 

(Honey syrup is made by thinning honey with hot water. I recommend every 3 ounces of honey be thinned with one ounce of hot water. If you prefer a less sweet drink use honey and hot water in a 1 to 1 ratio.) 

Murder at the Million Dollar Pier

Three Snowbirds, Book 2

Shortly after Teddy Lawless arrives at the newly opened Vinoy Hotel in Saint Petersburg, she comes face to face with her ex-fiancé, Ansel Stevens, in the dining room. Cue the slap that was thirty years in the making. Her ex-fiancé dies during a yacht race shortly thereafter. Conclusion of the authorities: poison. Teddy is arrested after her hair comb is found on the deck of the vessel. Can Cornelia Pettijohn and Uncle Percival save fun-loving Teddy before she goes from the grand hotel to the big house?

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