Tangled Web UK Review May 2007
Red Cat by
Peter Spiegelman
pbk out March 08
(Arrow)
at £6.99
Peter Spiegelman is a veteran of twenty years in financial services and the
software industry, so don't tell me accountants are boring. He wrote his debut novel in
2003, and won the 2004 Shamus Award for Best First Novel. A native New Yorker, his
John March series draws on his knowledge and experience of the city.
John March has chosen an unorthodox route to earn his living as far as his more
conventional family are concerned. But when his businessman elder brother gets into
difficulties, it is to John he turns. Much to March's astonishment, David has been using
the Internet to contact women for sex. Unfortunately, he has come across Wren, who
now appears to want to blackmail him. John March sets out to find Wren, discovering
that her real name is Holly Cade, and that she is a dangerously unstable character with a
desire to confront men and their use of women. She has embarked on a series of
revealing underground art videos – porn noir – that are quickly becoming a cult in the art
world. When a body turns up that is obviously Holly's, John tries to persuade his brother
to come forward to identify it, before the police track him down. Unfortunately, David
sees it differently. John must trace all the men, including a body-builder boyfriend, who
had good reason to murder her, before his brother is accused.
The story gives us more to think about than whodunit, however. Holly's revenge
on men seems to relate to her own childhood, and family issues. Even John and David
cannot overcome the rift created by their own parents' bad marriage. And John himself
has a relationship with a married woman, to whom he seems unable to commit – the last
in a series of failed relationships where he is described as no "Nick Charles" and always
delving in the gutter. Some of the structure of the book irritates. Spiegelman is fond of
the device of taking us up to an action at the end of a chapter, then starting the next
chapter after the event has taken place, and taking us back over what happened on
subsequent pages. And he does it often. However, that aside, the story is taut and stylish,
with a clean edge to it that leaves the reader wanting more. And I am sure there will be
more. John March is a satisfying addition to the pantheon of American PIs.
(
Ian Morson
Author of Falconer books and short listed for 1999 Ellis Peters Historical Crime Dagger)
Thousands of New and used Books at your Fingertips...
Support Tangled Web - Buy Your Books Online
