Fetch Your Copy Rumpelstiltskin (Matthew Hope, #2) Scripted By Ed McBain Offered As Publication

returns

I've read allbooks in theth Precinct series and enjoyed them,

Afterbooks, I've figured out why I'm not enjoy these books in kind, Matthew Hope is a jackass, Selfabsorbed, egotistical, and uncaring of the people in his life unless they meet one of his needs,

Maybe there will be character development of maybe not, My fingers are crossed. One of the few Matthew Hope books I have read, despite being a big fan of theth precinct series, this is an okay read and pretty much your standard crime thriller.

Matthew Hope, attorney, is a vastly different character than any in theth books a bit of a womaniser, and often not always that likeable and as such, is a bit harder to warm to.

I enjoyed it, and will read more in this series, but cant help thinking these books are unlikely to ever hold as big a place in my heart as McBainsth books still do.

Pretty much your average runofthemill crime thriller with very few unsurprising or unexpected twists, This was my first Matthew Hope mystery, actually my first of any of Ed McBain's books, A good story coupled with an excellent narration made for an enjoyable listen, And although several references dated the story a little it didn't really detract, I like Matthew Hope and the tongue in cheek humour, the characters are rounded and believable, In essence it's a good old fashioned whodunit,
I have to say though, it seemed a little odd and unnecessary to spend so much time discussing the whys and wherefores of pubic hair colour.
I've read maybe half theth Precinct novels from every era, some are better than others but over all I've liked each amp every

one of them.
Hard to pick a fave, maybe King's Ransom, IDK But I've really enjoyed them and will continue reading those I've missed, So, a year a go I thought I'd read a standalone by McBain, . . I did this because I really enjoy John D, MacDonald's standalones, in fact I like them better than the Travis McGee novels, . . If you haven't read The Crossroads or End of the Night you must if you're a lover of noirish crimefiction, Anyways, from McBain's standalones I picked out Downtown, a zany caper set in the Wall Street area of NYC during the snowy week between Christmas amp New Years.
It had some high points but overall not that entertaining, . . it was just Okay. Soooo, recently I thought I'd try out a Matthew Hope novel, . . I started with Book, Rumpelstltskin, because I found a cheap copy at a used book store, . . which turned out to be unreadable due to yellowed pages, So I downloaded the Kindle edition for, . I must say that the book flowed along smoothly and was an easy read, I read it in three sittings, . . BUT outside of that I was majorleague disappointed, . . I thought the book was VERY poorly written, like McBain kicked it out in a week and didn't go back and edit, Quickly, here's only a few of the issues I had with Rumpelstltskin, No emotion or empathy when former rocker Vicki was murdered, . . LONG passages of subjects that had NOTHING to due with the story like the color of Dale's pubichair yes, you read me right, and, the endless description of New Orleans, and more.
also annoying were characters that were not established, including Matthew Hope and his daughter, . . Hope switching from lawyer to P, I. and back again Well, I could go on, Rumpelstltskin is not a very good book, . . I'm going to stick with theth Precinct and leave it at that, outtaStars Former Sixties rock star Victoria Miller finally relents and performs on stage, She no longer has it, Ten she is murdered, brutaly, Her sixyearold daughter Allison is missing, So who is to benefit Matthew hope comes forward, trying to solve it all, She is the beneficiary of a huge sum in a trust set up by her father, If she does not survive, Allison gets it all,

This one rocks, I felt the tension and emotion that Hope and his characters emitted, This one is well structured with clues artfully placed throughout the story, characters are real and interesting, Hopes horniness also helps keep the ball rolling,

