The Spy Coast

Longmorn whisky is a motif throughout the novel. It is Maggie’s favorite drink, in part because “[w]ith the sting on my tongue comes memories of London. Of the first time I tasted the Longmorn, with Danny” (104). For Maggie, Longmorn holds a personal connection to the love of her life, Danny Gallagher, but it is more complicated than that. It is also a reminder of the responsibility she feels for Danny’s death, the man she lost through what she sees as her betrayal. She keeps this connection to Danny, and the remorse she feels, alive by keeping Longmorn in her life—although in many ways she has left the past behind, living a simple life in Purity, she keeps the bottle of Longmorn that Ingrid found for her in her cupboard.

In the present, Longmorn is saved for special occasions and serious conversations between Maggie and her friends, “the signal that [the] conversation is about to get serious” (344). Maggie’s willingness to share her precious Longmorn with them shows the level of intimacy between them: “Declan rises from my kitchen table and opens the cabinet where I keep my treasure. […] He’s been in my house often enough to know where I stash it, […] He […] sets down the whisky with a thunk, a signal that the conversation is about to get serious” (103).