Mystery Writers Combine Murder and Mealtime MYSTERY readers could well assume that Linda Fairstein's 14th crime novel, "Night Watch," is simply a roman à clef inspired by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund who was accused of sexual assault by a hotel maid. But looks, and books, can be deceiving. "Night Watch" is so about the food. The novel's first murder (spoiler alert!) occurs at a Dîner en Blanc flash-mob dinner in Mougins, France. And soon the plot drops bread crumbs leading from one famous - or infamous - Manhattan restaurant to another. "The dining elements, they took charge," said Ms. Fairstein, 65. They're the engine of the book. I intended it to be a tutorial on the restaurant business. Food and crime have long been dinner companions. Consider Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe, an obsessive worshiper of the knife and fork who is described by Archie Goodwin, his dedicated assistant, as weighing "a seventh of a ton." There's Robert B. Parker's Spenser, a private detective and passionate cook. And in the universe of crime, never forget Mario Puzo's "The Godfather" (Leave the gun, take the cannolis). Ms. Fairstein, who headed the sex-crimes unit for the Manhattan district attorney's office from 1976 to 2002, has given much thought to the locus of murder and fine dining. "Food has always been one of the easiest ways to kill someone, as Agatha Christie and the Borgias can attest," she said in an interview at Patroon on East 46th Street, a restaurant that is an integral part of her latest book. "How many times have you read the question, "What were the contents of the stomach?" " Otto Penzler, owner of the 33-year-old Mysterious Bookshop in Manhattan, said that "in a grim story, food can give readers comfort." Ms. Fairstein's food credentials are more than impeccable, they are empyrean. She had dinner in James Beard's house long before it became the James Beard House. She was a longtime habitué at Lutèce and the "21" Club. And she has had a table at Rao's, the exclusive Italian restaurant on Pleasant Avenue and 114th Street in East Harlem, since 1987. It seems that as a prosecutor, she won long prison terms for two men who assaulted a 31-year-old nun in a neighborhood convent, and Rao's expressed its regard. For three years before Ms. Fairstein married the lawyer Justin Feldman, her husband of 24 years, who died last fall, she dated André Surmain, founder of the renowned Lutèce. "He was my gateway to fine food," she said, adding that Mr. Surmain introduced her to the cooking of Paul Bocuse and Alain Ducasse in the 1980s. Among the food locales in "Night Watch" is the Prohibition-era wine cellar at "21" (second spoiler alert!), which is important to a major plot point. Yet another wine cellar, that at Patroon, hosts a secret prosecutorial meeting. The restaurant's owner, Ken Aretsky, is a character in the book, as he has been in Ms. Fairstein's previous novels. Through the years, many diners "have visited Patroon, asking to meet me," Mr. Aretsky said. They look me over to see if I match the guy in the book. Sometimes so many readers will suddenly swarm the restaurant that "I'll call Linda and say, "Your book is doing well," " Mr. Aretsky said with a laugh. Which leads to a final spoiler alert: so pervasive is the food in "Night Watch" that the second murder victim is (just so you know) a waiter. Eat, Drink and Be Wary The fictional prosecutor and team of detectives in Linda Fairstein's new crime novel, "Night Watch," navigate and dine their way through a dozen restaurants. Here are a few that add clues and plot points (not to mention entrees) to the spicy murder miasma. LUTÈCE The fictional reopening of the renowned restaurant, which received four stars from The New York Times in 1972, prompted two murders and brought forth two idiosyncratic clues: Lutèce matchbooks. Formerly 249 East 50th Street, Manhattan TIRO A SEGNO Crucial information is revealed and a key murder suspect introduced in this venerable Greenwich Village dining club with a shooting range in the basement. 77 Macdougal Street, Manhattan THE "21" CLUB The Prohibition-era wine cellar in this former speakeasy (with its secret door) reveals a clue vital to the book's denouement. 21 West 52nd Street, Manhattan SUNNY'S BAR Detectives find this cozy local institution the perfect hangout after discovering a body in the Gowanus Canal. 253 Conover Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn PATROON The wine cellar is a convenient hiding place for investigators as they research the underbelly of the restaurant industry. 160 East 46th Street, Manhattan PRIMOLA Detectives settle a dispute and ponder the Michelin Guide over the linguine with white clam sauce at one of Ms. Fairstein's restaurant haunts. 1226 Second Avenue, Manhattan FORLINI'S The restaurant serves as the ultimate criminal-court-insider watering hole - a magnet for prosecutors, investigators, defense attorneys, judges and jurors. 93 Baxter Street, Manhattan MICHAEL'S A clubhouse for the best friends of the prosecutor Alexandra Cooper; they remember that the restaurant took center stage after a nearby murder in a previous mystery. 24 West 55th Street, Manhattan RAO'S A prosecutorial touchstone (there was an actual killing in the restaurant in 2003) where, in an earlier mystery, detectives and prosecutors ran a murder suspect to ground. 455 East 114th Street, Manhattan SPARKS STEAK HOUSE Detectives joke that they should shun not only Sparks (where Big Paulie Castellano was shot outside) but also Umberto's Clam House (where Joey Gallo was shot inside) if one of the book's key murder suspects, whose life has been threatened, dines at either place. 210 East 46th Street, Manhattan