Peter Spiegelman

"Peter Spiegelman's Dr. Knox is a bruised wonder of a crime novel. Filled with page-turning intrigue and an L.A. atmosphere so richly rendered you can practically smell the 'eucalyptus and dust,' it is both thrilling and rueful, harrowing and moving. DON'T MISS IT" --Megan Abbott, award-winning author of The Fever From the author of Red Cat and Thick as Thieves: a gripping new thriller about a medical doctor with a powerful humanitarian impulse, an unhealthy appetite for risk, and a knack for finding himself between a rock and a hard place. Adam Knox comes from a long line of patrician Connecticut doctors--a line he broke to serve with an NGO in the war-torn Central African Republic. His attempt to protect his patients there from a brutal militia ended in disaster and disgrace, and now he runs a clinic near Los Angeles's Skid Row, making ends meet by making house calls--cash only, no questions asked--on those too famous or too criminal to seek other medical care. When a young boy is abandoned at his clinic, Knox is determined to find the boy's family and save him from the not-so-tender mercies of the child welfare bureaucracy. But Knox's search for the volatile woman who may or may not be the boy's mother leads him and his friend, a former Special Forces operator, into a labyrinth of human traffickers, Russian mobsters, and corporate security thugs; and squarely into the sights of a powerful, secretive, and utterly ruthless family that threatens to destroy Dr. Knox and everything--and everyone--he holds dear.

Dr. Knox

Thick as Thieves

"A Secret About a Secret is a gripping new mystery about a shadowy government agent investigating a bizarre murder in an ominous research facility. Myles, an agent with the powerful and mysterious government agency Standard Division, is sent to investigate the murder of Allegra, a brilliant young researcher, whose body is found in the walk-in refrigerator of the remote campus for Ondstrand Biologic. Cunning, persistent, and willing to lean on the authority of his badge, Myles begins to unravel the sequence of events that led to her death and narrow down the list of suspects. But the deeper he gets into the investigation, the more he feels that he's not getting the full picture. What interest does Standard Division, an organization better known for intelligence gathering and dirty tricks, have in this particular case? Why did Ondstrand Biologic pick an unmistakably eerie former boarding school for its headquarters? And how do recent events relate to the troubled history of this location? As Myles learns more about Allegra and the company she worked for, the more he is convinced that the murder is but one element in a much deeper mystery. In order to unlock it, he will have to put the pieces together to uncover the truth behind this peculiar place and the reason for Allegra's untimely death"--

A Secret about a Secret

Collects stories about Wall Street, just beneath the shiny surface, by writers such as John Burdett, Henry Blodget, Jason Starr, David Noonan, Richard Aleas, and Lauren Sanders.

Wall Street Noir

Carr - ex-CIA - is the reluctant leader of an elite crew planning a robbery of such extraordinary proportions that it will leave them set for life. Diamonds, money laundering, and extortion go into a timed-to-the-minute scheme that unfurls across South America, Miami and Grand Cayman Island. Carr's cohorts are seasoned pros, but they're wound drum-tight - as, months before, the man who brought them together was killed in what Carr suspects was a setup. And there are other loose ends: some of the intel they're paying for is badly inaccurate, and one of the gang - who is also Carr's lover - may have an agenda of her own. But Carr's biggest problems are yet to come, because few on his crew are what they seem to be, and even his own past may not be all he thought it was. Thick as Thieves is an ingeniously crafted and perfectly paced thriller. Peter Spiegelman's percolating prose has you scrambling to piece the puzzle together and then, when the revelation finally arrives, wondering why you even tried.

