Fletcher Flora is a last-century pulp/pocket book/noir/mystery/etc. writer who perhaps in my humble opinion (or imho, as they say) hasn’t always gotten his due as being in the upper echelon of such writers. He has, in his best work, an individual style (I have a hard time pinning it down in words. I read it called “off-beat” and that’s not a bad description, character-forward, wry in a way, you just have to read them), and he’s from KS, as I was, both of which drew me to him. Until recently, there weren’t a lot of reprints of his novels, and the stories were – like so many stories pubbed in t ..read more

You know, you can’t have desserts every day. Well, maybe you can! But for me, that’s a waistline-bursting situation. So, on those dessert skipping days, I try to just have a nice dessert drink (haha). Of course, my first choice is the king of the smooth, creamy, sweet cocktails drinks the Alexander, which people have been adoring since 1916 (not me, I’m old but not that old). Crafted of gin, crème de cacao, and cream, it’s of course a dream. But sometimes dreams can change! Today, my sweet-tooth sweeties, that change is coming via Dumante Verdenoce pistachio liqueur. As you might guess by the ..read more

I’ve had a couple Erik Ambler Cocktail Talks in the past (the long-ago past if we’re talking about the full age of this blog, but the short-ago past if we’re talking the age of peoplekind), and today feel I maybe didn’t give Mr. Ambler enough credit way back when. Or perhaps I’ve changed, as I just read Journey Into Fear, his international, I suppose intrigue novel is one way to describe it, spy-ish, is another, though the main character is in no way a spy, but an engineer of sorts. Said main character is in Turkey for his company in hope of updating Turkey’s water defense systems at the begi ..read more

Years and years ago I featured here on the Spiked Punch a quote we’ll call A Man’s Head Cocktail Part I, at least we will now, as today we are having A Man’s Head Part II! Both are from the George Simenon book of the same name, a book featuring his character par excellence, Inspector Maigret, the taciturn, sometimes slow-moving, relentless, irreplaceable Parisian policeman, and a book (you may have guessed this!), I recently re-read. It was as good this time as the first time, whisking you away in a bygone Paris through prose that is as unmistakable as our Inspector. This case circles around ..read more

Here’s a nice old drink from like 100 years ago or more (at least as far as I can tell), which carries a swell story, too, as it was named after a legendary ballet troupe. How often do we have drinks named after ballet troupes today? Not often enough friends! It’s a dancing combo of vodka, crème de cassis, and lime, which I think is a dancing combo indeed for summer, which we are within, a little fruity, a little citrus, a lot of umph. I also think this should be served extra cold if you can, which means some serious shaking, as if you were in the shape of a prima donna ballerina, like, say T ..read more

Here’s another Cocktail Talk quote from one of the super swell British Library Crime Classics anthologies. We’ve had a number of them on here in the past, as I’ve been slowly picking these collections up – there are a fair amount, all well edited by the hardest-working editor (at least it seems so from the many collections and individual novel reprints he’s edited) in fiction, Martin Edwards. Each, as a reminder or if you missed them in the past, features an assortment of mystery stories from better-known and lesser-known British writers who put pen to paper around the beginning of last centu ..read more

I remember when Punt e’ Mes wasn’t readily available stateside (I am very old, but not so old as to remember even earlier, when it probably was more available, before the more recent availability rebound, and if that all made sense, you probably haven’t had as many Punt e’ Mes Highballs as me, or you’ve had more and can now see and understand all thing), and during that time calling at the bar for the Punt e’ Mes Highball would garner strange looks. However! Even though this delicious sweet vermouth – though with it’s sweetness, hints o citrus, trailing into a smidge of bitterness nature, it s ..read more

I’m realizing now, after a period of reflection, that I didn’t actually say in The Five Bells and Bladebone Part I Cocktail Talk what the book was about, outside of a general overview into Martha Grimes books being named after pubs (or at least a fair portion of them and all the ones I’ve read). The non-description is a bit of an oversight, not that I’m here on the Spiked Punch to do book reviews. But I would be happy to try and entice you to read the books we Cocktail Talk from, if in a light manner that doesn’t interrupt your drinking. With that: a bit of a TW (twat-waffle) is found after b ..read more

Here’s a nice smoky, citrusy, smoothy, pepper-y number that’s ideal for the Junes, the time we’re residing within as I drink this. It all came about thusly: for reasons unknown (outside of me getting old, maybe having two many bottles around, those two things, or maybe it was alien interference in the atmosphere, which can be quite a problem on clear early-nearly-summer evenings), I forgot for a moment that I had a three-quarters full bottle of Ancho Reyes, the delectable ancho chile liqueur based on a recipe from way back in 1927, a liqueur delivering a hint of smoke and heat alongside a bala ..read more

I’ve had a few Martha Grimes Cocktail Talks on the Spiked Punch in the past, and now it’s time for another! From a book of hers I recently picked up called The Five Bells and Bladebone, which may seem a rather odd name for a book. But it’s taken from an English pub (which might differ in one space from the book title, that being between blade and bone), as are all the books I’ve read by Martha Grimes, and a big portion of all the books she wrote – so far, as she’s still alive at 93, and might write more! These titles and the pubs contained within the books makes said books, as you might expec ..read more