Black Maps, Peter Spiegelman
Black Maps, Peter Spiegelman
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Black Maps

Author: Peter Spiegelman

Narrator: Scott Brick

Unabridged: 11 hr 6 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/09/2003


Synopsis

The stronghold of white-collar crime in the rarefied world of high finance–this is the setting for Peter Spiegelman's edgy, suspenseful, sharply-honed debut novel.

At the center: John March, who walked away from his family's venerable merchant bank for the life of a rural deputy sheriff–a life that would explode in personal tragedy and professional disaster. Three years later, he's back in Manhattan, working as a PI and running from his grief and the expectations of his wealthy family.

March takes the case of Rick Pierro, a self-made man who has everything–and who's in danger of losing it all. An anonymous, poisonous threat has implicated him in a vast money-laundering scheme already under investigation by the feds.

March's own investigation uncovers a blood-stained paper trail that leads him deep into the lives of both insiders and outcasts on the street. He discovers that his client may be the latest victim of a serial extortionist diabolically adept at psychological and physical intimidation, but the more March learns the more questions he has about Pierro, his wife, and the secrets hidden beneath the glossy surfaces of their lives. And the more he begins to fear that his own blood will be added to the trail before the case is closed.

With its headlong narrative, quick, incisive language, and brilliantly clarified details of finance–the legal and the illegal–Black Maps is a stunning first novel.

About The Author

Peter Spiegelman is the author of Black Maps, which won the 2004 Shamus Award for Best First PI Novel, Dr. Knox, Death’s Little Helpers, Red Cat, and Thick as Thieves. He lives in Connecticut. Scott Brick, an acclaimed voice artist, screenwriter, and actor, has performed on film, television, and radio. His stage appearances throughout the US include CyranoHamlet, and MacBeth. In the audio industry, Scott has won over 20 Earphones Awards, as well as the 2003 Audie Award in the Best Science Fiction category for Dune: The Butlerian Jihad. After recording nearly 250 books in five years, AudioFile Magazine named Scott “one of the fastest-rising stars in the audiobook galaxy” and proclaimed him one of their Golden Voices. Brick’s range is unparalleled as he reads thrillers to narrative nonfiction, from biographies to science fiction with aplomb.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Sam on December 27, 2018

I liked Peter Spiegelman's Dr. Knox quite a bit, so I kept my eye out for more of his work. This is his debut novel from 2003, set in New York and starring private eye John March. March is, as befits a modern PI, a bit of a tormented soul, having lost his wife in a mysterious affair which is alluded......more

Goodreads review by Amorak on July 20, 2013

You have to like a PI procedural that has as its epigraph a quote from a Mark Strand poem and whose main character reads Raymond Carver. Despite that, though, BLACK MAPS (the title comes from the Strand poem and has pretty much nothing to do with the plot of the novel) isn't especially literary. Rat......more

Goodreads review by Susan on December 14, 2018

Murder, blackmail, suicide: just a few of the results of high finance gone wrong. John March is a member of a family who's fortunes are a result of success when high finance is played correctly. John is not as comfortable in that world as his brothers and sisters. He would rather solve human problem......more

Goodreads review by Susan on December 21, 2021

This was satisfying enough to go on to the second one but, honestly, not so amazing that I need to read another right away. I kind of got bored in the middle. I read the audible version and generally Scott Brick keeps me engaged as a reader but not this time. I felt like he kind of contributed to th......more

Goodreads review by Lenay Smith on March 16, 2024

Welcome to life. Because Spiegelman's Secret was at the top of S.J. Rozan's list, and because it was excellent, I decided to start from his beginning. Only three in this March series, three in another, three stand alones - eager to see how character and plot progress across. If you appreciate Lawren......more


Quotes

“Spiegelman knows where the bodies are buried and he knows how to write. Impressive.”– Jonathan Kellerman

"John March is one of the most intriguing new P.I.s to come along in quite some time."- Publishers Weekly

"A stunner... [It] keeps readers in the dark until the very last page. Suspenseful narrative, superb characters, and a prevailing atmosphere of Chandler-esque melancholy. . .to ask for more in a mystery would be criminal.”– Newsday

“A first-rate thriller from a first-rate novelist.” --Rocky Mountain News

“Spiegelman has a fine eye for the details of Manhattan corporate life . . . An important and facinating book.” --Chicago Tribune


"Engrossing... from the first growls of its take-no-prisoners narrator, all the way to the vivid financial details that only an insider can deliver."-  Brad Meltzer