Dr Adam Knox returns from the war in Afghanistan a little rougher, a little wiser, and a lot more inclined to kick it to the ones at the top. The ones in charge. He sets up a clinic in Los Angeles's most notorious district, tending to the vagrant, the vulnerable and the victims of skid row. One night they're beseeched by a Romanian woman who comes in with her son. Her bruises give away a story she's too scared to tell; escaping from traffickers and forced prostitution to try to get her son back. He was kidnapped by his father - who happens to be heir to one of the most influential dynasties on the West Coast. That same night, Knox is called upon for his private health service - cutting out a bullet from a businessman who was cutting himself a shady deal. Impressed by his ability to keep a secret, the impatient patient offers Knox a big tip for some extra work: helping him get revenge on the gangsters who shot him. Knox - and his clinic - need the cash. Playing one team against another, Knox must keep his wits scalpel-sharp. If his diagnosis is on the money, he might be able to trick the gangsters, free the Romanian mother and put the ones at the top in their place for once.

When he is hired to find missing Wall Street analyst Gregory Danes, private detective John March uncovers a deadly web of financial deception as his investigation leads him through the corrupt inner workings of the financial world.

Death's Little Helpers

Kat Richardson

Naomi Hirahara

Richie Narvaez

Aaron Erickson

Libby Cudmore

Jim Winter

Steve Brewer 

W.H. Cameron 

Reed Farrel Coleman 

Matthew Quinn Martin

Jim Thomsen

Think you can’t buy a thrill? This book proves you wrong. Katy lied. Or did she? As with the blues and Elvis and somebody else’s favorite song, it’s open to interpretation. These twelve tales interpret shady pasts, dubious presents, and doomed futures. There’s no hiding inside a hall of rock and sand from stories as deliciously wicked and terrifically twisty as the jazz-rock noir that inspired them. These masters of crime fiction heard the call and wrote it on the wall for you and me. As they name the beast, they make alive worldly wonders in characters you’ve known for decades through the hypnotically woven tapestries of Steely Dan, destined to live on as indelibly as the hallucinatory memories in the caves of Altamira. Edited by Brian Thornton with stories by Steve Brewer, W.H. Cameron, Reed Farrel Coleman, Libby Cudmore, Aaron Erickson, Naomi Hirahara, Matthew Quinn Martin, Richie Narvaez, Kat Richardson, Peter Spiegelman, Jim Thomsen, and Jim Winter.

Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Steely Dan

A Beast Without a Name

“Peter Spiegelman’s Dr. Knox is a bruised wonder of a crime novel. Filled with page-turning intrigue and an L.A. atmosphere so richly rendered you can practically smell the ‘eucalyptus and dust,’ it is both thrilling and rueful, harrowing and moving. DON'T MISS IT” —Megan Abbott, award-winning author of The Fever From the author of Red Cat and Thick as Thieves: a gripping new thriller about a medical doctor with a powerful humanitarian impulse, an unhealthy appetite for risk, and a knack for finding himself between a rock and a hard place. Adam Knox comes from a long line of patrician Connecticut doctors—a line he broke to serve with an NGO in the war-torn Central African Republic. His attempt to protect his patients there from a brutal militia ended in disaster and disgrace, and now he runs a clinic near Los Angeles’s Skid Row, making ends meet by making house calls—cash only, no questions asked—on those too famous or too criminal to seek other medical care. When a young boy is abandoned at his clinic, Knox is determined to find the boy’s family and save him from the not-so-tender mercies of the child welfare bureaucracy. But Knox’s search for the volatile woman who may or may not be the boy’s mother leads him and his friend, a former Special Forces operator, into a labyrinth of human traffickers, Russian mobsters, and corporate security thugs; and squarely into the sights of a powerful, secretive, and utterly ruthless family that threatens to destroy Dr. Knox and everything—and everyone—he holds dear.

