Review: The Spire by Shaun Goldsmith

Stark and suspenseful with a daunting tangle of a plot, The Spire by Shaun Goldsmith is a lavishly unpredictable and compelling whodunit. The story begins with a bang – a quadruple homicide in a lavish penthouse on the 75th floor of one of the most secure and surveilled buildings in Midtown Manhattan. What follows is a spiraling web of conspiracy involving a controversial billionaire, a shameless lawyer, and a legendary criminal.

Lieutenant Mike Vogel is the eccentric lead investigator in these notorious murders – he’s relentless, effective, and stylish enough for a three-piece suit at a crime scene. Within a day, he has a handful of suspects, a host of suspicions, and the sense that nothing about the case is what it seems. There are too many coincidences and crossovers to ignore, and too many smirking secrets being held by the dead, and the living.

Begrudgingly joining forces with the Feds, due to the status and visibility of the victims, Mike must trust both his Sherlock Holmes attention to detail and veteran gut instincts to unravel this paradox of a crime, even when it hits close to home. As the hunt continues to stretch far beyond his pay grade, it becomes clear that the shot-callers will stop at nothing to keep their noses clean, even if it means getting their hands bloody all over again.

Goldsmith excels at subtle foreshadowing through the omniscient narration, leaving elbow nudges in the prose like breadcrumbs for keen-eyed readers, without ever giving away too much. The disparate threads of the investigation are woven neatly, with quick chapter and scene cuts that keep the pace high, while also ensuring that readers don’t lose track of leads, red herrings, and quietly mentioned clues. For this reason, the book stands out from many other police procedurals, where countless corners can be conveniently cut, and clues fall into detectives’ laps seemingly for the sake of expediency. The impossible puzzle of certain crimes is the source of entertainment in this genre; the more convoluted the mystery, the more satisfying the explanation, and that is the case here.

There are also clear connections to real-world events and figures, namely the recent downfall of rich and famous men with a penchant for underage girls, as well as the wicked women who enable them. While such parallels aren’t made in a heavy-handed way, they do give this novel even more timely appeal, as it’s set after the main surge of the Covid-19 pandemic.

On the technical side, there are occasional errors, and the fragmented sentences can affect the flow of the prose. Given the rapid-fire delivery of dialogue and exposition, readers will need to read carefully so as to not miss anything, and the clipped wording can make it easier to read past particular details. That’s a small critique, as the plot is remarkably well-crafted, with a satisfying and surprising conclusion.

Sharply penned and addictively engaging, The Spire offers a chilling glimpse into high-rise decadence and ice-cold retribution, for a novel that is at once a powerful indictment of corruption at the very top and a page-turning mystery.