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Peter Spiegelman made his crime debut with BLACK MAPS, the novel that saw Private Investigator John March's premier outing. March, like Spiegelman himself, has a foot in the financial world. March comes from a merchant banking family, the members of which are unhappy about his chosen profession and are constantly seeking to steer him back into the family occupation. Spiegelman, unlike his protagonist, worked in banking then transferred his attention to a banking software firm. NO WAY HOME (or DEATH'S LITTLE HELPERS, if you refer to the author's webpage) sees March being hired by artist Nina Sachs, a woman who mightily offended former husband Greg Danes by becoming involved in a lesbian relationship after she left the finance guru. Sachs and partner Ines Icasa are jointly bringing up teenage Billy but Greg Danes, Billy's father, is seeking to increase his share of the custody. Danes, however, has disappeared. Nina wants March to discover the whereabouts of her former partner since his maintenance cheques have ceased to arrive and art is not a sufficiently well paid profession for her to maintain Billy without some supplementary income. March begins his investigation with a search of Danes' background. A former wunderkind, Danes was massively wounded by the dot com crash, feeling that his reputation had been unjustly besmirched. Disliked by most of his associates, Danes was determined to justify himself in the eyes of the world -- that and gain custody of Billy, thereby restoring his importance in his own eyes after his wife's desertion. March's investigations lead him into some strange dens, including that where the vanished man's half brother is labouring. He calls on the good graces of sometime associates, including a former FBI agent. At the same time, John is recovering his personal equilibrium after the tragic death of his wife. He now has a girlfriend, Jane Lu, who is attempting to view March's perils as the normal part of any job. John's heart is strangely touched by an appeal from Billy, the son of the missing man, who entreats March to find his father. Spurred on by the plea, March puts himself into all kinds of physical danger some of which is engendered by his own inflammable temper. The plot of this novel is well-constructed. I had read most of the story before tumbling to the identity of the miscreant. The characterisations, however, were perhaps lacking. March was quite convincing but Jane and Nina seemed shadowy. I feel that possibly the author has yet to hit his stride. I shall, nonetheless, be quite interested to read further output from this writer as he certainly shows promise.
Reviewed by Denise Pickles, February 2005
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