Peter Spiegelman - Death's Little Helpers (2005)
Reviewed by Yvette Banek
No "second-book blues" here, this new novel featuring New York private eye John March is intriguing, unexpectedly dynamic and oh-so-hard-to-put-down. As last year’s debut, Black Maps showed, Spiegelman, who toiled in the financial services for more than twenty years has found himself a unique niche and invented a protagonist with enough attitude to kick ass and enough style to dwell in the rarified atmosphere of moneyed society fat-cats and their acolytes. Not an easy task.
March, is a tough minded ex-cop who also happens to have a family trust fund. Doesn’t everyone? Once you get over the hurdle of this high improbability, other details fall into place and a willing suspension of disbelief settles in. After all, if you’re of a certain age, you remember the television show, "Burke’s Law’"featuring another rich man detective, Amos Burke. Though John March is less a dilettante than a seeker of truth and justice. My minor quibble with this is that Spiegelman never seems to fully explain the why of it. Why has John March become a catcher of criminals? Why has he turned away from his family? It can’t just be that he doesn’t like them. Hopefully, in the next book, we’ll learn more. I’m completely willing to accept this eccentricity of character, if only it made a bit more sense.
And I would also quibble with Spiegelman’s propensity for having March describe almost every single little detail that he sees as he goes about his investigation. Each blade of grass, while atmospheric, does not a story make. Also, if tattoos on an incidental character are fully described in picturesque detail, one would expect them or the character to have something important to do with the main thrust of the story. Okay, enough said. Other than these minor quibbles, I’m sold on Spiegelman’s talent and ability.
Well known Wall Street analyst Gregory Danes has gone missing and his ex-wife Nina, a pragmatic artist with a corrosive personality and a fondness for Benson and Hedges, has hired March to find him:
“As a husband, he was a lying, selfish prick,” Nina Sachs said, and lit yet another cigarette…..”And as a father, he’s no better. But he’s our meal ticket, Billy’s and mine, and if something’s happened to him – if the cash is going to stop – I want to know about it sooner, not later.”
It isn’t easy raising a twelve year old and earning a living in the high anxiety art world of NYC. So, while Nina’s bad attitude can be understood, her continued reluctance to call the cops is troubling. In fact, the tense group dynamics at the painter’s loft gives March pause. Nina Sachs lives with Ines Icasa, a Latin woman who runs an art gallery and apparently, her partner’s home life. She alone seems willing to give Nina’s troubled son the empathy he needs. Yet, despite his initial misgivings March takes on the case. Soon he discovers that the missing man had left several disgruntled women and many enemies, in his wake, most of the white collar variety, some not – as in a couple of beefy members and one kingpin of the Russian mob who show up flexing their considerable sang-froid. What has the disagreeable Mr. Danes been up to?
For some reason, Spiegelman’s second novel reminds me vaguely of composer Maurice Ravel’s “Bolero.” Those familiar with the style of this musical piece and its superb use of tension-filled crescendo will find familiarities in Spiegelman’s novel.
Technique-wise, Death’s Little Helpers is about three quarters build-up and one quarter satisfying pay-off. It is not a fast-paced thrill a minute joy ride, not an overture; it is instead a carefully constructed, moody, character-rich tale of greed, family, misplaced loyalty, troubled lives, and the often cruel nature of fate. Peter Spiegelman’s obvious talent and his crafty ability to keep the reader wondering what happens next are what make the book an un-put-down-able read.
Posted by Yvette Banek in Book Reviews | Permalink
