Beauty and the Beast

Matthew Hope is a divorce lawyer in the town of Calusa, Florida,
where the Gulf waters are warm and the women on the beach topless. One
such woman, Michelle Benois Harper-a striking beauty with cascading
black hair-enters Matthew’s office revealing swollen eyes and a bruised
and battered body. After making a statement with the cops saying her
husband did it, her body is found on the beach, burned beyond
recognition. George N. Harper is a hulking man with pockmarks, flaring nostrils,
and rheumy eyes-the ugliest accused man Matthew has ever seen. But
something’s not quite right about the case-Harper loved his wife. Yet
the cops and lawyers are ready to hang the man who could extinguish
such a beautiful woman, and it’s up to Matthew to prove his innocence. An instant classic in the Matthew Hope series from Ed McBain,
Beauty and the Beast pairs the good-hearted lawyer with a client
who tests his prejudices and proves beauty may be skin deep, but ugly
is in the bones.