Ed McBain: Rumpelstiltskin (USA 2012)

From the Publisher:
When Victoria Miller and her backing band, Wheat, broke out with a string of gold records in the sixties, the sultry chanteuse seemed shy of crowds, refusing to perform in public. Years after her last success, Victoria makes her stage debut, but the magic is long gone, and shortly after that, so is she -- the victim of a brutal murder. Victoria's six- year-old daughter, Allison, is missing too, but nobody's come forward for a ransom. The only clue is a mysterious call -- I'll be stopping by to collect -- but who's collecting, and what? Even if Allison could be found, lawyer Matthew Hope can't seem to locate Victoria's missing will with Allison's guardianship. And when Victoria's old producer comes forward, claiming Victoria wasn't quite the natural talent she'd seemed to be, Matthew's left wondering who gave her the golden touch and why they'd take it back right now.

Part of Ed McBain's masterful Matthew Hope series, Rumpelstiltskin finds the good-hearted lawyer in a plot where everyone's a suspect, and all debts are paid in full.

Ed McBain: Rumpelstiltskin. A Matthew Hope Mystery. Thomas & Mercer, ISBN: 9781612181974 (October, 2012), 286 p., $13.95.

Ed McBain: Rumpelstiltskin (USA 1994)

From the Publisher:
CALL IT SLEEP
First she wore Matthew Hope out, then she begged him to stay. When finally he pried himself out of her bed, the former rock star said, "You'll be sorry." And so he was -- when Vicky Miller was found murdered in her home the next day, her six-year-old daughter gone. Now Hope had both a professional and personal interest in cracking a case that will stretch from Calusa, Florida, to New Orleans. The personal reasons were that he had been in love with the woman. The professional reasons were that she had named Matthew Hope the executor of her will, a will that left a colossal and potentially explosive trust fund to her daughter -- if a madman didn't kill her first...

Ed McBain: Rumpelstiltskin. Warner Books, ISBN: 0446601306 (May, 1994), 230 p., $5.99.

Ed McBain: Rumpelstiltskin (USA 1992)

From the Publisher:
Rock star Vicky Miller had had a fairy-tale career back in the 1960s. She spun her youth and beauty into three gold records and worldwide fame before she abruptly abandoned her career. Now, twelve years later, she chooses the unlikely venue of a Calusa, Florida, nightclub to make her comeback.

There to cheer her on is Matthew Hope, although he's more interested in taking the appealing Vicky home that night than in her singing. But, the next morning, Vicky is found brutally murdered and her 6-year-old daughter is missing. Why did Vicky draw up a will only weeks before her death-a will that lit-erally bequeaths her child? Who will be the benefi-ciary of the massive fortune Vicky stood to inherit on her 35th birthday? Whose was the voice that called on the night she died... leaving only the message that he was coming to "collect"? Hope finds himself in a plot as terrifyingly familiar as the old fairy tale -- a tale of gold, greed, murder, and mayhem.

Ed McBain: Rumpelstiltskin. A Matthew Hope Novel. The Mysterious Press / Warner Books, ISBN: 0446401676 (August, 1992), 230 p., $4.99.

Ed McBain: Rumpelstiltskin (USA 1982)

From the Publisher:
"JUST THE SORT OF EXCELLENCE YOU EXPECT FROM McBAIN!" -- THE DENVER POST
She's a rock star of the 60s, hungry for a comeback. He is a divorced lawyer working to put his own life back together. Their one-night stand is brief but torrid

When the next day she is found brutally murdered and her six-year-old daughter is missing, Matthew Hope inherits love's toughest labor -- hunting down a culprit who may not stop at kidnapping and murder.

RUMPELSTILTSKIN
A MATTHEW HOPE MYSTERY
"THE READER OUGHT TO ENJOY EVERY MINUTE OF IT!" -- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ed McBain: Rumpelstiltskin. He loved her for a night. Now he must find her killer... A Matthew Hope Novel. Ballantine, ISBN: 0345304365 (November, 1982), 230 p., $2.50.

Ed McBain: Rumpelstiltskin (UK 1982)

From the Publisher:
Beautiful Victoria Miller is making her comeback as a singer. That night, she makes passionate love with successful attorney Matthew Hope. The following morning, Vicky is found brutally murdered and her daughter has been kidnapped...

Matthew Hope becomes embroiled in a welter of hatred, greed and jealousy that filled the dead woman's life. And at the end of the trail is a little girl-worth twelve million dollars...

Don't miss Ed McBain's first book in the Matthew Hope series
GOLDILOCKS
Also published by Corgi Books

Ed McBain: Rumpelstiltskin. Corgi Books, ISBN: 0552120219 (August, 1982), 266 p., £1.50.

Ed McBain: Rumpelstiltskin (USA 1981)

From the Publisher:
Rumpelstiltskin. An old fairy tale. Straw spun into gold, a dwarf with a wicked temper. A dwarf who covets a child. A woman is found murdered, her daughter is missing. Who is madman enough to kill the mother and steal away the child?

Matthew Hope is a lawyer whose quiet style belies a caustic wit and perceptive intelligence. He is thirty-seven, divorced, and at loose ends with himself. Vicky Miller is an appealing woman, a singer who made it big as a rock star in the sixties and is trying desperately for a comeback. For Hope it is a casual affair. He does not heed Vicky's urgent plea to stay the night. He is thinking of the morning, when Vicky's six-year-old daughter will wake to find him there. But the next day Vicky is found bru-tally murdered, and her little girl is missing. The cops are on the case, but so is Hope, determined to bring the killer to justice.

Why did Vicky draw up a will only weeks before her death, a will that quite literally bequeaths her child? Who will be the beneficiary of the massive fortune that Vicky stood to inherit on her thirty-fifth birthday, a birthday she died just short of? And whose was the voice that called on the night she died-leaving only the mes-sage that he was coming to "collect"? Matthew Hope and Morrie Bloom, the kind-hearted but beleaguered cop on the case, find themselves in a plot as terrifyingly familiar as the old fairy tale a tale of gold and greed, of murder and mayhem.

Ed McBain: Rumpelstiltskin. A Matthew Hope Mystery. Viking Press, ISBN: 0670610593 (June, 1981), 241 p., $12.95.