Chai Daiquiri for ‘Violent Spring’

Gary Phillips’s noir novel Violent Spring opens with a ground-breaking ceremony for a new Los Angeles mall. The location has history: When the verdict in the Rodney King case was announced, unrest had erupted on that same corner. In front of the mayor, the press, and members of the public, including private investigator Ivan Monk, the body of a Korean merchant turns up in the dirt. Soon, competing parties want to hire Monk to investigate the apparent murder.

Monk is the kind of man who excels at everything he does, including hunting down criminals and methodically evading danger. (He’s a former merchant seaman and an ex–bounty hunter, and he also owned a doughnut shop for a time.) But he realizes that solving this case or any other might not bring him any real satisfaction, nor the victim any tangible justice: “The detective, like Jesus, walked the walk of thieves and murderers, cheats and liars. But unlike Jesus, the detective had no forgiveness to dispense, no great truth to find.”

A tangled tale of crime, greed, and racial hierarchy, Violent Spring probes the “lie of the great melting pot,” employing fiction to expose truths about systemic failures. 

The Violent Spring “booktail” is a chai daiquiri served on the rocks. Daiquiris are a classic three-ingredient rum cocktail, usually made with lighter rum and served up. When Monk really needs a drink, however, he takes a straight shot of sweet rum. This recipe calls for black spiced rum, which intimates dark moods and darker corners. Chai syrup complements the spices in the rum, highlighting cardamom and cinnamon, for the glazed cinnamon rolls at Monk’s unofficial headquarters, Continental Donuts. The sweetness of the rum and syrup is tempered by tart lime juice. The citrus serves as a sharp reminder of a few pivotal California-Mexican lunches and some very messy tacos. The combination of chai and lime represents the dream of a true melting pot, where striking differences blend into something surprising yet wonderful—in this drink, at least, you might find a realization of that ideal.•

Join us on November 21 at 5 p.m. Pacific time, when Phillips will sit down with CBC host John Freeman and special guest Naomi Hirahara to discuss Violent Spring. Register for the Zoom conversation here.