Synopses & Reviews
Worlds within worlds-enter into a very special
culture with unwritten rules...
Brian McNulty, veteran bartender at Oscar's on the Upper West Side, respects his customer's privacy. And their space. But when one--a tarnished but innocent young woman seduced by New York's bright lights and glitter--is murdered, and another battered innocent charged with killing her, he reluctantly begins his own investigation.
Brian's enthusiasm for the chase is given a boost with the arrival of the dead girl's sister, a young business woman from Massachusetts, equally bent on uncovering the killer. She's put off by his jaded attitude and offbeat lifestyle, but comes to rely upon his familiarity with the city's darker underside. Brian, in turn, enlists the aid of a cadre of neighborhood cronies. The suspects: all of the regulars at Oscar's, each with more to hide than the next.
A leftist politcally, a dedicated union man, Brian learns that when you dig into people's lives, rich or poor, you find things kept hidden for good reason. By stirring up these ghosts, you change the shape of the landscape and put your friends in harm's way.
This special first novel comes wrapped in art work created for it by famed artist Fritz Scholder.
Review
"Brian’s bar-focused outlook (the author was a former bartender), the bar “family,” and an abundance of booze, drugs, and sex make for colorful reading." -- Library Journal
" Set in 1983 but timeless in its depiction of men and women struggling to cope with whatever demons beset them, Lehane's assured debut merits a warm welcome from readers who prize originality and insight." -- Publisher's Weekly
"Lehane’s narrative vividly evokes a melancholy city in decline, and a sullen man who, when forced to act, rises above the alcoholic despair that surrounds him." -- Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
"Any New Yorker will realize that the story line is an actual portrayal of life in the Big Apple (at least the Manhattan borough). BEWARE THE SOLITARY DRINKER has much to recommend it." -- Midwestern Book Review
Review
"On the Upper West Side of Broadway, there is a bar called Oscar's and the night bartender, forty-year-old Brian McNulty is familiar to the regulars who drink there every night. One night Angelina shows up, a beautiful, vibrant and enchanting young woman who ensorcells the men fortunate enough to catch her eye. She is a bit promiscuous but even when she stays in Brian's apartment, she doesn't sleep with him.
One day she comes in throwing money around saying she's got a sugar daddy. Shortly thereafter, her dead body is found with no clue who did it because there are so many known suspects, never mind the unknown ones. Brian, who is egged on by Angelina's sister Janet, decides to conduct an independent investigation because he knows that some of the people involved won't talk to the police. As the investigation progresses, another person dies and Brian almost becomes the killer's third victim.
The hero is an 'everyman' sort of guy, making him appealing to both genders. For an amateur, he is a very good detective and he actually unearths some very decent clues that lead to possible suspects. Any New Yorker will realize that the story line is an actual portrayal of life in the Big Apple (at least the Manhattan borough). BEWARE THE SOLITARY DRINKER has much to recommend it." -Midwest Book Review
Review
"On the Upper West Side of Broadway, there is a bar called Oscar's and the night bartender, forty-year-old Brian McNulty is familiar to the regulars who drink there every night. One night Angelina shows up, a beautiful, vibrant and enchanting young woman who ensorcells the men fortunate enough to catch her eye. She is a bit promiscuous but even when she stays in Brian's apartment, she doesn't sleep with him. One day she comes in throwing money around saying she's got a sugar daddy. Shortly thereafter, her dead body is found with no clue who did it because there are so many known suspects, never mind the unknown ones. Brian, who is egged on by Angelina's sister Janet, decides to conduct an independent investigation because he knows that some of the people involved won't talk to the police. As the investigation progresses, another person dies and Brian almost becomes the killer's third victim. The hero is an 'everyman' sort of guy, making him appealing to both genders. For an amateur, he is a very good detective and he actually unearths some very decent clues that lead to possible suspects. Any New Yorker will realize that the story line is an actual portrayal of life in the Big Apple (at least the Manhattan borough). BEWARE THE SOLITARY DRINKER has much to recommend it." -Midwest Book Review
Review
"Another man with the soul of a bartender is Cornelius Lehane, a man who used to tend bar, but is now a journalist in Washington, D.C. Lehane’s book, Beware the Solitary Drinker, is a neat little murder mystery set in Manhattan, and centered around a joint on the Upper West Side , but rather than tell you about the plot, we’ll just give you a short sample of his work here--it’s a piece that proves that Lehane put his time in behind the stick:
'I’d learned to pour with both hands, to make sure that the bar stations were all set up when I took over a shift, and to make sure that the bar was clean and stocked when I left a shift. I learned about working with my head up and always knowing everything that was happening at every moment. I learned how to make a good living, which means being alert for walkouts, for spotters, controlling the waiters and waitresses so they didn’t become independent contractors. I learned to know who was trouble the second he or she enteredthe bar.'
