Beauty and The Beast

Hamish Hamilton, London, 1982. First Edition. Hardcover (Original Cloth). Near Fine Condition/Near Fine. Topless bathing was allowed on Sabal Beach, but if any other form of intimate exposure occurred for the barest fraction of a moment, police from the neighbouring city of Calusa, Florida, magically appeared and made an immediate arrest. The first time Matthew Hope, a leading Calusa attorney, saw Michelle Harper was on Sabal Beach one Saturday; he thought her spectacularly beautiful. On Monday she came to him as a client. She had been brutally beaten. Her husband, she said, was responsible. Next day, on another beach, her dead body was found; her hands and legs had been bound and she had apparently been burnt to death. George Harper, her husband, was the blackest black man Matthew had ever seen. Also the biggest, and the ugliest. When George had been interrogated, Matthew found himself representing the husband, rather than the murdered wife. Calusa regards itself as sophisticated. But by the time Matthew Hope and the local police had solved the riddle not only of Michelle's death but of another which followed, some very odd cookies were crumbling in the strangest possible ways. This is the third of Ed McBain's Matthew Hope novels, each of which has as its title a famous fairy story, The first two were Goldilocks and Rumpelstiltskin. The Brothers Grimm would indeed be surprised. Jacket designed by Ken Reilly This is the first UK edition. Size: Octavo (standard book size). 199 pages. Binding is tight, covers and spine fully intact. Dust Jacket is in very good condition, without tears or chips or other damage. Dust Jacket un-clipped. Gilt titles spine. red cloth. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 500 grams. Category: Crime Fiction; United States; Crime Fiction. ISBN: 0241107695. ISBN/EAN: 9780241107690. Inventory No: 2891. . 9780241107690