Thursday, August 23, 2007

Peter Spiegelman

Peter Spiegelman is the author of three John March novels. His debut novel, Black Maps, was published by Knopf in August, 2003 and won the 2004 Shamus Award for Best First Novel. It was followed in 2005 by Death's Little Helpers, which Ken Bruen called "...a multi-layered novel of compassion and power." Earlier this year Knopf brought out the third John March novel, Red Cat.

Spiegelman is also editor of and contributor to Wall Street Noir.

I recently asked him what he was reading. His reply:
I've been reading a fair amount of non-fiction lately, both for research purposes and because it's always been a significant component of my reading diet. I recently finished re-reading A.L. Kennedy's beautiful On Bullfighting which, yes, is actually about bullfighting. It's also part memoir and part rumination on death and art and work. Really, a one of a kind book -- and gorgeous writing.

Currently I'm in the midst of Tim Weiner's lucid history of the CIA, Legacy of Ashes. And a damning history it is, of an organization that's apparently been dysfunctional from the start. Weiner lays bare a spectacle of arrogance, incompetence, willful blindness, and terrible waste (of lives, money, opportunity) -- all horribly relevant to the current mess we're in. Maddening, scary, entirely fascinating.
Visit Peter Spiegelman's official website, and read my rave review of Red Cat.

--Marshal Zeringue