This is a book on tape,
Summary
This is a mystery novel written for adults, I listened to this book on tape, It is an interesting version of Rumpelstiltskin, It is about a singer named Victoria who is murdered, She was a famous recording star in thes and now she is trying to make it big again in thes when she is beaten to death.
In the same night her daughter is kidnapped, A lawyer named Matthew Hope the narrator was with her the night she was murdered and he follows the case as many different suspects come out of the woodwork.
Victorias father, exhusband, band mates, agent, and the club owner where she performed are all questioned, Many people had ideas of what happened, but there were no true leads until later in the story when Victorias daughter was found dead, Through the process of his detective work Matthew Hope grows closer to his own daughter, meets and begins a relationship with another lawyer, and manages to uncover details from Victorias murder that find the killer.
It turns out to be her former agent, who was also her lover at one point, and the father of her child,
This book is recorded on a total oftapes, Throughout the firsttapes I was very confused about why this book was called Rumpelstiltskin at all, It wasnt until theth tape that they tell the story of Rumpelstiltskin, and theth tape that the true details come out, Victorias agent had made her into a star, He turned the “straw” of her band, called Wheat, intogold records, After the first record Victoria repaid him by being his lover, After the second gold record, she became pregnant with his child, but then had a miscarriage, After the third gold record, Victoria married someone else, She had an affair with her agent and became pregnant with his child again, When the agent called the houseyears later and found out that she was going to start singing again he wanted to “collect” the child that was his.
At the end of the book a detective and Matthew Hope refer to the agent as a dwarf, like the traditional Rumpelstiltskin,
Response
I feel like this book was interesting and entertaining, There were a few parts of the book that were not relevant to the plot, but I feel like that was the authors style, I was interested to read this book because I was curious to find out how a childrens fairy tale could become a large mystery novel.
I enjoyed listening to the story however I would have liked it better if it was read by a different person, The reader of the story was a little monotone and I found myself thinking about other things a few times while listening to the story.
I would probably recommend this book to someone who enjoyed mysteries, figuring out puzzles, or thinking about and solving familiar problems in new stories,
Bloom shook his head. The sad brown eyes looked even sadder, He sighed and then said, "You know anybody who mightve wanted that little girl badly enough"

"What" I said,

"The little girl, "

"I dont understand, "

"Badly enough to have killed the mother for it, "

"I still "

"The little girl's gone, Mr, Hope. Whoever killed Victoria Miller took the little girl with him, "

What begins as an ordinary onenightstand for attorney Matthew Hope turns into a deadly mystery when the woman, a's rock star trying for a comeback, is brutally murdered, and her daughter turns up missing.
Another good entry in the Matthew Hope series, I enjoyed it, and the ending raised it up a notch to take it to four, I enjoyed this much more than the first in the Matthew Hope series, with a female singer murdered and her daughter abducted not long after Hope has left her bed atam.
A number of leads based on a lucrative trust deed and a twist in the tail of the plot at the end, Not bad crime pulp. Written competently and it maintained my interest, A few laws were explained along the way, about wills and warrants, and such, The sex seemed a bit gratuitous not excessive, but there strictly for bland entertainment and to make the two lead characters seem oh so hot and desirable.
Also, the lead character is a lawyer, but somehow manages to find himself at the heart of the investigation, meaning he's doing the investigating and putting most of the facts together.
But, it worked well enough for an easy read, This would be bad tv, but I didn't mind reading it when too distracted to read anything more worthwhile,.stars.
I continue to enjoy the Matthew Hope series, and remain convinced that McBain is one of the best when it comes to writing believable, fluid dialogue.
Its one of the hallmarks of histh Precinct series, and it shows clearly here as well,

I am enjoying this character and his life in Calusa, Florida, His relationship with Detective Bloom has been interesting to follow, as have his relationships with various women following his somewhat messy divorce,

A hallmark of McBain novels is his habitually repeated use of “boilerplate” paragraphs, These often include descriptions of characters that frequently appear within a series, which would be all right if one wasnt reading each of these books.
Otherwise, the repetition becomes obvious and seems unnecessary, Another characteristic that is sometimes annoying and in this case, a flaw, is McBains tendency to pad stories with superfluous details, Clearly serving as filler, adding a little to the plot, these sections distract from the overall enjoyment of the story,

