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.
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"Another good entry in the Matthew Hope series. I enjoyed it, and the ending raised it up a notch to take it to four stars."
— Charles (4 out of 5 stars)
" Second time reading it and got bored with the lawyer-style dialogues "
— Michael, 7/21/2013Ed McBain is the most well known pseudonym of Evan Hunter (1926–2005), the author of over eighty novels and several famous screenplays. He is a recipient of the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award and the Diamond Dagger Award from the British Crime Writers Association. His books have sold more than one hundred million copies, ranging from the more than fifty titles in the 87th Precinct series to the bestselling novels written under his own name. McBain also wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.
Luke Daniels, winner of sixteen AudioFile Earphones Awards and a finalist for the Audie Award for best narration, is a narrator whose many audiobook credits range from action and suspense to young-adult fiction. His background is in classical theater and film, and he has performed at repertory theaters around the country.