If you love a great cocktail as much as you love a great mystery, Gothic tale, or true crime story, you’ll be enthralled by the cocktail recipes and gorgeous color photographs featured between the covers of Ulysses Press’ Mixology and Murder and The Turn of the Screwdriver: 50 Dark and Twisted Literary Cocktails.
The Perfect Cocktails for a Dark and Stormy Night
I’ve read my way through numerous English and American literature college courses and loved every minute of it. If you are a mixologist, book nerd, or a horror or Goth novel fan who appreciates a delicious cocktail, you simply must add a copy of The Turn of the Screwdriver: 50 Dark and Twisted Literary Cocktails by Iphigenia Jones to your bookshelf. The spooky, mouthwatering recipes featured in The Turn of the Screwdriver are inspired by stories written by “Anne Rice, Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, and other legendary Gothic authors.” The book is divided into two distinct literary periods: The Classic (1764-1970) and The Modern (1970-2022) and each section contain a brief summation of the story that inspired the cocktail.
Much like the cocktail recipe book Mixology and Murder, also reviewed in this post, The Turn of the Screwdriver features gorgeous color photographs of each of its creatively named cocktails. You need not be a mixologist to make these cocktails as most of the cocktails require commonly-used ingredients.
In the Classics section you will find cocktails with witty names like The Picture of Dorian Grey Goose (inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray) and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mudslide (inspired by The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). In the Modern section, you’ll find drinks with clever names like Red Rum (inspired by Stephen King’s The Shining) and the Transylvania Terminator (inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula).
The Turn of the Screwdriver: 50 Dark and Twisted Literary Cocktails is a great gift to give to mixologists, Goth horror fans, and book lovers seeking creepy book-themed cocktails to serve at book club meetings or Halloween parties.
Cocktails to Die For
Mixology and Murder by Kierra Sondereker is a beautifully illustrated cocktail recipe guide featuring cocktails “inspired by infamous serial killers, cold cases, cults, and other disturbing true crime stories. You need not have mixology experience because the majority of the book’s cocktail recipes are not difficult to replicate at home. In fact, the guide helpfully provides definitions of bartending terminology and a list of common household items thatcan easily substitute for cocktail shakers, muddlers, mixing glasses, and jiggers.
There are four chapters, and each chapter has cocktails inspired by a true crime story. Within, you will find the following categories: Serial Killer Cocktails, Cold Case Cocktails, Cult Cocktails, and True Crime Cocktails. I learned that the Mother Dearest cocktail (which looks yummy) was inspired by a reputed serial killer named Edward Gein, who was also known as the Butcher of Plainfield. Until reading this book, I hadn’t known that the character Norman Bates in Psycho was based on Gein’s reputation as a serial killer with an Oedipus complex.
Many of the cocktails are expressly colorful and dramatic looking. For example, Red and Blue, inspired by the Lindberg baby kidnapping is a gorgeous shade of purple and The Black Widow, inspired by the husband-killing “black widow” Betty Lou Beets is served up as a pitch-black cocktail, courtesy of black food coloring.
If you enjoy serving drinking tasty cocktails and true crime stories, Mixology and Murder is a must have.
