Mon 12 Mar 2018
Reviewed by Barry Gardner: ED McBAIN – There Was a Little Girl.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[6] Comments
ED McBAIN – There Was a Little Girl. Matthew Hope #11. Warner, hardcover, 1994; paperback, 1995.
I thought the last Matthew Hope book — Mary, Mary — was poor in just about every respect. I’d enjoyed the series in the past, though, and thought I’d try another. Anybody’s entitled to an off day.
As the book opens, Matthew Hope is shot twice by an unknown assailant as he emerges from a bar in the Newtown section of Calusa, Florida. He’s rushed to the hospital in critical condition and is stabilized, but in a semi-comatose condition.
The police and his friends and associates begin to try to backtrack him to find what could have led to the shooting, and find only a real estate deal. Hope was acting as agent for a circus owner to try to buy some privately owned fairgrounds as a permanent home for the circus. Can this seemingly innocuous transaction be the rationale for an attempted murder? Yep. Sure can.
This is an interesting departure from the norm in terms of structure. The story is told by a combination of flashbacks via the semi-comatose Hope and the actions of his friends and associates as they investigate his shooting.
The narration segues from one into the other and back, and it works well. McBain does his usual competent job of writing smooth, readable prose, and a good degree of tension is maintained both as to Hope’s condition and finding the killer.
The circus background was interesting, too. Little Girl goes a long way toward recapturing the form McBain showed in the early Hope stories.
March 12th, 2018 at 5:31 pm
I don’t remember this one offhand, but I do remember MARY, MARY, surely the worst McBain book ever.
March 12th, 2018 at 5:36 pm
I don’t remember this one, either, but of the 13 Hope books, I’ve probably read less than three, or maybe four. So I probably missed MARY, MARY too, and for the good, from all accounts!
March 12th, 2018 at 8:45 pm
I found that even in the 87 precinct series that there would be several very good books and then a clunker thrown in there once in a while. Then the next book in the series would be good again. Was always surprised as he was such a talented writer, maybe he got bored every so often.
March 13th, 2018 at 5:29 am
MAJOR SPOILER ALERT – DO NOT READ IF YOU INTEND TO READ MARY, MARY (not that you should).
At the end of the book, the murderer turns out to be a long-lost, previously unmentioned, insane identical twin.
END SPOILER
March 13th, 2018 at 11:01 am
No, I didn’t read that one, that’s for sure. Thanks, Jeff!
March 13th, 2018 at 8:24 pm
I had given up on the series until this one. It was a reminder jut how inventive Hunter/McBain could be.