Tag: Crime

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A Book & A Beer – The Department of Sensitive Crimes

My mom reads Alexander McCall Smith, so I knew going in that The Department of Sensitive Crimes is not going to be hard-nosed noir or sensitive but boy, this book makes Jessica Fletcher seem like Dirty Harry.

Set in Scandanavia we are set into a police group that has little to do and what little they do is so gentle and caring that even if you have a jaundiced view of police as I do, makes you think these people are way soft on crime. There are two crimes in this book as well as a depressed dog. An inter-office love affair that never happens and a guy who likes fishing. There is more violence and intrigue in a normal cubicle farm.

To pair with this pallid book, I would zip in the opposite direction. Try to find a local gruit. There is almost always one on tap somewhere. Yeah, not easy to find but it would tie you back to Europe and would have the spice needed to make this bland book more palatable. Or you could set up some Kveik yeasted IPA’s which are in larger supply and let the soft hop bitterness match that of this Department.

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A Book & A Beer – Best American Mystery Stories 2018

Count me as a huge short story fan. I gobbled up any Stephen King collection that I could find and when I saw the Mystery Edition of 2018. I snapped it up.

There are good, bad and ugly in any collection but this one had a higher fun ratio than most. I really like “Y is for Yangchuan Lizard” was both funny but stuck the landing with the bad girlfriend twist. I was excited to see a T.C. Boyle story but it was a superficial and weirdly not aged well elder theft story. Another top 3 story was Smoked which combined BBQ and the witness protection program and a long range shooter you don’t see coming.

There was a Jack Reacher story which was solid and movie like. You can easily tell why the character resonates. It was good to see an old Western included and not good to see ye’ Olde Jack the Ripper trotted out again.

Probably my favorite was a piece entitled Windward. About a missing 3rd wife to a hotshot film producer. It had good PI language and a fun Venice setting.

For the beers, I am going to say that you look for really sessionable beers. Dark English milds would be good, maybe a dry hopped lighter lager. Since the stories are shorter the ABV should be lower. A German Helles might do the trick since some of these characters are probably bound for the hotter place.


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Review – Crime from Stone Brewing

It had been awhile since a box from Stone Brewing had reached my doorstep, but then I received this….

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To give away my review, I am so glad that I did not get Punishment.  This beer is all pepper.  Seriously, it is hot.  My cheeks are warm and my lips are stinging.  Crime is part of the 2013 Series, Quingenti Millilitre.  This was Batch No. 8.  It has red and green Jalapenos.  Cause why not.  Then they added MORE peppers.  Caribbean Red Hots, Black Naga’s, Fatalis and something with Scorpion in the title.

Supposedly it is Lukcy Basartd Ale aged in Bourbon barrels.  But those flavors are gone.  Obliterated.  Nowhere to be found.  To me it is undrinkable when warm and barely good when ice cold.  I am not a pepper fan but I have enjoyed Habanero Sculpin in the past as well as other beers with chile in them when they worked “With” the rest of the beer.  That is not the case here.  This is one note and that note is hot.  More novelty beer than anything else.

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I wish I had gotten No. 7 in the series the Southern Charred.  Oh well.  At least the new book I am reading is good.  It is by L.A. (Echo Park) author Charlie Huston. Skinner is about “asset protection” in general but fast paced action with social commentary on the side.  Another cracking read from Huston whose book The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death is one of my favorites.