Puss in Boots by Ed McBain (1987)

Puss in Boots
A Matthew Hope Novel
by Ed McBain
Publisher:  Henry Holt and Company
Copyright:  1987
Book Club Edition

Prudence Ann Markham was as careful as her name.  After she packed up the film she'd been editing, she checked the studio gear, hit the three-digit code on the alarm pad, snapped off the lights, and locked the outer door.  Then she headed across the deserted parking lot to her car.  It was 10:40 on the night of November 20.  Prudence Ann never made it to 10:45 -- though her blood continued to flow, reddening the white gravel of the parking lot for long moments after she died.

Carlton Barnaby Markham didn't know what his wife had been working on at the time of her murder.  All Carlton knew was that the film was missing -- and that he was residing in the Calusa County Jail, charged with first-degree murder.

For Matthew Hope, the months since he'd decided to switch to criminal law had hardly been a vote of confidence.  He'd lost his first case, refused his second.  So when Carlton Markham said he was innocent, Hope took the case.  But as he dug deeper into the evidence the cops had amassed, it soon became clear that it would take more than claims of innocence to spring his client.

The seventh Michael Hope novel, this ranks with the best of Ed McBain's 87th Precinct police procedurals:  cunningly plotted, richly peopled, tensely told -- and, like Prudence Ann's last film, probably X-rated, which only adds to its power and suspense.  Here is detective fiction in the hands of a Grand Master, which is what the Mystery Writers of America called Ed McBain in 1986.

Condition:  Used.  Hardcover.  Dust cover is discolored and shows shelf wear, scuffing.  Pages may be tanning from age.  Previous owner's "Library Of" stamp is on the front endpaper.  Binding is in the beginning stages of splitting, but pages are still in tact.

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