Complaints aside, Rumpelstiltskin manages to entertain, albeit to a lesser degree than previous entries in the series that Ive read, The plot is good, if a little farfetched, and the central characters, enjoyable, Putting aside the padding, things develop and move fairly quickly toward the conclusion, If youre new to this series, begin elsewhere, but fans will probably wish to include this one eventually, He's done better! This seems to be an earlier McBain, better go for the later pieces, Read this a long time ago, Long before Goodreads. And wanted to add it to my "Read" collection, Best I recall Loved it! Second time reading it and got bored with the lawyerstyle dialogues
From the back cover of the book: She's a rock star of the Sixties, hungry for a comeback.
He's a divorced lawyer working to put his own life back together, Their onenight stand is brief but torrid, When the next day, she is found brutally murdered and her sixyearold daughter is missing, Matthew Hope inherits love's toughest laborhunting down the culprit who may not stop at kidnapping and murder.
.When I started this series, not knowing it was a series at all, I read in this order: First read in the series was, then, thenand lastly, this book, Rumpelstiltskin.
Therefore I was already familiar with attorney Matthew Hope and his personal situation, divorced with a lovelyyear old daughter, dating but unattached,

When I entered Rumpelstiltskin on Goodreads, I noticed that my buddy Jim Thane had read it and had given it three, When I emailed him he said he couldnt believe he gave it only three because the main character, Matthew Hope, was one of his favorites.
Now I know now why Jim gave it only three, which was what I offered, And I just love ole Matthew Hope, too, in part because he's quick witted funny which I really enjoy in some characters, McBain draws all his characters clearly and seldom puts in so many characters that the reader loses track of who's who, which to me, is a good thing.


Ed McBain was born in New York City as Salvatore Albert Lombino and wrote under the pen names Evan Hunter, Hunt Collins, Curt Cannon, Dean Hudson, Richard Marsten, Ezra Hannon, and John Abbott.
I have no idea why so many pen names, Under his pen name Ed McBain he created theth Precinct series police procedural series which has gotten mixed reviews from my GR friends,

However, Rumpelstiltskin was something entirely different and unexpected compared to the the three Matthew Hope books I had already read, In my opinion, it deserved nothing higher than three, So, Jim, you were spot on from where I stand,

All my friends know I am far from being a prude, I seldom, if ever, say anything negative, about sex scenes in books, their description, nothing, However, four and onehalf pages paperback thank goodness devoted entirely to the reason why a woman would have head hair the color of red or russet and her pubic hair, blond, is simply a bit more than needed or necessary for the story.
It was not pertinent in any way that I could see except to take up space, May have to eat my words in the next in the series, and if so, I will,

However, the real reason it got three from me is because of the ending, It was so contrived, like McBain wasnt sure who the bad guy was and just banged out in, banged out on typewriter some silly, nonsensical ending.
So Jim, in my mind, you were not off in your three,

James L. Thane, a Goodreads author, should know a good book since hes written a dynamite of a book, sitelinkNo Place to Die, which I really enjoyed and happily gave four.
Check it out it was better than this book by a nationally published author,

My hope is the next Matthew Hope, Beauty and the Beast, makes up for these three,
Ed McBain was the shit! I hadn't read anything by McBain in several years and had previously only read from histh Precinct series so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect other than some pulpy hard boiled crimerelated malarkey and that's exactly what I got.
The story was a bit contrived, the twists a bit obvious and the finale a bit bland and anticlimactic but it was entertaining enough and has some of the more ludicrous descriptions of sexual behaviour I've ever read.
I was going to give it just two but the super tacky cover of this particular edition combined with the most hilarious sex scene I or several of my friends with whom I had to share it have ever read beginning on pageand climaxing on pagefor those who are interested compel me to give it that extra star.
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