Bartenders, like PIs, are keen observers of human folly, or the good ones are anyway. Brian's a good bartender, and. an easy going good hearted guy...but he's wired to help people, which moves him from his safe perch behind the bar at the aging Savoy hotel in NYC, to step into the thick of trouble on the other side. The thing is, that's where his instinct falters and he finds himself standing between friends and trouble, but not sure what to do...so other people wind up making up his mind for him.

Which is how he comes to having a beautiful cocktail waitress married to a bad cop sleeping in his apartment (with himself on the couch), the leader of a strike of the hotel workers at his hotel, investigating union corruption, taking in stray cats, and even his teenage son, who looks to be following in his fathers footsteps to his ex-wife's distress.

Not to mention trying to solve a series of murders to get the mob, the police, and the union off his back...and to protect his friends from deportation or worse.

Looking over that list it seems like a lot, but he gets into these things one Irish foot after another and with a considerable amount of self knowledge and effort to act sensibly. Not that he manages it. In no way is Brian a comic foil or incompetent. He's a solid guy who reluctantly steps up when someone needs to, but he doesn't have the ruthlessness he needs to make his life easier. One of his fellow bartenders suggest that he might consider moving to a small town where simple folks fit in...and he's inclined to think it might have merit. Still, if he doesn't have a devious streak, he does have a knack for making friends, and as often as they get him into trouble they're there to stand beside him (unless they're hiding from Homeland Security or Immigration) when the fur flies.

Though I feel a certain kinship with Brian's well meaning character, he comes from worlds I've only seen from the outside, bartending sure, but more interestingly, union politics. His father, whom he turns to for council, was a union investigator who firmly believes in the cause of the international brotherhood of workers, and though Brian hasn't meant to follow in his steps, it's where he finds himself.

In the midst of a spate of strikes in the real world, from the writers strike in Hollywood to transit workers virtually shutting down France and Germany, the look inside union life is especially interesting. What we find isn't surprising; the union bosses are in bed with the mob, or each other, and it takes some work to jog their consciences and remember the plight of the worker. But it also reminds us the the worker does have a plight, and someone needs to take a stand. That someone turns out to be Brian, and we can only hope it doesn't get him killed. This is the third book in a series that shows no sign of weakening, so one may expect him to survive, but since his chickens are coming home to roost, even survival will come at a price.