VASE OF BROKEN FLOWERS
RELEASE DATE SEPTEMBER 1
PREORDER HERE
READ THE FIRST 4 CHAPTERS!
Recipe; Red Curry Fish
This is a delightful dish that’s easy to make and a treat to eat!
Ingredients
1 lb. of sole filets
1 tablespoon of red curry paste
1 tablespoon of butter
8 mushrooms, halved.
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 can of coconut milk
Minced cilantro and lime slices.
Directions
Cut the filets into large chunks and fry in butter until slightly brown on both sides. Remove.
Add red curry paste, ginger, garlic, sliced mushrooms, fish sauce and brown sugar. Fry for 2 minutes.
Pour in coconut milk and fried fish. Heat for two minutes.
Serve with cooked rice. Top with cilantro and lime.
Enjoy!
Non-Fiction Book Review
The Devil in the White City
By Eric Larson
When this book first came out over 20 years ago, I thought it was a novel about a fictional serial killer running amok in 19th century Chicago. When I finally purchased a copy at King W Bookstore in Hamilton, Ontario, however, I was delighted to discover that the killer was, in fact, real.
Former Time magazine writer Erik Larson has made a career mashing up historical events with real-life felons. The Devil in the White City covers the conception, construction and launch of the 1893 Chicago World Fair, along with the pursuit of a notorious murderer, Dr. H.H. Holmes.
The fair in question (known as The White City) has since faded from popular memory, but at the time it was internationally famous. Daniel Burnham, a prominent Chicago architect, was intent on celebrating the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ discovery of America in opulent fashion.
The city’s movers and shakers agreed, and Chicago launched what would become the preeminent event of the final decade of the century. Massive buildings designed to house the latest American innovations in cuisine (Cracker Jacks), thrills (The Ferris Wheel), and inventions (Edison’s Alternating Current) took shape on the shores of Lake Michigan.
At the same time, a psychopath by the name of Harry Holmes took up residence in a suburb of Chicago, opening a popular pharmacy. A handsome, charming man, he would beguile young single women into renting apartments in his commodious building and then pop their chlorophormed corpses into the basement furnace.
Incredibly, Holmes managed to get away with his heinous crimes for several years before an astute detective managed to track him down and uncover the grisly remains of up to two dozen victims.
In the meantime, Burnham and his fair prevailed over seemingly insurmountable odds to pull off the most widely-attended peacetime event in history.
Larson puts together a compelling narrative that follows the two threads in tandem; the result is a snapshot of a distant world that offers the reader a fascinating glimpse of a time long disappeared. I highly recommend The Devil in the White City!
Book Review
The Interpretation of Murder
By Jed Rubenfeld
This is a murder mystery set in the early 20th century involving Sigmund Freud, his acolyte Dr. Stratham Younger, and the prodigiously corrupt New York Police Department.
Gotta love that mix. Freud is in town to give a series of lectures on psychoanalysis at Clark University. Stratham Younger, a lecturer at its medical faculty, has been assigned to escort the eminent Viennese doctor for the week.
The murder in question is that of Miss Elizabeth Riverford, a beautiful young woman whose barely-clad corpse is found bound, gagged and whipped in a luxury New York apartment.
The silk tie wrapped around her neck bears the tie-pin of industrialist George Banwell, who strenuously protests his innocence; he has, in fact, an iron-clad alibi provided by no less than the mayor of New York.
Before NYPD Detective Jimmy Littlemore can make any headway in the case, Miss Nora Acton is also attacked in her nearby apartment in similar fashion. She manages to scare off the attacker with her screams, but the assault has caused a total case of amnesia and she cannot remember the identity of the murderer.
Police call on Freud to help; the doctor in turn places Younger in charge of her therapy. He works to restore the fetching woman’s memory before the killer can strike again.
In the meantime, Freud’s contentious theories of sexuality and neurosis have stirred up a puritanical backlash that threatens to cancel his lecture series. Younger finds himself trying to simultaneously balance the controversy and the threats to his beguiling patient.
Larson has great fun intertwining medical advances, murder and mayhem (with a little Shakespeare thrown in), to create a thoroughly entertaining and intriguing novel. I highly recommend The Interpretation of Murder!