| John March is a private investigator three years after his life collapsed with the death of his wife due to a serial killer. The pain is still fresh as are the constant and well-meaning efforts from family concerning his chosen profession.
But March goes his own way as most loners do and at the request of a friend takes the strange case of Rick Pierro. Rick is wealthy by anyone's standards and is being blackmailed. From documents the blackmailer supplied and is threatening to use, it appears that Rick was a small part of a massive money-laundering scheme years ago. Part of the scheme has come to light in the last year or so and multiple investigations are underway. While Rick admits to doing business deals with the principals named in the documents, he claims that the documents themselves are fakes and that all his deals were and still are legit. With his job on Wall Street in jeopardy, Rick wants to pay off the blackmailer once, if the person can be convinced not to come back for more. Rick can't afford a hint of scandal should anything come out but has no intention of being bled dry either. March thinks the whole deal is strange and problematic at best but agrees to do what he can. Before long, he suspects that Rick is lying to him and that Rick isn't the only one that the blackmailer has blackmailed. But the blackmailer, who takes offense at being looked for isn't the only one that has resources to deal with March. So too does a Federal Prosecutor and her task force which have to show result from months of investigation and at this point, they don't care how they go about it. | ||
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Plot & Themes Tone of story - suspenseful (sophisticated fear) Time/era of story: descript. of violence and chases - 20 % Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40 % Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30 % How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 10 % Crime Thriller Yes Crime plotlets: General Crime (including known murderer) Yes Who's the criminal enemy here? - catching con-artist Main Character Gender - Male Profession/status: Age: - 20's-30's Ethnicity/Race Main Adversary Identity: - Male Age: - 40's-50's Profession/status: Motive of antagonist - revenge How sensitive is this character? Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor Intelligence - Average intelligence Setting United States Yes The US: - Northeast City? Yes City: - New York Writing Style Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog |
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