Snow White and Rose Red

Matthew Hope, Book 5

By: Ed McBain

Narrated by: Luke Daniels

Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

Sarah Whittaker is a green-eyed beauty with a love for Danny Kaye and white knights. Lawyer Matthew Hope can see all this clearly, despite the fact that whenever they meet the two are under constant surveillance by the mental institution staff. You see, Sarah’s crazy… or is she? Sarah pleads with Matthew to take her case, claiming that her mother wrongfully had Sarah committed in order to seize her inheritance money. And while the mother and doctors in question seem shady, almost cloying in their belief that Sarah is a paranoid schizophrenic, Matthew can’t tell day from night, or Rose Red from Snow White. Meanwhile, the corpse of a woman about Sarah’s age washes ashore in a town nearby. Is there a connection? Is Sarah Whittaker really pure as snow? Is she the Virgin Queen she says she is? It’s up to Matthew to find out.

In Ed McBain’s Snow White and Rose Red, Matthew Hope plunges into the noir, twisted world of the most complicated of mysteries—the human mind.

©2012 Ed McBain (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Ed McBain at his best.

Not much need to say much. Suspense, twists and turns, all around fascinating story.

Okay book.. Awesome narration..

OMG! WTH made anyone think that Terry was anything but dumb as a box of rocks. I mean Matthew, our hero thought she was honest and forthright because she said what she was thinking. That being the case she thought some pretty stupid stuff. After reading the time she spent with Matthew at the police department I couldn’t believe the author wrote such an idiot. THEN when she was at Matthew’s, holy crap, she said the stupidest things. She was so caught up in how much she liked green and she had green undies on and does he like her heels and does he think she’s too tall now and does he want her to take her heels off, she didn’t want to though because she thought they were sexy. Later when they went to bed she told him she would take everything off except her heels and her panties because, once again, she thought they were so sexy. It just went on and on like this, page after page. If Matthew thought she was “refreshing” then he was an idiot, too.

Anyway, Matthew, a lawyer, went to a mental institution to talk to Sarah who said her mother had had her committed because she wanted to control the $650,000 Sarah’s father left her. Matthew thought he’d fallen in love with her the first time he looked at her. However, that didn’t stop him from doing the dirty with Terry, pretty much a complete stranger, that same night. Anyway, Matthew got all the information he could gather from all those who think Sarah’s exactly where she should be BUT she seemed fine to Matthew for the 2 hours they were visiting. Little did he know.

The story was not all that great and Terry just made it sillier. This will be my last book by Ed McBain. Yeah, I don’t usually read books from 1980’s but I thought I’d give it a try since Luke Daniels was narrating it. Oh, and it was an abrupt and stupid ending.

The sex was fade-to-black, thank God, and the F-bomb was used 10 times.

As to the narration: Considering this was narrated in 2012 Luke Daniels did a fantastic job. His voices were spot-on. But, I gotta say, at the end when the loony-tune was talking, talking, talking, her voice sounded just like a woman. Not just a woman but a really insane woman. It was truly the best narration I’ve ever heard, and since I have 913 books in my audible library I can say that with some kind of knowledge.

This was a free read and free listen. If nothing else get the audio, go to chapter 14 and listen until the end. It’s amazing!