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John Marsh is a private detective with a lot of emotional baggage. He was a former cop who quit when his wife died. Now he is a private investigator. Mike Metz is one of his closer friends. Metz is a lawyer with a very important and worried client. Rick Pierro is a banker who worked his way up the ladder from the bottom rung. He received a threatening fax, which explained that there would be future contact. Over ten years before Pierro did business with the Merchant’s Worldwide Bank and this is coming back to haunt him. The MWB was actually owned by the mob and did large-scale money laundering before it was shut down. Although Pierro claims he only did legitimate business with MWB, it seems unlikely to be true. How innocent the Pierro family is remains a issue throughout the book. As Marsh digs into the case he begins to get a true picture of the activities of the MWB. Those that had dealings with Gerald Nassouli, the owner of the MWB, refuse to discuss him or specific situations. All Marsh can learn is that Nassouli is the devil incarnate to most of his former associates. Plus the fact that this blackmail scheme has been tried on others before. The question remains as to who the blackmailer actually is – is it Nassouli or one of his henchmen? Is Nassouli still alive? The closer Marsh gets to the truth the more abused his body becomes. The FBI is still investigating this crime and Marsh finds himself threatened by one of their special agents. Will Marsh find the blackmailer before one of his suspects kills him? BLACK MAPS is a tightly written story. Marsh is interesting and sarcastic. He is disillusioned with life but has not decided to kill himself. Although he lives like a monk, he still understands the forces that drive other people. Marsh knows how to investigate a crime and uses all of his resources to do so regardless of his client’s actual guilt. Marsh is one of those characters that it is almost impossible not to empathize with. He is going to find the guilty party regardless of the consequences; yet, he is not gung-ho with a calling to protect society from evil. The book focuses on the dangers and evils that exist within the banking world. Whether Spiegelman is basing some of these dangers on actual events or not, the book does play into some of the populaces’ fears about those controlling their money. In many ways this book almost had a feel of THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE. Not in the sense that all bankers are evil but that power and money will corrupt just about everyone. Nassouli is a megalomaniac and made his customers and friends dance to his tune. As a mob front man he also had the power to make sure his wishes were cared out. Nassouli is the type of businessman that haunts most people’s nightmares. BLACK MAPS is Peter Spiegelman’s debut novel. After spending 20 years in the banking industry he is now making a second career as an author.
Reviewed by Sarah Dudley, September 2003
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