Brian McNulty is a bartender who becomes an investigator when one of his customers is killed and another charged as the murderer. The dead girl’s sister arrives, and although put off by McNulty’s jaded attitude and different lifestyle, they form an unlikely alliance to track down the real killer.

‘Beware The Solitary Drinker’ is a book that will have difficulty finding an audience. Just as the girl’s sister finds the lifestyle of the main character, Brian McNulty, hard to understand, the reader will have difficulty in understanding how McNulty works and his behaviour. It could be argued that if we are not police officers, we do not know how the legal system works, yet we are so accustomed to it on the television that it has become commonplace. However, seedy bars mixed with drug-taking are not normally the setting for a mystery novel.

Lehane creates numerous characters, and as a mystery novel, it is intriguing. It was not at all clear to me who the murderer was, but this may also be because many of the characters seemed to have skeletons in their closets.

‘Beware The Solitary Drinker’ is intended to be dark, gritty and showing the seamier side of life. There are the odd moments of humour, but overall, I think the majority of readers will not empathise enough with the main character to make the novel a success. This is not to say that it is a bad novel, but more that the setting, interesting though it is, may be too outlandish for most.