What Goes around Comes Around

From the Publisher

"Top-shelf fiction, a Crown Royal ride into the heart of Night and New York. Con Lehane's work is reminiscent of the best of Lawrence Block, which is to say that this is very good stuff, indeed."- George Pelecanos, author of Hard Revolution

"Reading What Goes Around Comes Around is like a marathon pub-crawl with a world-class raconteur, only without the skull-cracker of a headache the next morning. Con Lehane is a first class writer with a real command of character and a rare sense of place."- Scott Phillips, author of The Ice Harvest

"Sparkles with insight. Even better, smells like New York. For a guy who isn't me, Con Lehane can really write."- Kinky Friedman, author of Prisoner of Van Dam Street

"In this vivid depiction of the wiseguys and poor sods who drift through his flawed hero's bar, Con Lehane also shows us their modest hopes and dreams . . . There are no easy solutions in McNulty's world."- Margaret Maron, author of Bootlegger's Daughter

"The story starts with the body of a man in a tux floating in the East River. Then Con Lehane takes you on a wild cab ride through the late-late night world only the bartenders know about. You hold on, spinning, careening full circle to an ending I never saw coming. This is a rich, wonderful read."- Ed Dee, author of The Con Man's Daughter

"[An] arresting cast of colorful characters . . . [Con Lehane] brings alive the dark, offbeat world behind the facade of luxury hotels and bars."- Publishers Weekly

"Mainstream prose, clever plotting, and a sympathetic hero recommend this sequel . . . . Devotees of Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder hard-boiled series may enjoy."- Library Journal

"[P]lenty of elbow-bending action and seedy ambience to relish in these pages . . . . Its author's own experience behind the plank lends the McNulty series resonance, and the characters here are satisfyingly sculpted and frequently comic. Brian McNulty boasts the spirited potential of a long-cellared cabernet. Let's see what adventures he can uncork next."- J. Kingston Pierce, Amazon.com

"[S]uperb . . . New York noir at its finest. What Goes Around Comes Around, reminiscent of Lawrence Block at the top of his game in the Matt Scudder books, is a novel to be savored."- Mystery Lovers Book Store (Oakmont, Pennsylvania)

"A great follow up to Beware the Solitary Drinker. Con Lehane has a wonderful voice and has already earned a place at a bar filled with great mystery writers."- Mystery One Bookstore (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)

"Con Lehane delivers a moody view of New York City from atmospheric bars to Greenwich Village streets and a glimpse of an Atlantic City that no longer exists. What Goes Around Comes Around proves that Lehane has a feel for sculpting colorful characters."- Tucson Daily Star

"Brian is an interesting character. . . . Lehane draws upon his personal experiences as a bartender to breathe life and realism into the characters and settings of his novels. What Goes Around Comes Around is an entertaining addition to the Brian McNulty series."- New Mystery Reader

"Brian McNulty is a barman par excellence . . . What Goes Around Comes Around is a wild Cook's Tour of the seamier side of New York City life, with a couple of shootings, several knifings, death by overdose, and about every kind of dope you can imagine . . . Lehane's specialty is his description of the nighttime denizens of the Big Apple, especially those who hover around its bars. New Yorkers, especially, will enjoy this novel."- I Love a Mystery

"Con Lehane writes about trade union troubles in New York City with authority. One can sense the smells and sounds of McNulty's neighborhood. . . . What Goes Around Comes Around will make one thirsty for the third book in this fine series."- BookReporter.com"The writing is often lyrical, sometimes brooding, evoking in this reader nostalgia for the streets of long-ago Brooklyn, and richly capturing the flavor of New York in some of its seedier areas. Lehane keeps the suspense going until nearly the last page, the path a winding one, and the reader is swept along, right alongside Brian. Recommended."- Gloria Feit, DorothyL web site

"Lehane knows New York inside out, and lets this knowledge of the city's grimy underbelly and bar culture shine through . . . . If you like Lawrence Block's Scudder novels this book's for you."- Sarah Weinman, Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind web blog

Publishers Weekly

A repetitious and slogging plot weighs down Lehane's second Brian McNulty mystery, set in the late 1980s, a few years after the action in his well-received debut, Beware the Solitary Drinker (2002). When bartender McNulty finds an old acquaintance dead near the hotel where he works, he's drawn into a search for the killer by his mentor, John Wolinski, now an executive with a hospitality chain. The trail leads to Atlantic City, where McNulty met Wolinski, and to colleagues and crimes from the past. McNulty is a decent, persistent man with strong loyalties-to old friends, his father's leftist politics and his union-but his detective skills need honing. The reader becomes dizzy as McNulty travels back and forth across the Hudson, searching for shreds of clues that rarely advance the investigation until the solution almost falls in his lap. As in his first novel, Lehane empathizes with working stiffs and creates an arresting cast of colorful characters; he also brings alive the dark, offbeat world behind the facade of luxury hotels and bars. Hopefully, his next book will be as good as his first. Agent, Alice Martell. (Feb. 9) Forecast: Advance praise from George Pelecanos, plus blurbs from Kinky Friedman, Scott Phillips and Margaret Maron, should keep the momentum going despite this relatively weak sophomore effort. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Long-time-no-see friend John, now regional hotel manager, offers NYC bartender Brian McNulty a temporary job as bar manager as a way to help out a mutual friend, Greg. But a dockside murder mars Brian's first night at his new job, the victim turns out to be another mutual friend from long ago, and Greg goes missing along with the day's receipts. Brian follows a trail-littered with drugs, scams, and more-that leads back to the Atlantic City bar the friends all have in common. Mainstream prose, clever plotting, and a sympathetic hero recommend this sequel to Lehane's debut, Beware the Solitary Drinker. Devotees of Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder hard-boiled series may enjoy. Lehane lives near Washington, D.C. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Brian McNulty sets them up for the usual suspects, one of whom may be setting up Brian. The veteran bartender is filling drink orders and minding his own business when a figure out of his past strides into the Midtown Sheraton. Big John Wolinsky, a friend and mentor from Brian's salad days, is now a heavy-hitter in the food-and-beverage league, one of the hotel chain's regional managers. He's in New York to fire Brian, he says laughingly, making it clear there's no chance of that happening. In the unsettling period that follows, however, Brian isn't sure he's lucked out after all. Big John has things on his mind, things that recall the time a dozen years ago when they were "young and foolish together" in Atlantic City. And Brian's convinced that Big John will have no trouble involving his old buddy in whatever troubles him. As a direct result, Brian finds himself shoved around, warned off, and shot at-threats he might meet more constructively if only he knew what he was doing to offend whom. But he doesn't, and Big John won't tell him. Brian (Beware the Solitary Drinker, 2002) is likable enough in a feckless sort of way, though the thin, digressive plot isn't likely to encourage readers to belly-up.