Booo!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Black Cabinet by Patricia Wentworth

So this begins quite a bit more slowly than The Astonishing Adventures of Jane Smith, which I loved. There is a lot of setting up and backstory. I think it could have been condensed, but I can feel Wentworth conscientiously trying to not confuse the slower readers. ;-)  And she's trying to work in a romance, and that takes a bit of time too.

It's a fascinating premise, and I'm tempted to lift it for some kind of a period mash-up -- a young woman inherits the entire estate of a distant relative -- including his thriving blackmail practice complete with villainous partner.

LOVE this cover.

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Crime and Cocktails - The Zombie

The Zombie has a very interesting history. You can read about it here.


3/4 cup crushed ice
1 1/2 ounces aged Jamaican rum
1 1/2 ounces gold Puerto Rican rum
1 ounce 151-proof Lemon Hart Demerara rum
3/4 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
2 teaspoons white grapefruit juice 
1 teaspoon Cinnamon Syrup
1 teaspoon Grenadine
1/2 ounce falernum
1/8 teaspoon Pernod
1 dash aromatic bitters, such as angostura
Ice cubes
1 mint sprig

Place all ingredients except ice cubes and mint sprig in a blender. Blend on high until frothy but not slushy, no more than 5 seconds.

Pour into a tall, narrow glass and add ice cubes to fill the glass. Garnish with a mint sprig.

Looking Ahead (From Very Far Behind)

I want to thank everyone who over the years has taken the time and trouble to send helpful notes and updates to the Girl-Detective website. Unfortunately, because of the logistics of trying to run two different writing careers in two different publishing hemispheres, Girl-Detective as a resource site sort of got short-changed. As in completely neglected for the past five years or so.

I’ve been speaking to Mr. Thrilling (Thrilling Dectective Website Guy) and we’ve decided it makes more sense to break Girl-Detective away from Diana Killian. It’s less confusing for everyone if the site exists independently of my author site. Plus, once GD is no longer attached to DianaKillian, it stops being work and goes back to being a hobby -- which means I’ll have fun with it again. As in might perhaps actually do something with it.

What that might be, I’m not sure. Mostly review vintage books and movies. Or perhaps “review” is not the correct term for my, er, exploration of some of these old titles. But continue to…offer them up for your consideration perhaps?  

And perhaps even occasionally review contemporary (historical mystery fiction) books or interview authors of such? I don’t know. I’m not going to commit to anything because next year is going to be ferociously busy -- even more so than usual -- plus I’ll be traveling quite a bit (quite a bit for me, anyway).

So this blog will be attached to the Girl-Detective website. And the Diana Killian blog will be attached to the new Diana Killian website. Which doesn’t exist yet, but it will be up and running in some form before Bouchercon this year.

As for those helpful notes and updates…I hang onto everything, so chances are I’ve still got them and we’ll hopefully be able to make the updates at long last.

Winter Reading 2015

What are you planning to read?