Peter Spiegelman: Black Maps

John March was born into the Manhattan privilege of a venerable banking family. He left that world to become a rural deputy sheriff, a choice that ended in personal tragedy.

Now a private investigator, his friend lawyer Michael Metz, brings him a client. Rick Pierro, is being blackmailed. The faxed, anonymous threat: that he played a role in a money-laundering operation tied to the Merchants Worldwide Bank, currently under federal scrutiny.

March traces the fax to a bodega and the homeless woman paid to send the blackmail documents. Eventually, the description of the man who paid her matches an enforcer associated with MWB – an extremely dangerous man.

The closer March gets to the truth, the more he must question if Pierro is just a victim, or also part of what’s being hidden.

Black Maps was a debut book released in 2003 and a Shamus Award winner. Smoothly written, it has just enough banking information to make us aware but keep us out of the weeds. Black Maps is a quite enjoyable read all round.

Peter Spiegelman wrote two additional books in the series that finished in 2008, and has since written other crime fiction books that I’m sure will be worth reading. Click here to check out his website.