Brian McNulty is New York bartender who always seems to get into the middle of a murder intrigue. He’s also the son of a Communist union man as well as the father of a teenaged son who now lives with Brian’s ex-wife. Brian, also a labor organizer, arranges a strike at the hotel in which he works after a waitress was fired from her job. Two deaths occur soon afterward, and Brian goes about trying to figure out what happened so that neither of the murders are pinned on him.

This is the second book about Brian McNulty that I’ve read and enjoyed. It’s a bit hard for me because I’m not a “mystery” reader, and I read this book only because it had been given to me by Con Lehane, a local author. I’m happy to report that I found this book a fun read. Although I’m not great about following convoluted plots, I gave it a go and happily didn’t have to remember too many characters. I remembered McNulty’s “Pop” (his dad) and Kevin (his son) from a previous book. McNulty is a character who is always bumbling around and coming to wrong conclusions. That was okay because he kept me smiling with his wry sense of humor and great one-liners while he tried to decipher the murderer’s identity. Beside, I also liked the cat who kept coming and going in and out of McNulty’s window. ( )

Bartender Brian McNulty finds himself leading a strike and before long has two deaths to investigate. McNulty is a great character with a lovely voice, and his relations with friends and family (his commie dad, his teen-aged son) are nicely drawn. There is almost no pacing in the books in this series, with events ambling along to the end. Read it for McNulty, not for adrenaline.