The Barkeep

By: William Lashner

Narrated by: Luke Daniels

Justin Chase is the perfect barkeep, tending bar as he lives his life, in a state of Zen serenity, until Birdie Grackle, a foul-mouthed alcoholic, walks into his bar and makes a startling confession.

Six years ago Justin’s life was ripped apart when he discovered his mother’s bludgeoned corpse. Now Justin’s father is serving a life sentence and Justin drowns his emotions in a pool of inner peace. But when Birdie claims he murdered Justin’s mother for cash, Justin is hurled back to the emotions, back to the past, and, most frightening of all, back to the father he tried to leave behind. Who hired Birdie Grackle to kill Justin's mother? As Justin pieces together the truth, a killing machine stalks Justin, leaving a trail of dead in his wake. Someone wants to bury the truth, and maybe Justin, too. Justin had better find some answers quick, because murder is just not Zen.

©2013 William Lashner (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

The Tao of Bartending and murder solving

The mystery is given to the listener in the first few minutes of the story. A crazy sounding old man approaches the barkeep and tells him he killed his mother and his father is falsely imprisoned. The charm for the story lies elsewhere. The barkeep uses one book as his guide book, "The Tibetan Book of the Dead" and embraces the Tao of that book giving him a Zen like detachment from the rest of the world. The barkeep also keeps the code of the bartender and knows how to separate himself from patrons of the bar.

There's a lot to like with this story: the dialog between characters was full of witty repartee, the code that any barkeep (or for that matter, any person) needs to keep ones distance from others, the process of discovery one learns about oneself while focusing outside of oneself , finding the actual murderer of the barkeeps mother, and the problem with detachment all add to a very fun story to listen to in spite of the serious nature of the crimes under investigation.

I enjoyed the narrator. He gave voices to most of the characters, exaggerated voices and emotions, and really let the theater of my mind go to town. The author and the narrator made for a good diversion and helped me detach further from the world much in the same way that the barkeep was in the beginning of the story.

A cuddly bunch of bastards! Great Book!

At first I disliked the main character so much I was going to stop listening to this. But the Narrator Luke Daniels has that happy dog voice I like so much I just kept going. Then the Barkeep has some really good insights to drunks that I just kept going some more, then I was hooked by the whole bunch of just-missed-being-likeable characters. It was a bit hard to follow, it's a big gang of losers in this book but they were all written very human, but never quite making it to the likeable mark with the exception of the old policeman who follows people around most of the time till the ending. It was pretty thrilling though at the halfway point and is very well wrapped up. With the exception of whatever happened to the first girl with the slutty shoes? Did she ever find true love? They should have murdered her I guess, then I wouldn't wonder what her roll was for. I think I recommend you to give this a try, let me know if you figure out the girl with the slutty shoes.

Good every thing.

What made the experience of listening to The Barkeep the most enjoyable?

Luke Daniels.

What does Luke Daniels bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He can bring the characters to life. He has quite a range of voices to offer. He is my favorite narrator next to Ray Porter.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Any additional comments?

No

Luke Daniels is an amazing Narrator.

The story of Justin Chase and his murderous father. The story was a good paced thriller with the scorned son and he is looking for his mothers killer. I give it 5 stars for the story and the narration.

A must read

This book is very exciting and a very good read. I highly recommend it.. It has an ending that I didn't see coming.

wasn't an i can't wait to get back to it

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I didn't feel there was 12 hours of story to the book. Lots of twists and turns, but I wish a few of the loose ends had been tied up.

Would you recommend The Barkeep to your friends? Why or why not?

No. It just want as thrilling as many of the other books I've read/listened to.

Did Luke Daniels do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Yes, he did different voices and was consistent with them. I've listened to others that are better.

Was The Barkeep worth the listening time?

For me, not really.

Great narration!

I enjoyed both the story and narrator. Not to give anything away, but I can see this happening in real life. I will look for more stories and narration from both.

Likable, entertaining, not masterful.

I enjoyed this book. As above, it is not a masterpiece, but then, how many of those do we get? It is entertaining, which I think is what most of us want in a thriller. It is unusual. The protagonist, Justin Chase, is a bartender whose father, McKenzie, is in prison for murdering his mother, Eleanor. Justin deteriorated after the murder, and his life has never been the same. He had graduated from law school, but never passed the bar, and floated into a series of bartending jobs, having no serious relationships and no goals. The book sets up the goal of finding out whether his father really did kill his mother, and he finds this out at the end of the book. In the meantime, the book is populated by a cast of interesting characters: Mia, the D.A., Westbrook, the cop, a very bad man named Birdie Grackle (you read that right) and some friends of Justin's. As the book progresses, Justin hooks up with Annie Overstreet, who, in a fine Oedipal twist, was his father's girlfriend before he went to prison. Justin uses Zen techniques to try to fend off his feelings, particularly his mourning of his mother, but also his growing attachment to Annie.
The writing is good, but the performance of Luke Daniels is amazing. Mr. Daniels tries as hard as he can to make this one of the most memorable audiobooks you have heard, and he does a truly respectable job of it. He uses a tremendous range of voices, expressing the voices of characters, moods, different properties of speech, passions, and pretty much anything you can think of in a good narrator. I will now take serious looks at books that he narrates. He won't make you forget Frank Muller, and he's not Edoardo Ballerini, but he is doing his damned best, and that is good enough for me.
The book could have benefitted from some editing. It is too long. A number of the scenes do not advance the plot, which they should, a cardinal rule of all novels and particularly thrillers. The author needs to keep you interested and wondering whodunit.
This book is worth reading. It kept me entertained, and that is a fine thing these days. Winter can be cold and wet, even here in "sunny" California. Light a fire, pick up a blankie, and settle down in your favorite chair. Needless to say, only light a fire if you have a fireplace, or else you might have a scene from one of these thrillers.

Terrific

Wonderful narration... He captured the different characters - amazing
Great story - couldn't put it down
I finished it in a day

Best Voice Artist ever

This reader is likely the best I've heard. I feel that the reader is somewhere around 25-50% of the experience that is an audiobook. (In the case of fiction, the voice artist is closer to 50% of the impact, in my opinion.) This is one of the few readers (actor, actually) that I'll search the library for - starting with the voice artist rather than the subject or author as the primary interest. In other words "what else has he done?" I need to know!