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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Discovery, February 18, 2007
Easily one of the best mysteries I've read in a long time. John March is one of those jaded, cynical detectives in the noir tradition of Sam Spade, but there's an idealistic heart buried under his tough exterior. In "Red Cat," John tries to save his thankless brother David first from blackmail and later from a charge of murder. The murder victim is David's beautiful, talented, dangerously disturbed mistress and Spiegelman does a great job of making the reader care about this woman, whose unsavory life reads like a sleazy tabloid story. There are plenty of suspects to go around and Spiegelman also does a good job of diverting reader suspicion from one to the other. I admit I did have the who figured out before the end, but the clues were subtle and easily missed; and the story was so well-written, I enjoyed reading along and waiting for John's detecting to catch up to my own. The pacing of the story is excellent. In fact, I read the book in one day. Every time I tried to put it down and do something else, I just had to get back to it. All in all, a really well-written and enjoyable mystery.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
fabulous modern day Noir, February 10, 2007
Growing up brothers John and David March detested one another; as adults their scorn for the other remains unabated. Thus John is more than shocked when his snobbish business executive David turns to him for help. The married David used an Internet site to arrange a tryst. The woman videotaped their performance, which if revealed would cost the older sibling his job and probably his wife; he wants his younger sibling, a private investigator to find out what is going on and how to prevent the personal disaster from occurring. The only additional clue is a red cat tattoo on the hooker. John learns the female is Wren, who is not blackmailing David per say, but considers herself an artist selling her tapes of married men cheating with her to the highest bidding collector. The scenario takes a deadly spin when someone murders Wren. John assumes that a sex client committed the homicide, but wonders if righteous David could have performed the deed even as he ponders whether blood is thick enough to propel him to protect David especially if he turns out to be the killer. Besides the family dynamics, RED CAT is a fabulous modern day Noir that brings the Internet fully into the sub-genre. John is terrific as he loathes his pompous "superior" older brother, but also resolves to do his best by him as he is family. Peter Spiegelman provides a great whodunit starring one of the best sleuths to hit the information age (see BLACK MAPS and DEATH'S LITTLE HELPERS). Harriet Klausner
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
John March is not your stereotypical gumshoe, March 3, 2007
As Spiegelman's third John March novel opens, the PI is approached by his insufferable brother David for help in extracting himself from a scenario straight out of Fatal Attraction--sexually adventurous, David is being stalked by a woman he met on the Internet who is apparently interested in more than anonymous sexual trysts. Somehow, she's figured out who he is, and is threatening to reveal their illicit affair to David's wife. David, who only knows the woman as "Wren", finds himself in need of someone with his brother's unique skill set. John agrees to help his sibling, and begins digging into the woman's background. Before he can locate her, however, a corpse fitting Wren's description is fished from the Hudson, rendering his brother a suspect in a brutal murder. Inventive, nimble, and knowing, Spiegelman cements his position as one of today's most gifted mystery writers with the action rich, yet strangely cerebral, Red Cat. John March is intelligent, sensitive and empathetic, a thinking man's gumshoe who brings a fresh perspective to the mystery genre. March is totally consumed by the difficult case, which leads him into some pretty volatile terrain, both professional and personal, teaching him lessons about himself and about his brother, with whom he has little in common. Although she never appears in a speaking role in this novel, Wren is a powerful presence in the book, exerting a strong influence over the people around her, and, eventually over John, as he comes to appreciate her as a person.
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