Prohibition, Redux

Alcohol Prohibition was the law of the land in the U.S. from 1920 to 1933, and I think we all know how well that worked out. Today's "War on Drugs" (or, more correctly, the War on (Some) Drugs...) seems to be working out about the same. Here's a brief refresher course:



My latest novel, The Last Bartender, postulates the imposition of a second federal alcohol prohibition (don't laugh ... now that you're responsible for your neighbor's healthcare costs, don't you have a financial interest in his overall health as well? Your government certainly thinks so...). As you might expect, this state of affairs isn't greeted with the same level as enthusiasm by everyone, and the story follows a cadre of those still-thirsty malcontents as they make their way through the new legal and cultural landscape.

I had a ton of fun writing this book. As many of you know, I worked as a bartender in many a ginmill in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan, from the elegant (Trumpets Bar in the Grand Hyatt Hotel and Elmer's in the El Morocco Club), to the rightfully famous (Peter Luger Steak House) to the sleazy (way too numerous to mention). I'm selling it as fiction, but there're many former revelers still walking the streets of Queens who know that many of the personalities and scenes scattered throughout the story are anything but. That's assuming they can remember...

The Last Bartender is now available as a Kindle E-Book. You may read a couple of sample chapters here. Cheers...