OnTap Magazine

50 | Spring 2025 | ontapmag.co.za BEER & BOOKS Q: In an interview during the release of “The White Road,” you said, "For me, the interesting thing about writing is that it allows you to explore parts of your own nature and yourself that you perhapswouldn't in another vocation.” Do you think this is true in the context of music and beer? A: I wonder what parts of my nature I might be exploring with beer, never mind music. Still, I do think that those who make great music, and those who make great beer or wine, approach it as a vocation, and for some of the same reasons: they're expressions of something inside oneself, and noble professions, because they bring people a great deal of pleasure. Q: I remember a scene in, I think, Dark Hollow, where Charlie Parker reflects on an unnamed Brooklyn-based brewery that was closed by prohibition as part of reflection on the past We sat down with John Connolly, author of the Charlie Parker Novels, to talk about his references to craft beers and South African wines in his iconic series of crime novels.