Matthew Hope is an attorney from Chicago now living in Florida. Late one night he visits a bar to meet someone; when he walks out the front door of the bar to see if the person's he's waiting to meet is coming, he's shot, twice.
The shooting deprives Hope's brain of oxygen for several minutes, and after surgery he ramains unresponsive. His private investigator, a man named Warren Chambers, and his partner, Toots Riley, immediately start an investigation to find out who shot Hope, working in tandem with a police detective who's a friend of Hope's. Their goal is to retrace Hope's steps in the days leading up to the shooting, believing that they will find a motive for the shooting, and that a motive will lead them to the shooter.
Hope had recently had a tough criminal case and had chosen to focus on civil law for a while. He'd been working on a real estate deal. A circus owner who regularly winters in Florida, had recognized that much of his profit is from his midway operation, and had decided that he'd like to buy a large parcel of land in town to use to set up the circus over the winter.
But there's a hitch: the owner of the parcel is nearly bankrupt and his property is heavily mortgaged. His creditor is expected to litigate the debt, and this would delay or prevent sale of the property to Hope's client.
Meanwhile, Hope investigates the freedom the circus owner may or may not have to make the deal, and meets a remarkable woman. She is a striking young woman with red hair who, though only about 22, has a thriving business as a wigmaker. Having inherited her mother's half share of the business when her mother died three years earlier, she is now half owner of the circus. When Hope talks to her, she insists that her mother's suicide was a murder.
It seems to me that the novel has three parts, each with a different mood that gradually turns darker. I was sincerely surprised by the turn of the plot in the last third of the novel.
The young woman who owns half the circus, her mother and father, and her friends from her time in the circus (which includes the couple who own the parcel the circus owner wishes to acquire) are a colorful cast of characters.
This novel was published in 1994. Ed McBain was a pen name of the author Evan Hunter, a prolific novelist who died in 2005.
I don't know why I picked up this novel which I've owned for about a year. It's coincidence that it's also set in Florida.
The shooting deprives Hope's brain of oxygen for several minutes, and after surgery he ramains unresponsive. His private investigator, a man named Warren Chambers, and his partner, Toots Riley, immediately start an investigation to find out who shot Hope, working in tandem with a police detective who's a friend of Hope's. Their goal is to retrace Hope's steps in the days leading up to the shooting, believing that they will find a motive for the shooting, and that a motive will lead them to the shooter.
Hope had recently had a tough criminal case and had chosen to focus on civil law for a while. He'd been working on a real estate deal. A circus owner who regularly winters in Florida, had recognized that much of his profit is from his midway operation, and had decided that he'd like to buy a large parcel of land in town to use to set up the circus over the winter.
But there's a hitch: the owner of the parcel is nearly bankrupt and his property is heavily mortgaged. His creditor is expected to litigate the debt, and this would delay or prevent sale of the property to Hope's client.
Meanwhile, Hope investigates the freedom the circus owner may or may not have to make the deal, and meets a remarkable woman. She is a striking young woman with red hair who, though only about 22, has a thriving business as a wigmaker. Having inherited her mother's half share of the business when her mother died three years earlier, she is now half owner of the circus. When Hope talks to her, she insists that her mother's suicide was a murder.
It seems to me that the novel has three parts, each with a different mood that gradually turns darker. I was sincerely surprised by the turn of the plot in the last third of the novel.
The young woman who owns half the circus, her mother and father, and her friends from her time in the circus (which includes the couple who own the parcel the circus owner wishes to acquire) are a colorful cast of characters.
This novel was published in 1994. Ed McBain was a pen name of the author Evan Hunter, a prolific novelist who died in 2005.
I don't know why I picked up this novel which I've owned for about a year. It's coincidence that it's also set in Florida.
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