"BLACK MAPS" by Peter Spiegelman (B+)

The first of this wonderful series about a loner New York City PI named John March is titled, "Black Maps" and the second is titled "Death's Little Helpers." I consider Peter Spiegelman's latest and third private eye novel, "Red Cat," to be one of the best that I have ever read. They are all readily available at the library, since "Black Maps" was just published in 2003. I have just finished reading all of them, and, if you love gritty, private eye novels, you won't find better reads than these.

I should have read "Black Maps," Spiegelman's inaugural novel, first, for two reasons. First, because the John March character, his life and his history, is continued throughout the three novels. I should add here the proviso that reading them in chronological order is not a prerequisite from a story standpoint, as each story stands on its own. What it does do is offer us a greater understanding of John March, his character, and why he is the way he is. We get a more complete understanding of his fractious family life and why his romantic relationships are so difficult. 

The second, and more important, reason for reading this book first is because, to be honest about it, this novel is not the gripping read that his later books are. If you choose to read them in order, then you can experience Spiegelman's growth as a novelist, as a writer, and as a master story teller. This is a wonderful thing as well as being very intriguing from an intellectual standpoint.  

This first novel by Spiegelman won several literary awards for being a breakout detective effort by a first time novelist. Peter Spiegelman spent his earlier career in the financial services industry, and his experience there gives him a background that he puts to good use in all of his novels to date. 

Not an instant classic, but a very fine read. The writing is succinct and the descriptions are elegant in their conciseness and brevity. He casts a spell in his narrative, a spellbinding cloud that envelopes you for the duration of the story. 

Spiegelman also weaves a tale that brings John March to full life as a person. I actually like this guy, even though we have little in common. I respect him and I find him to be an interesting person. Each novel is like a pleasant, though dangerous, visit into a world that I hope that I will never see, but I sure am glad that he is there doing what has to be done. You see, Spiegelman's characters really do come to life!

This novel is more involved in the hidden workings of the financial markets in its tale about a Mergers and Acquisitions (M & A) specialist who works at a white shoe New York City financial house. Though Rick Pierro is from the wrong side of the tracks, unlike everyone else in the firm, he has by dint of hard work and native smarts, lifted himself up by his bootstraps to be in line for a promotion to the highly coveted and very lucrative position of a full partner. 

Just weeks before his promotion is to be discussed by the firm's managing partners, Pierro receives a very oblique fax on his home machine accusing him of financial irregularities while he worked at another M & A house some 18 years before. That firm had recently collapsed in a house of cards with the head disappearing before being prosecuted and it being found out that millions had been looted from the firm.  Even now the FBI and a forensic auditing firm are poring over the firm's books to try to ascertain where all the money went. 

Pierro is convinced that this fax is the start of a blackmail effort. He is in terror waiting for the next shoe to drop. He wonders why this is coming up now, 18 years after the fact, and at such an inconvenient time. If his employers hear about this, he will never make partner and they may even dismiss him from the firm. He assures March of his innocence and his personal integrity, so March begins to investigate the source of that fax, who sent it, who else may have been blackmailed, and what is expected to follow. It turns into a very ugly business very quickly...