November 9, 2021

Cocktail Talk: Martinis and Murder, Part V

martinis-murderWell, what I can I say about the Henry Kane hard-boiled pocket-sized slurper Martinis and Murder which hasn’t been said in the Martinis and Murder Cocktail Talks Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV? Well, nothing really (and, really, the cover says it all!), so let’s just get to the below quote – you can catch up on the rest by reviewing the past posts while you sip something nice and potent.

 

We danced all through it, comfortably and close. We drank brandy from big Napoleon glasses. The music got hot. The place filled up, got warm and noisy.

“Peter,” she said, inhaling smoke through a long holder with a finger loop, “I’m beginning not to like it here. Can’t we go somewhere else where it is quieter?”

“Do you like Sibelius?”

“I adore Sibelius.”

“I have Sibelius in quantities on wax discs and I have a lovely fireplace and I have oil paintings that cost me much, and I have a book of pornographic studies dating back to the fifteenth century. No etchings. But I have Pernod.”

“Sibelius and Pernod. You are a wicked man”

 

–Henry Kane, Martinis and Murder

November 2, 2021

Cocktail Talk: Martinis and Murder (Part IV!)

martinis-murderWay back now, oh, 6 years ago (wowza, times flies) or thereabouts I first read the Henry Kane pulper Martinis and Murder, starring detective, drinker, dancer (well, probably), romancer (certainly), and puncher Peter Chambers. And had a number of Cocktail Talks from it (check out Martinis and Murder Part I, Part II, and Part III to get caught up a bit). But recently I was hankering for some pocket-sized pulp reading, as I often am, and was pulled in by its catchy title and even-more-catchy cover, so re-read it. And, you know what? I found even more Cocktail Talk worthy quotes. The book is spilling boozy goodness (around some murdering and mystery-ing and hard-boiled action and smooching and such). Heck, in six years from now, I’ll probably read it again, and find even more potable quotables. But for today, let’s go with the below.

 

I came back and I asked, “How about some of the finest Sidecars ever concocted?”

“If you let me watch.”

“Why not?”

She trailed behind me. I turned and pushed her against the wall of the kitchen and kissed her hard.

“That for inspiration? she gasped.

“That’s for nothing,” I said.

I went to work with lemons and Cointreau and Cognac.

We brought the mixer into the living room, and in no time at all, fleece gathered.

 

–Henry Kane, Martinis and Murder

March 31, 2015

Cocktail Talk: Martinis and Murder, Part III

martinis-murderWe are now onto the third Cocktail Talk post featuring drinky talk from a book by Henry Kane. Please, please, for the love of all that’s dear to you, go back and read Part I and Part II, because you’ll only kick yourself when you miss them. Though the below may be my favorite, just cause you don’t see Sidecars come up in literature that often – and you need to savor them when they do!

I pursed my lips. I said, ‘Two sidecars.’

We sipped and looked at each other and set them down.

‘Let’s pay and leave,’ Edith said. ‘Mine stinks. And you look like yours does, too. Sacrilege. I’m going home. Got work.’

I put her into a taxi.

‘Bye, Red. Be seeing you.’

I walked home and went straight to the kitchen and fused lemon and Cointreau and cognac and in the living room I lapsed into beautiful beatitude.

–Henry Kane, Martinis and Murder

March 24, 2015

Cocktail Talk: Martinis and Murder, Part II

martinis-murderI introduced you to the book Martinis and Murder by Henry Kane (originally titled, A Halo for Nobody, by the way, which is nowhere near as good) in an earlier post, and promised, much like old Jacob Marley, that we’d have three different quotes from the book. And here’s the second!

‘Now,’ she said and she produced rye and bitters and cherries and olives and gin and two kinds of vermouth, dry and sweet, and then she backed up against a table and put her hands behind her and clasped the edge of the table and watched me, her body tight against her dress.

I mixed drinks. And set them up on the washtub and I looked at her and she didn’t move and I looked again and I don’t know which of us was breathing more heavily.

–Henry Kane, Martinis and Murder

March 17, 2015

Cocktail Talk: Martinis and Murder, Part I

martinis-murderThe cover blurb from the NYT review of this book says it all, “A brutal story of mayhem and murder, liquor and lust.” Okay, it doesn’t seem all that brutal today maybe as in 1947, but it does deliver on the murder, liquor, and lust, no doubt about that! Written by Henry Kane and starring a detective named Peter Chambers, Martinis and Murder is probably B level hard-boiled pulp action – not at the level of the masters, but not a bad little read. And as far as cocktail talking goes, this book is packed and overflowing with booze-y asides, varieties of imbibibles, and lots of general drinking. Oh, there’s a mystery, too, which gets solved in-between the drinks. Because the book’s so tipsy and happy about it, this is only going to be the first Cocktail Talk, of three! And there could have been more! Really!

She touched a cord with a gold tassel and the butler came in.

‘Aperitif?’ she inquired and looked at me.

‘Manhattan,’ I said.

‘Manhattan, Alfred. And several Martinis, dry. Please serve them in the garden. Now, come along, Peter Chambers. And don’t disgrace me.’

–Henry Kane, Martinis and Murder

Rathbun on Film