We wish Lehane would quit his journalist job and get back behind the stick where he belongs--he’d be a credit to the industry, and he’d have more time to pen a whole series of wonderful books like this one. Buy this book, too." -–Ardent Spirits
Review
"Lehane’s narrative vividly evokes a melancholy city in decline, and a sullen man who, when forced to act, rises above the alcoholic despair that surrounds him."--Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
Review
"The characters who inhabit Oscar's bar on New York's Upper West Side are serious drinkers with more than their share of quirks, shames, secrets and strengths. In this strong debut novel, Lehane exhibits a sensitive empathy for those who find solace in drink and drugs and the ambience at Oscar's, where one can be solitary but not alone. Mostly older, mostly men, Oscar's patrons are captivated by Angelina, an alluring, available young woman, who begins to frequent their bar. Even bartender Brian McNulty, a participant/observer-presiding, absorbing, but never probing-is drawn into her orbit. But when the beautiful, troubled Angelina is murdered and Brian's customers and friends become suspects, he reluctantly abandons his bartender's code: "I enter my friend's house deaf; I leave dumb." Instead, prodded by the arrival of Angelina's sister, Janet, from their hometown of Springfield, Mass., Brian begins to learn more than he wants about Angelina's past. Brian is a wonderfully complex character, and Lehane revealshim to the reader with exquisite skill.
Brian takes shape, developing substance and form, just as his stumbling investigation does. Set in 1983 but timeless in its depiction of men and women struggling to cope with whatever demons beset them, Lehane's assured debut merits a warm welcome from readers who prize originality and insight." -Publishers Weekly starred review
Synopsis
Worlds within worlds-enter into a very special
culture with unwritten rules...
Brian McNulty, veteran bartender at Oscar's on the Upper West Side, respects his customer's privacy. And their space. But when one--a tarnished but innocent young woman seduced by New York's bright lights and glitter--is murdered, and another battered innocent charged with killing her, he reluctantly begins his own investigation.
Brian's enthusiasm for the chase is given a boost with the arrival of the dead girl's sister, a young business woman from Massachusetts, equally bent on uncovering the killer. She's put off by his jaded attitude and offbeat lifestyle, but comes to rely upon his familiarity with the city's darker underside. Brian, in turn, enlists the aid of a cadre of neighborhood cronies. The suspects: all of the regulars at Oscar's, each with more to hide than the next.
A leftist politcally, a dedicated union man, Brian learns that when you dig into people's lives, rich or poor, you find things kept hidden for good reason. By stirring up these ghosts, you change the shape of the landscape and put your friends in harm's way.
This special first novel comes wrapped in art work created for it by famed artist Fritz Scholder.
About the Author
Cornelius Lehane is a writer and editor for the United States' largest teachers union, the National Education Association. In other incarnations, he's been a college professor, a union organizer, and, yes, for more than a decade, a bartender. After spending most of his life in and around New York City, he now lives in a close-in suburb of Washington, DC with his wife, two sons, and an assortment of pets. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in fiction writing from Columbia University School of the Arts. A slightly different version of Beware the Solitary Drinker was published in France by Rivages/Noir this past spring.