John March
Created by Peter Spiegelman

New York private eye JOHN MARCH seems to have had a few interesting lives already when we first meet him in Black Maps (2003), a widely acclaimed debut by Peter Spiegelman. Once the blacksheep son of a wealthy, overbearing Wall Street merchant bank dynasty, he walked away from the clutches of his dysfunctional family to become a deputy sherriff in the upstate boonies. But that ended in professional disaster and a tragedy (the untimely death of his wife) that still haunts him years later, leaving him something of an emotional cripple, ill at ease with issues of intimacy and trust.

When Black Maps begins, John's back in Manhattan, still trying to avoid his family, and trying to rebuild his life, while working to clear a self-made millionaire from charges of money-laundering against a finely wrought background of high finance, greed and (dramatic pause, here)... murder. The book has been praised for it's superb plotting and emotional richness, and boded well for the series. And I'm glad to report that so far, my predictions have come true. Both Death's Little Helpers (2005) and Red Cat (2007) are well worth checking out.

There's a sort of Ross Macdonald-like sense of foreboding to his prose, yet Spiegelman offers up just enough unique, personal touches and plain old ballsiness to make March far more than just another angst-ridden Lew Archer clone. Archer would have never been able to hack the Big City vibe of Noo Yawk with which March deals everyday, and ol' stick-in-the-mud Lew would have been completely gobsmacked by March's on-going pop culture references, particularly the call-outs to rock and comic books, of all things.

Spiegelman worked on Wall Street for twenty years developing software systems for international banking institutions before retiring in 2001 to devote himself to writing full time. He lives in Connecticut. Don't you just hate him?

UNDER OATH

• "Nothing about this stylish, literate mystery reads like a debut... John March is one of the most intriguing new PIs to come along in quite some time, and if this strong first outing is any indication, he should be in for a long and enjoyable run."
  (Publishers Weekly)

NOVELS

• Black Maps (2003)., Buy this book
• Death's Little Helpers (2005)., Buy this book
• Red Cat (2007).. Buy this book
  

SHORT STORIES

• "This Year's Model" (2007, Amazon.com)., Buy this short story

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.