bars in crime fiction

[Sarah Weinman]

Hey folks,

I'm working on a piece that riffs on drinking in crime fiction, and it occurred to me that for the most part, crime fiction protagonists drink a lot but not necessarily in the same place. There's Rebus and the Oxford Bar, Matthew Scudder and the late, lamented Armstrong's, but other than that, I'm drawing a blank. (Oh, and I know Jackson Donne has a local, too, and Con Lehane's Brian McNulty works in a hotel bar.)

So which others am I missing? And thanks in advance!

Sarah

[L. A. Starks]

Sarah, I won't be shy about mentioning my favorite current fictional bar. It's in post-Katrina Houston:

"The NOLA-in-Exile bar bumped with the steady rhythms of Preservation Hall and Tipitina's jazz band recordings. A plasma screen television perched silently. Low ceilings reinforced cool relief from the outdoor heat and omnipresent street construction. They found three club chairs and ordered beer and sandwiches. The music switched from the Neville Brothers to the Dixie Chicks in that peculiar gumbo-chili, New Orleans-Texas subculture that had developed in Houston."
-p. 199, 13 DAYS: THE PYTHAGORAS CONSPIRACY, L. A. Starks

[MysteryDawg]

And I thought that most of these guys were so desperate that they just took the booze off the winos on the street.....

[ChristopherGMoore]

Vincent Calvino drinks Mekong and coke at the Lonestar bar, Bangkok, Thailand. A number of the novels in the Calvino series are set in this bar, including scenes in The Risk of Infidelity Index.

Christopher

[Vince Keenan]

It wouldn't be a Dortmunder novel from Donald E. Westlake without a stop at the OJ Bar & Grill. Where no one remembers your name, but the guy behind the bar remembers your drink. The bourbon, the other bourbon, the beer and the salt ...

[Craig McDonald]

Doesn't Steve Hamilton have his series guy constantly hanging out in some bar run by a Scotsman in the U.P.? Don't have any of Hamilton's books at hands to snag the name of the pub, but my memory is of the same joint being used repeatedly...

[Jack Getze]

My protag, Austin Carr, hung out so much at Luis's Mexican Grill in the debut novel, drinking tequila with the bartender, my agent said I had to make the bartender--Luis--Austin's permanent sidekick.

[I. J. Parker]

Rebus used to drive me crazy by spending all his time in bars. I recall that Morse went to pubs and had his sergeant pick up the tab. And Mortimer's Rumpole regularly drinks his "Thames Embankment" vintage in a place where the members of the bar hang out.

[Donna Moore]

Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor has several locals (basically any which will let him in at any given time!). Then there's Westlake's Dortmunder and crew of course. Doesn't John Harvey's Resnick have a local too? And isn't there a Lone Star bar Kinky Friedman's books? It's ages since I've read them.

[Harry Hunsicker]

You could do a master's thesis on Clete Purcel's watering holes in the Robicheaux books. 'Course the main protag is only drinking Dr Pepper so that may not be what you're after.

[Karyn J. Powers]

Lawrence Sanders (Vincent Lardo) 's Archie McNally had the Pelican Club,
Steve Hamilton's Alex Mcknight has the Glasgow,
Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak doesn't drink but she spends a lot of time at the Roadhouse and
Stuart Woods' Stone Barrington has Elaine's

[terry bowman]

Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor series. He keeps getting kicked out of bars, but it focuses on a few in Galway, IRE.

[Michael Haskins]

Sara, Robert Crais' Elvis Cole spends some time at Musso & Franks in Hollywood, Ca. It's a restaurant and bar, so I don't know if it counts.
Michael