The common thread

Although each of the stories in the Crime Cocktail series is different in terms of  where and when they are set, as well as the specific motivation for each of the crimes, there is, nevertheless, a common thread which runs through all three books. Their links to individual cocktails aside, that recurring connection is the thing the poets and playwrights of Ancient Greece referred to as hamartia. In short, the human flaw; character weaknesses that give under pressure. Often rationalised as the “correct” or “only” course of action – in some cases even rationalised as a noble cause –  they regularly mask the far-less-admirable motivations of vengeance, greed and lust. The human flaw, like the condition of “original sin” – a phrase first coined by St. Augustine of Hippo (354-439ad), appeasr to be an enduring condition with which all humans must wrestle – though, if our stories are anything to go by, with a very limited measure of success.