Peter Spiegelman Death’s Little Helpers

Death's Little Helper

Peter Spiegelman

Knopf, Jul 2005, $22.95

ISBN: 1400040795

Affluent private eye John March does not need to work as his has a trust fund from the family banking business to pay his bills. Still, he enjoys sleuthing the mean streets and back allies of Wall Street solving financial related cases for his clients.

Worried that her alimony gravy may have ended, Nina Sachs hires John to find out what happened to her missing ex-husband, Gregory Danes, former financial guru who has recently fallen from grace on the Street. John quickly learns that Gregory's firm Pace-Loyette reprimanded him for unethical behavior and rumors abound that the SEC is coming for him. However, the simple missing person's case turns bizarre when John realizes competing sleuths are searching for Gregory. These soulless detectives work for some deadly folks high up in the Russian Mafia. If John can stay alive long enough to march from one clue to the next, he might find the missing former spouse, but not necessarily breathing.

Though John at times pontificates even when he takes a punch or bullets whiz by, fans will enjoy this hard boiled detective with a susceptible to love heart and seek his previous appearance (see award winning BLACK MAPS). The storyline is action-packed as the simple inquiries turn ugly with adversaries willing to act as DEATH'S LITTLE HELPER. John is terrific and the end of the rainbow will stun the audience as much as it ravages the hero. Readers will enjoy Peter Spiegelman's unique look at the center of the capitalist system from a lethal perspective.

Harriet Klausner