"A MAZE OF MONEY AND MYSTERY"

The first indication of trouble comes for Patricia McCarey when the collection agency people come a-knocking at her door. She's then stunned by the harshly delivered bombshell- like news that her husband, Manhattan-based accountant Mitch Greiff, is missing, as are fourteen million dollars from his firm that is responsible for handling the finances of celebrity clients. And she hadn't even realized that Mitch had been missing for almost a month as they'd begun to lead completely separate lives while living in the same place for quite some time. At this point, the Computer Crimes Squad is handed the case as it involves electronic money transfers, and soon two detectives, Sprague and Ballestrino, are hot on the trial of both the money and the thief.

Every person who had access to the pilfered accounts, at the firm Mitch worked for, is interrogated repeatedly and at times followed, and every detail of their sometimes adulterous and sometimes mundane lives is examined under a microscope. Every effort is made to track the missing accountant, but no trail is readily visible. And as usual the offshore banks, to which stolen money was transferred, are their usual non co-operative selves, so that doesn't help the police any. The detective duo, which consists of seasoned veteran Sprague, and the young and vain Ballestrino, can't come up with a single piece of evidence, though their investigation reveals the pertinent fact that Mitch wasn't the type of guy with either the guts or the brains to come up with and/or execute such brilliant embezzlement. However, they both have a feeling that Erica King, the taciturn, nasty and plain-Jane accountant is somehow involved in this fraud. But all their thorough investigating doesn't turn up anything even remotely suspicious about her. Are they just not looking in the right direction?

Valerie Block has created an amazing saga of deceit and mystery in this latest book of hers. The intricate details of electronic banking and how easy it is to perpetrate fraud, is highlighted in this tale. This tale has one of the most novel villains ever, as not only is the villain very wily, but also manages to gain the readers' sympathy. The story is also unusual in that the crime is followed from both the cop's as well as the criminal's points of view, and meanwhile the tale meanders its way thorough the murky waters of high-tech embezzlement, identity theft and privacy invasion. There are plenty of characters in this busy little book, and all of them contribute a lot towards the story. The book is also characterized by some black humor, petty office politics, wanted and unwanted human interaction, a multi-million dollar heist, and a story which is sure to appeal to a vast range of readers. Very entertaining.

Reviewed by Rashmi Srinivas
Posted May 21, 2003

Summary

With a nod to Ed McBain and Fay Weldon, author Valerie Block creates a hilarious tale of a heist gone wrong that ranges from the living rooms of Park Avenue to the parking lot of the White Castle on Queens Boulevard.

Mitch Greiff, celebrity tax accountant and partner in a prestigious Manhattan firm, hates foreign food, strange hotel rooms, and unfamiliarity. He has nightmares about learning new computer software. So when he disappears after a series of sophisticated wire transfers that siphon millions of dollars from his clients' accounts, Mitch's partners and estranged wife, Patricia, are completely astonished and confused.

Detective Dennis Sprague of the NYPD Computer Crimes Squad doesn't buy it. Why would a man who's had all the breaks in life suddenly go on the lam? Who wakes up, looks around his spacious Upper East Side co-op, gazes at his former-model wife, and says, "The hell with this—I want to live in fear!"

As Sprague investigates, he becomes convinced that Mitch Greiff must have had an accomplice. Sprague works on the assumption that there's always a girl in the picture. He looks into Patricia, but Mitch's long-suffering wife never even called Missing Persons, because she didn't miss him. So Sprague sniffs around the office eye-candy, Heather Perkins, whose signature is on all the wire transfer approvals, and who has a reputation for keeping company with the partners after hours.

And then there's Erica King, Mitch's "loophole rabbi." Sharp, dry, and meticulous, she makes up in financial acumen what she lacks in social graces. The collective assumption around the office is that the acid tongue, floor- length skirts, and dingy white tennis shoes mean that Erica is a virgin and will die that way. But Detective Sprague suspects that there is something more to Erica King than the plainest Jane in Manhattan. From elegant Park Avenue matrons to nasty asthmatic forgers in Queens, Valerie Block has created a unique cast of characters. She combines a hilarious comedy of manners with a police procedural and strikes fiction gold.