Jame DiBiasio's Guide to Books & Booze

Time to grab a book and get tipsy!

Books & Booze challenges participating authors to make up their own drinks, name and all, or create a drink list for their characters and/or readers using drinks that already exist. 

Today, Jame DiBiasio is throwing all the booze at the characters in his novels Gajiin Cowgirl and Bloody Paradise. 

Ready to get your booze on???

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Jame DiBiasio’s guide to books & booze

I drink. My friends drink more. The characters in my international pulp thrillers drink too much.

In Gaijin Cowgirl, a beautiful but troubled American woman, Val Benson, is working as a hostess in a Tokyo nightclub. Her number-one tipper is an old man with sinister hobbies and a map to wartime gold. Val burns a path of destruction through Southeast Asia racing against yakuza, bent cops and rogue CIA agents to get her hands on the loot.

And in Bloody Paradise, Trav lands on the Thai resort island of Koh Samui with a broken hand, a bag full of cash and an angry Hong Kong crime boss on his tail. He’s supposed to lie low, but then he meets Mazy, a yoga instructor with a penchant for booze and bad boyfriends.

Party Girl: Val Benson is a champagne fan, the more expensive the better – when the client is buying. Her true preference is cocaine, but that’s for dancing till dawn rather than entertaining salarymen. In the club they mostly drink Japanese whisky. 

Kentucky’s Own: Jeb Maxwell, ex-CIA, cut his teeth in the Vietnam War. He’s survived being thrown out of airplanes and kamikaze karate attacks. He wants to find the treasure and celebrate with his usual, a double Wild Turkey 101 Rye, neat.

Clean Livin’: Travis Mitchell is a kickboxer so he doesn’t drink much, but while he’s on the lam in Thailand he develops a taste for Chang beer. It’s cold, cheap and goes down eaaaasy. Perfect for tropical afternoons on the verandah, watching his life go out with the tide. 

Ask Questions Later: Mazy isn’t your usual Love-and-Namaste yoga instructor. She’s an alcoholic who’s pretty happy with whatever is in the fridge (usually Absolut vodka) or on the bar (beer). But in Thailand she finds the local rum, SangSom, a.k.a. Lady Song, really gets the job done. She even develops her own cocktail recipe, called Mazy’s Amazing Thai Mojito:

            Lady Song (80 proof)

            Local sugar cane juice (optional)

            Mint (optional)

            Limes (optional)

            Sparkling water (optional)

            Crushed ice (optional)

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Bio: 

Jame DiBiasio is the author of Bloody Paradise (Water Street Crime), Gaijin Cowgirl (Crime Wave Press) and the non-fiction The Story of Angkor (Silkworm Books). He is is an award-winning financial journalist based in Hong Kong. Visit him at www.jamedibiasio.com.