Why Not Try the Pomegranate Wine?

Fruit wines are fermented alcoholic beverages made from various ingredients other than grapes. In particular, pomegranate wine has been popular in the Middle East since Ancient Times and is still commercially made in Israel today.

In The Deadliest Thief, Miriam enjoys pomegranate wine with her guest Nathaniel ben Ruben in Zenon’s Café. Pardon his table manners, but he hasn’t had a decent meal since he moved into The Flying Eagle, an inn he describes as “another crippled waterfront inn, dirty enough for the likes of smugglers, swindlers, and pickpockets.”

Here’s how Miriam describes ben Ruben’s manners:

The glassware chinked as my guest grabbed a goblet of pomegranate wine sweetened with honey and pawed four apricot tarts and two hefty chunks of manouri, a creamy whey cheese from Macedonia.

“Delicious,” he said. A speck of apricot sprayed out with his words. Without looking up, he crammed another tart into his mouth and bit off a mouthful of cheese. And then, like a desert nomad, he threw back the wine, smacked his lips, and leaned back while a rill ran down his chin. When he finished off the last tart, he dabbed at the crumbs on his plate and licked them off his fingertips before wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

Serve your pomegranate wine with a semi-soft cheese like manouri—it’s similar to feta but creamier and less salty—and a copy of The Deadliest Thief, a finalist in the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award for best mystery. Click here to watch the trailer.