A novel

A new thriller that takes us inside a hair-raising heist, where paranoia hangs as heavy as the tropical heat, and the only law is Murphy’s. Carr—ex-CIA—is the reluctant leader of an elite crew planning a robbery of such extraordinary proportions that it will leave them all set for life. Diamonds, money-laundering, and extortion go into a timed-to-the-minute scheme that unfurls across South America, Miami, and Grand Cayman Island. Carr’s cohorts are seasoned pros, but they’re wound drum-tight: months before, the man who brought them together was killed in what Carr suspects was a setup. And there are other loose ends. Some of the intel they’re paying for is badly inaccurate, and one of the gang—lately, Carr’s lover—may have an agenda of her own. Carr finds himself “working the paranoid calculus . . . mapping the shifting landscape of who-owes-who and who-owns-who, of loyalty, grudge, and pressure”—but his biggest problems are yet to come: few of his crew are what they seem to be, and even his own past will turn out to be built on a lie. Terrifically suspenseful and psychologically complex, Thick as Thieves is a rare, penetrating look into the sophisticated machinations of an unparalleled crime, and Peter Spiegelman’s most accomplished and galvanizing novel yet.

John March walked away from his family’s merchant bank for the life of a rural deputy sheriff–a life that would explode in personal tragedy and professional disaster. Three years later, March is back in New York City, working as a private investigator and still running from his grief and guilt. When he takes the case of Rick Pierro, a wealthy investment banker threatened by blackmail, March is swiftly drawn into a web of Wall Street insiders and outcasts, and back to a world he thought he’d left behind. The more he learns about Pierro’s connections to a notorious international bank that made billions in blood-money, the darker the terrain becomes. Soon March’s own life is in danger, as he follows a trail of blood and shattered lives to a ruthless and depraved extortionist. In this thrilling and intelligent debut, Peter Spiegelman illuminates the dark underside of the financial world and introduces one of the most compelling fictional detectives of the new millennium.

Black Maps

A hypnotic literary mystery thriller about a murder at a secluded research facility and the secrets that it exposes. • "Cyber thievery, lust, corporate espionage, and a host of deleterious secrets comprise the chords of this sweeping, riveting symphony. A bold and original thriller by a masterful storyteller.” —Elizabeth Brundage, author of The Vanishing Point Looming high above the cliffside along a remote coastline, Ondstrand House is the headquarters of the shadowy biotech firm Ondstrand Biologic. When the body of the organization’s most gifted young scientist, Allegra Stans, is discovered in a walk-in refrigerator—her neck has been broken—Agent Myles is called in to investigate. Myles works for Standard Division, the most feared element of a vast state security apparatus, and he’s been dispatched to the brooding manor, a massive stone campus that once housed a notorious boarding school, to do what Standard Division agents do best—complete the task at hand. As his investigation proceeds, Myles discovers that “gifted scientist” is only one thread in the complicated fabric of Allegra’s life. There are darker strands as well—of ambition, manipulation, and bitter grievance—all woven into a pattern of secrets, each presenting a reasonable motive for murder. It appears everyone has something to hide, including Allegra’s colleagues, lovers, and former lovers—even the very halls of Ondstrand House itself. Questions continue to pile up: What interest does Standard Division, an organization best known for intelligence gathering and clandestine international operations, have in this seemingly straightforward case? Could the killing have anything to do with the sprawling estate’s sordid past? And what, exactly, is this research facility researching? Before long, another murder is discovered, and Myles finds himself an increasingly unwelcome presence in an ever more hostile landscape with few allies and fewer answers.

A Secret About a Secret

This riveting mystery finds Private Investigator John March descending into Manhattan’s dark and scandalous underworld to help a member of his own family. David March, John’s brother, has been having affairs with anonymous women he meets on the internet. Now one of these women is stalking him. David knows her only as Wren. She, however, knows everything about David—and she's threatening to tell his wife and colleagues, ruining his life. With his marriage, career, and reputation at stake, David asks John to find her. What John discovers is there is more to Wren than David knows. She’s an intriguing mystery, an internet pornographer and video artist with a penchant for turning the tables on her subjects. But when she turns up dead, John finds he's no longer searching for a stalker—now he's looking for a murderer, and the clues keep leading him back to his older brother’s doorstep.

Peter Spiegelman

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