A Taste of Travel by Cathy Ace

RHYS BOWEN:  Today it's my great pleasure to host fellow Welsh-woman Cathy Ace (well, she has a better claim to Welshness than I as only my mother's side of the family comes from Wales but we Welsh have to stick together). Cathy and I have a lot in common: we both left Britain for a new life in the New World and both love to travel (and eat exotic foods too!) And since she is not good at tooting her own horn, I'm going to do it for her: her series and her stand alone have both been optioned for TV! Yay, Cathy! Dancing up and down wildly.
And I'm going to let her tell you about her heroine's latest adventure that has just come out:

CATHY ACE: 
Bore da, Rhys!

When I created my Welsh Canadian professor of criminal psychology, Cait Morgan, I gifted her with several of my own characteristics – a love of travel being one, and a love of food being another. Luckily for Cait she inhabits a world different than our reality, and in her most recent adventure she’s enjoying Jamaica in May (so let’s assume the May in the book isn’t May 2020!). I’m delighted I sent Cait to Jamaica when I did – because she had a wonderful time indulging in many local delicacies and solved a truly puzzling locked room mystery.

I’ve always believed you can learn a lot about a culture through its food and drink; the nature and seasonality of locally available ingredients; the impact of incomers with their own favourite flavours, and even utensils, which they bring with them; the type of fuel available for cooking – all these elements play their part in creating “local specialities”. Sometimes I look at an ingredient and wonder who on earth was brave enough to try eating it in the first place – especially when said ingredient turns out to be, essentially, poisonous. 

One such item plays a significant role in THE CORPSE WITH THE CRYSTAL SKULL – ackee. Ackee is a fruit grown in Jamaica which can be highly toxic; only one small part of the fruit is safe to be eaten during one short period of its life-span. (I hate to think how many people fell ill and even died before this was realized – but it does come in handy if you write murder mysteries!) Bammy is another Jamaican speciality that has its challenges – it has to be cooked in just the right way so that it’s not toxic. As for saltfish – well, that might not be toxic, but it needs the correct preparation to be enjoyably edible. And then there are the local Jamaican drinks: rum, of course (though that’s not to my, nor Cait’s, taste) as well as the uniquely-spiced Jamaican ginger beers, and a soda called Ting, which is really only available in Jamaica and has a special grapefruit taste (beware – it’s addictive!).

Cait’s always been a globetrotting sleuth, and, as such, she’s done her fair share of “eating her way around the world”. I’ll happily admit I’ve eaten and drunk everything Cait has (trust me when I say I feel the weight of my responsibility to carry out exhaustive research!) so in each Cait Morgan Mystery, therefore, you don’t just get to travel to a different country, you also get to experience the food and drink of that country alongside Cait (and me). Cait’s most memorable flavours have been the escargots in Nice (The Corpse with the Silver Tongue), the sparkling rose wines of British Columbia (The Corpse with the Golden Nose), sizzling Mexican fajitas (The Corpse with the Emerald Thumb), the indulgence of caviar in Vegas (The Corpse with the Platinum Hair), the satisfaction of Welsh cawl [NOTE: it’s a lamb stew] (The Corpse with the Sapphire Eyes), the dislike of Hawaiian poi (The Corpse with the Diamond Hand), the delight of Dutch fries with mayonnaise (The Corpse with the Garnet Face), and the richness of meat roasted with paprika in a Hungarian butcher’s shop (The Corpse with the Ruby Lips).

Since we can’t travel at this time, I know a lot of folks are recalling past trips of their own, and I wonder what it is that you’ve eaten or drunk in a certain country that – for you – will always be the taste of the place you were visiting. Want to share?

About THE CORPSE WITH THE CRYSTAL SKULL

Welsh Canadian globetrotting sleuth, and professor of criminal psychology, Cait Morgan, is supposed to be “celebrating” her fiftieth birthday in Jamaica with her ex-cop husband Bud Anderson. But when the body of the luxury estate’s owner is discovered locked inside an inaccessible tower, Cait and her fellow guests must work out who might have killed him – even if his murder seems impossible. Could the death of the man who hosted parties in the 1960s attended by Ian Fleming and Noël Coward be somehow linked to treasure the legendary Captain Henry Morgan might have buried at the estate? Or to the mission Bud and his secret service colleagues have been sent to the island to undertake?

Connect with Cathy Ace:

Website: http://www.cathyace.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Cathy-Ace-Author-318388861616661/

Twitter: @AceCathy

 RHYS:  Here are the details of Cathy's exciting TV deal :

Free@LastTV is the UK production company that makes the hit Agatha Raisin series. They've optioned the Cait Morgan Mysteries to become a series of 90 minute TV movies. The unique atmosphere of each country Cait visits will be brought to the screen. Free@LastTV has also acquired the rights to The Wrong Boy, to be broadcast as a three-part mini-series, in English and Welsh.