Soft-hearted attorney Matthew Hope has never been known for taking easy cases, and this is no exception. A mother and her two little girls are brutally murdered on Florida's steamy west coast, and the only person who doesn't have a motive is confessing—and insists that Hope defend him.

...Bloom shook his head. The sad brown eyes looked even sadder. He sighed and then said, "You know anybody who might’ve wanted that little girl badly enough?" "What?" I said. "The little girl." "I don’t 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 one-night-stand for attorney Matthew Hope turns into a deadly mystery when the woman, a 60's rock star trying for a comeback, is brutally murdered, and her daughter turns up missing.

Third in the series starring Matthew Hope

Florida criminal lawyer Matthew Hope never takes a case unless he knows for sure his client is innocent. But retired schoolteacher Mary Barton - known as, "Mary, Mary, quite contrary" to her neighbors - isn't as easy woman to believe in. In fact, Mary doesn't appear interested in hiring Matthew, only in bad mouthing those she feels have done her wrong. But due to the efforts of Mary's former student, Melissa Lowndes, Matthew agrees to try to prove Mary innocent of the charges filed against her: sexually mutilating, murdering, and burying three little girls in her garden. Making the case tougher, the State Attorney's "killer" prosecutor is assigned Mary's case. Max the Ax brings forth witnesses that swear to seeing Mary with each of the girls; Mary carrying bloody clothes to the cleaners; and Mary digging small graves late at night. But Hope's biggest problem is Mary herself, a difficult woman swept up in horrible circumstances - a woman with secrets so terrible she can't tell them - even to save her own life.

Attorney Matthew Hope takes on the case of beautiful heiress Sarah Whitaker, who is fighting court-ordered and family-supported commitment as a paranoid schizophrenic, and enters into a world of delusion and murder

Private detective Otto Samalson sees the tail—a black Toronado he can’t shake. One dark window rolls down, exposing the barrel of a gun, and the detective is dead. Otto had already known his days were numbered and said as much to his friend, attorney Matthew Hope. Having hired Otto to watch a cheating husband for a client, Matthew is now left with only Otto’s tape recorder, filled with proof of an affair. But could the evidence lead to something larger, something that would drive a man to kill? Meanwhile, a mysterious woman is on the run, her face and name unknown to all except two stepsisters who couldn’t care less if a violent pair of Cubans got their hands on her. If Matthew can decipher the clues in Otto’s evidence, there’s a chance he could reach the girl first and save her life. A chilling addition to the Matthew Hope series from Ed McBain, Cinderella is the tale of a woman known by many names and the men who will do anything to find her.

When a talented young filmmaker is brutally murdered, all evidence points to her loner husband. But lawyer Matthew Hope sees a different story—one with no happy ending for an innocent man. Praise for the Matthew Hope Mysteries “The Matthew Hope novels do for the world of Florida sleaze what the 87th Precinct books do for big-city vice. The reader is hooked and given not a moment’s letup.” — New York Times Book Review “He is, by far, the best at what he does. Case closed.” — People

When Ralph, a loving older brother upset by his brother's gay lifestyle, is accused of his murder and the evidence points to his guilt, Matthew Hope must work with a few fleeting but crucial clues to prove Ralph's innocence.

When three immigrants are found dead in a grisly tableau, a Florida attorney defends the man who insists he’s innocent…though he’s thrilled to see the trio slaughtered.

Book by McBain, Ed

After Matthew Hope slips into a coma—the result of a drive-by shooting—his friends, private eye Warren Chambers and police detective Morris Bloom—must follow in his investigative footsteps to discover why he was shot. All signs point to the local circus—an underworld of offbeat sex, drugs, blackmail, murder, and in the center of it all, there was a little girl.

Lainie Commins, a freelance designer of children's toys, hires attorney Matthew Hope for a lawsuit against her old employers, Brett and Etta Toland. At stake are the lucrative rights to Gladly, a teddy bear with crossed eyes and corrective lenses. It's a straightforward case—until Brett Toland is shot in the throat aboard his luxury yacht and Lainie becomes the chief suspect. From elegant canals to sunbaked ghettos, McBain has done for Florida's Gulf Coast what he did for the 87th Precinct—created a teeming world where justice is elusive and where the saints and sinners are often one and the same.

Matthew Hope mystery.