CLOSING TIME

A bar owner investigates the death of his detective friend in Cass’ crime novel, the seventh in a series.

Boston-based jazz lover and alcoholic Elder Darrow owns a bar—the Esposito—but he’s been slowly losing his passion for the business, and the drinking is starting to catch up with him. When Elder’s best friend, Boston police detective Dan Burton, is gunned down in what appears to be a random liquor store robbery, Elder barely has time to grieve before mobster Mickey Barksdale shows up at the Esposito with a proposition. Mickey, who grew up with Burton, thinks the cop has been murdered, perhaps in a bid to send Mickey a message. He wants Elder, who sometimes assisted Burton with his cases, to take on the role of detective and ask the questions that Mickey can’t ask. Elder refuses—he doesn’t want to believe Burton’s death was anything but bad luck—but when a masked man with a gun shows up at the bar to warn him off the investigation, he knows there’s something bigger going on. More people start to die—or at least disappear—including Elder’s ex-girlfriend, who’s down from Oregon, and the Esposito’s heroin-addicted chef (who happens to be Mickey’s estranged daughter). Elder realizes that if he doesn’t figure out what’s going on, he may be next. But what, really, does he still have to live for? Cass perfectly captures Elder’s cranky incompatibility with a swiftly changing Boston, the city he loves but increasingly fails to recognize. “It was nearly impossible to find an old-style lunch counter in Boston anymore,” he laments. “All I ever needed was a couple of eggs over easy, wheat toast, and a decent cup of coffee. No chatty wait people with nose rings and tattoos, no cream cheese stuffed French toast.” It’s unclear whether this will be the last of Cass’ Elder novels, but it certainly has the feeling of a swan song, a satisfying ending for a man who needs to put a lot of ghosts to bed before he can figure out who he still is.

A compelling and often poignant mystery about aging and loss.