What is Peter Spiegelman reading?

This weekend's featured contributor at Writers Read: Peter Spiegelman, author of Thick As Thieves.

His entry begins:

I’m reading Crime, a collection of stories by Ferdinand von Schirach (translated from the German by Carol Brown Janeway), which I find quite compelling—scary and disorienting and, above all, deeply moving.

Von Schirach is one of Germany’s leading criminal lawyers, a participant in many high-profile cases, and in his excellent preface (titled “Guilt”) he describes his subject as: “human beings—their failings, their guilt, and their capacity to behave magnificently.” More specifically, he is concerned with the reign of randomness in human lives, how tenuous our hold is on security, sanity, and civilized behavior, how little we know of those closest to us, how fragile our happiness is. As he puts it: “All our lives we dance on a thin layer of ice; it’s very cold underneath, and death is quick. The ice...[read on]

Among the early praise for Thick As Thieves:

“Slick, sophisticated and satisfying … this is thriller fiction at its best.”
—Lee Child, author of The Affair

“Thick as Thieves is anything but ‘thick’—it’s sleek and subtle, with Spiegelman’s rare eye for the telling detail. Thrilling in both tone and substance, these thieves will steal you away from whatever else you were doing, and leave you glad they did.”
—Don Winslow, author of Savages

“Thick As Thieves showcases the further development of Peter Spiegelman, one of our best writers of suspense and intrigue. His characters are forceful, smart, and his prose is supple, precise and often poetic. Spiegelman gives us a deep inside look at scams and scammers of various sorts, and puts a big whirling plot into motion that ultimately delivers every satisfaction it promises at the start.”
—Daniel Woodrell, author of Winter’s Bone

“A lightening-fast caper set at the crossroads of high finance, high crime, and high paranoia, Thick As Thieves is part magic, part alchemy and utterly entertaining. It is what all thrillers should aspire to be, and Spiegelman is that rare writer with both the heart and talent to pull off such an ambitious undertaking.”
—Reed Farrel Coleman, three-time Shamus Award-winning author of Innocent Monster

“Superlative prose lifts this gritty stand-alone from Shamus Award–winner Spiegelman…intricate and plausible.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Learn more about the book and author at Peter Spiegelman's website.

Spiegelman is the Shamus Award-winning author of three previous books—Black Maps, Death’s Little Helpers, and Red Cat—that feature private investigator and Wall Street refugee John March.

The Page 99 Test: Red Cat.

Writers Read: Peter Spiegelman.

--Marshal Zeringue