Ed McBain: The House that Jack Built (USA 2012)

From the Publisher:
The morning after Jonathan Parrish's fortieth birthday party, the guest of honor is found lying dead in a pool of his own blood. Police arrive at the scene to find his older brother, Ralph, covered in red and clutching the murder weapon.

From behind bars, Ralph insists he didn't do it. He claims he heard a scream from the other room, saw a man dressed in black running away, and rushed to pull the fatal blade from Jonathan's chest. But his explanations don't sway the Florida police, especially when several witnesses saw the brothers arguing about Jonathan's homosexual lifestyle the night before.

But attorney Matthew Hope believes Ralph -- call it instinct, call it a hunch, Matt's law partner, Frank Summerville, calls it Matt's "code." But with Frank too distraught over his crumbling marriage to pitch in this time, Matthew enlists private eye Warren Chambers to help prove Ralph's innocence. And with few clues to go by, the duo will have to dig through a world of closet cases, secret trysts, and a community on edge to capture the real killer.

Ed McBain: The House that Jack Built. A Matthew Hope Mystery. Thomas & Mercer / Amazon Publ., ISBN: 9781612181998 (October, 2012), 276 p., $13.95.

Ed McBain: The House that Jack Built (USA 1994)

From the Publisher:
TATTERED AND TORN
On Whisper Key, Jonathan Parrish met his death -- a kitchen knife plunged into his chest during a party at his house. The one and only suspect? Jonathan's earnest, midwestern brother Ralph, a former whose hard-earned money had gone to support Jonathan's extravagant lifestyle in South Florida. Attorney Matthew Hope is the only person who believes Ralph Parrish is as innocent as he claims. Then a long buried secrt! of a rich family and a desperate girl comes back to life, and another murder is committed at the Parrishs'. Now Matthew is piecing together a puzzle of blackmail and love gone wrong, and trying to stop two dangerous people: a beautiful woman with a gun, and on unhinged ex-con following a dream socked in blood...

Ed McBain: The House that Jack Built. A Matthew Hope Novel. Warner Books, ISBN: 0446601365 (December, 1988), 248 p., $5.99.

Ed McBain: The House that Jack Built (UK 1990)

From the Publisher:
WHO WAS THE CAT THAT KILLED THE RAT?
Ralph Parrish didn't like his brother. He didn't like grasping, manipulative scroungers and he didn't like gay men. So he killed Jonathan. At least that's what the police thought, and that's why Ralph was languishing in the cooler. Matthew Hope believed otherwise.

He believed in the story of the man in black, and went to find him. He found the priest who was kind to gay but casual with the truth; he found the hustler who'd sleep with anything short of an alligator; he found an explosive scandal of greed and denial, of violence and betrayal...

And delving into the murky waters of the past, he went swimming with the sharks; with the powerful secretive heirs to a giant brewing empire, and with a convicted criminal whose one ambition was to tear Matthew into tiny little pieces...

Ed McBain: The House that Jack Built. A Matthew Hope Mystery. Sphere, ISBN: 0747404615 (January, 1990), 248 p., £3.99.

Ed McBain: The House that Jack Built (USA 1989)

From the Publisher:
Ralph Parrish was a decent man, a hard- working Indiana farmer of modest tastes. And although he had no experience of his kid brother Jonathan's unorthodox life-style, he loved him enough to stake him to a beach house in Calusa County's exclusive Whisper Key. When Jonathan was about to turn forty, Ralph naturally flew down to Florida for the party.

But what he could deal with at a thousand miles' distance he couldn't tolerate up close. Surrounded by Jonathan's gay friends, Ralph exploded into angry words and left -- and the next morning, when Jonathan lay dead on his kitchen floor with a knife in his chest, Ralph Parrish was charged with murder. It didn't take Matthew Hope long to decide that Ralph Parrish was no killer. But his clothes were covered in his brother's blood; his fingerprints were on the knife handle; he had no witness or alibi. All he had were the words he heard his brother scream just before he died, and the image of a figure in black running away down the beach. Hope knows that Parrish is innocent; but proving it will prove very hard indeed.

Ed McBain: The House that Jack Built. A Matthew Hope Novel. Mysterious Press, ISBN: 0445406232 (June, 1989), 248 p., $3.95.

Ed McBain: The House that Jack Built (USA 1988)

From the Publisher:
Ralph Parrish was just a middle-aged Indiana farmer, a decent man of modest tastes. Hardworking. Maybe -- in a world of sharp deals and fast bucks -- even a bit simple. A bit dull. But Ralph Parrish believed in family, and although he had absolutely no experience whatsoever with his kid brother's unorthodox life-style, he loved Jonathan. Enough to stake him to a handsome beach house in Calusa County's exclusive Whisper Key. And when Jonathan was about to turn forty, Ralph naturally flew down to Florida for the party.

But what he could deal with at a thousand miles' distance he couldn't tolerate up close. Surrounded by Jonathan's gay friends, Ralph exploded into angry words. Mocked by Jonathan, he left the party even before it began. The next morning, Jonathan Parrish lay dead on his kitchen floor, a chef's knife stuck deep in his gut. And Ralph Parrish was charged with murder.

It didn't take Matthew Hope long to decide that Ralph Parrish was no killer. Proving it would be another matter. Ralph's clothes were covered in his brother's blood. His fingerprints were all over the murder weapon's handle. He had no witnesses to his innocence, no alibi. All he had were the words he heard his brother scream just before he died -- and the image of a figure all in black running down the beach in the gray light of a rainy winter dawn.

In this, the eighth Matthew Hope novel, Ed McBain proves once again that he is a master of suspense: Beginning with a deceptively simple murder that masks ever deeper complexities, this is a tale that twists and turns, penetrating hard into the past, detonating the elemental forces of selfishness, pride, passion, betrayal, and revenge. It is the richest and most satisfying Hope novel to date from the hands of this Grand Master, which is what the Mystery Writers of America dubbed Ed McBain in 1986.

Ed McBain: The House that Jack Built. A Matthew Hope Novel. Henry Holt & Co., ISBN: 0805007873 (December, 1988), 248 p., $16.95.