Beauty and the Beast, Ed McBain
Beauty and the Beast, Ed McBain
List: $14.99 | Sale: $10.50
Club: $7.49

Beauty and the Beast

Author: Ed McBain

Narrator: Luke Daniels

Unabridged: 7 hr 5 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/23/2012

Synopsis

Matthew Hope is a divorce lawyer in the town of Calusa, Florida, where the Gulf waters are warm and the women on the beach topless. One such woman, Michelle Benois Harper—a striking beauty with cascading black hair—enters Matthew’s office revealing swollen eyes and a bruised and battered body. After making a statement with the cops saying her husband did it, her body is found on the beach, burned beyond recognition.George N. Harper is a hulking man with pockmarks, flaring nostrils, and rheumy eyes—the ugliest accused man Matthew has ever seen. But something’s not quite right about the case—Harper loved his wife. Yet the cops and lawyers are ready to hang the man who could extinguish such a beautiful woman, and it’s up to Matthew to prove his innocence.An instant classic in the Matthew Hope series from Ed McBain, Beauty and the Beast pairs the good-hearted lawyer with a client who tests his prejudices and proves beauty may be skin deep, but ugly is in the bones.

About Ed McBain

Born in New York, Evan Hunter (1926–2005) wrote the screen play for Hitchcock’s The Birds in 1963. He received the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and is one of three American writers to be awarded the Diamond Dagger for a lifetime of achievement by the British Crime Writers Association. Under the name Ed McBain, he authored the sprawling 87th Precinct series — the longest, most varied crime series in the world — which includes fifty-five novels about a fictional team of policemen, and thirteen novels in the Matthew Hope series featuring an up-and-coming lawyer in the Florida Gulf Coast. Known for tackling controversial content with a thoughtful eye, he is the author of over eighty novels.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Cathy on February 25, 2013

The characters, especially the protagonist, and the storyline in books have about equal value when I rate books. Although this book is number three in the series, of attorney Matthew Hope, it’s the fourth book in the series which I’ve read and my bonus for all of them is that they are set on the sout......more

Goodreads review by David on March 04, 2018

The Matthew Hope character continues to develop with a story of a white wife of a black husband being beaten one night and murdered the next. Hope gets dragged into the case despite not being a criminal lawyer and finds the racial tension in SW Florida still alive and well in 1982.......more

Goodreads review by Ezi on August 23, 2015

This is a beauty and the beast meets In The Heat of the Night (TV show). It's was interesting. This French beauty meets and falls in love with an army guy, a big hulk-like black man (described as King Kong, black as coal, ugly as hell etc). She shows up to a lawyers office requesting a divorce due to......more

Goodreads review by Marie on February 14, 2018

Older story. I thought it was well told - I listened on audio.......more

Goodreads review by K on March 15, 2020

Beauty And The Beast is my first Matthew Hope novel. This is a delightful read, full of classic skillful McBain dialogue, sense of place, and a great plot twist. Matthew Hope is a good character, with enough going on in both his public and private realms to remain interesting throughout. The only we......more

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List