Rating: 
Summary: Fast--paced and well-written!
Review: Phillip Margolin weaved an exciting tale that draws the reader in. This book moves along at breakneck speed and practically reads itself. It is also surprisingly well-written. Enjoyable to the end. A great book to bring to the beach--just be sure to set aside a discreet chunk of time so you won't be forced to put it down.
Rating: 
Summary: Family Affair
Review: Regrettably, the talented Phillip Margolin's latest effort, "Sleeping Beauty", is a bit of a disappointment. Lacking the energy and suspense of Margolin's earlier works, "Beauty" plods along to a "twist" ending that while contrived, was nonetheless predictable.Miles Van Meter, aristocrat of the US Northwest and author of a true-crime best seller ("Sleeping Beauty"), is on tour promoting an updated release of his book. His book traces the story of Joshua Maxfield, a serial killer who has left Van Meter's twin sister, Casey, in a coma with little hope of recovery. Through a series of flashbacks, Van Meter's story intertwines with that of talented teenager Ashley Spencer, whose family and best friend were also brutally murdered by the heinous Maxfield. While "Beauty" gets off to a promising start, it soon loses its way, sidetracked by cardboard characters, inane dialogue, and uninspired prose. Also, an unnecessary and sappy romance is distracting and unnecessary. A successful novel captures the fine balance between the plot that is startling and unpredictable, but also believable. Margolin tries hard to achieve the former, but ultimately misses the latter. And regarding the "shocking ending", even the dust cover summary portends the conclusion. Bottom line: Margolin can do better; I'd skip this one, or at least wait for the paperback and the beach. Consider Lashner's "Fatal Flaw" as a more interesting alternative.
Rating:
Summary: A winner!
Review: See storyline above. In my opinion, congratulations are in order for Phillip Margolin for writing, what I think, is one of his best novels to date. The cliched 'hard to put down' is fitting in this case. A thriller/mystery that proves that Margolin is at the top of his game. Keepem' comin' Highly Recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: I Don't Think So !!!!!!!!
Review: SLEEPING BEAUTY is a well-written, involving and puzzling thriller--I find it hard to understand why so many negative reviews. Oh, well, different strokes...
I found Margolin's style very involving, switching from the present where Miles van Meter is attending a book signing in honor of his bestseller to the time of the crimes where young Ashley Spencer loses both her father and mother to a particularly brutal serial killer. Joshua Maxfield is an arrogant protagonist, and one can see how this maniacally self centered author could be such a ghastly killer. Ashley is joined by her young lawyer friend, Jerry Phillips, and the delightfully enjoyable Delilah Wallace (think of Queen Latifah for the movie role) in solving this complex mystery. Nothing is quite as it seems and there are several red herrings thrown in for good measure, including the comatosed sister of Miles, Casey; and Casey's good for nothing husband, Randy Coleman. I was thoroughly entertained by the book and found it one of my favorite reads so far this year.
Rating: 
Summary: Complex thriller
Review: SLEEPING BEAUTY is s story that spans six years. It opens with Miles Van Meter promoting his true-crime book that recounts his twin sister's attack by a serial killer that left her in coma, and of the home invasion in which teenager, Ashley Spencer's father was killed. The story moves seamlessly between present day and past events throughout the book in one of the most complex plots I have read in awhile. The plot offers many twists and keeps up a fast pace. It is a suspenseful book and hard to put down. If you are a hardcore mystery reader then it was not really that hard to figure out where Margolin was going with the story. I figured out who the culprit was within the first quarter of the book, but still enjoyed following the different paths that Margolin was leading the readers. The crimes themselves are pretty graphic so beware if you are faint-of-heart.
Rating:
Summary: Great Suspense
Review: Sleeping Beauty is the best of Phillip Margolin. The answer to the crime that everyone thinks is solved actually lies in a book that one of the main characters has written. The ending is a surprise and getting there is half the fun in reading the book. It's a great read. Ashley Spencer is 17 when an intruder kills her best friend and her father as he plans to come back from a snack in her kitchen to kill her. As the story unfolds, a suspect is apprehended, excapes, and someone tries to kill Ashley again. Her mother and the dean of her private school are killed in following chapters. Througout the book when the killer seems to be known to all, something is not quite right. It's a good read when you think you know the answers, suspect you do not, and finally find out that you were totally off base.
Rating:
Summary: An exciting read! Keeps you guessing until the very end.
Review: Sleeping beauty may be the best mystery I have read yet this year. It is a truly twisted tale that will have you wanting to stay up all night to read.
I felt the book was well written, gaving just enough clues to not spoil the ending too early or leave you wondering how did the crimes get solved. This is my first book by this author, and I am hooked, I will read some of his earlier works. Sleeping Beauty was impressive.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but falls a bit short of ther usual 5 stars
Review: Take a great mystery writer, a complicated plot, engaging characters and unusual observational insights into people, places and culture and I will probably stay up all night reading. Phillip Margolin has been on my "must read" list for a half dozen years, and "Sleeping Beauty" will keep him there a bit longer.
The characters and the story move along at the usual pace, but the plot seems to develope holes and never quite satisfies in the end. Maybe I have set my "Margolin" meter too high, but I was expecting a bigger bang for the buck. That is not to say you shouldn't read this latest attempt, it deserves the attention, and I'm sure all writers stumble occasionally, so I suggest you read it, enjoy it for what it does deliver and know that the next Margolin will most likely be racheted up a few notches.
To me Phillip Margolin is still in a league with Lehane, Stephen White, Steve Martini, The Kellermans, and about a dozen others who keep me up late at night.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing is What it Seems in this Dynamite Thriller
Review: The book opens with True crime writing attorney Miles Van Meter on a book tour. We see him as he slogs from town to town, promoting his book "Sleeping Beauty" which it the story of how serial killer Joshua Maxfield murdered Ashley Spencer's best friend and her parents, tried to kill his sister, leaving her in a coma and how he stalked Ashley, eventually getting caught as he tried to kill her.
Then we flash back to the crime as Miles reads from his book to a crowd in a bookstore. We see Ashley in bed as the killer breaks in, overpowers and binds her, then kills her friend who was sleeping over and her father. Fortunately he takes a break for a late night snack and Ashley's dad wasn't quite dead. He crawls into her room, frees her and she gets outta there. Also fortunately for Ashley's mother, she was away.
Ashley cannot go back to school, she is traumatized, but she is accepted into a private academy. Tess, Ashley's reporter mother is flattered when famous novelist, Joshua Maxfield, who is one of the teachers at the academy, asks her to join his writers group. At the first meeting of the group, Maxfield reads from a work in progress. It's a story about a serial killer who in the middle of his kills, takes a break for a snack. This is uncanningly like what happened when her husband had been killed and it is something only the police know. Tess investigates like the good reporter she is and she is killed.
The cops put extra protection on Ashley and they are killed and again she barely gets away with her life. She can't take it anymore and flees to Europe where she goes into hiding.
However, she comes back at the request of her attorney, who tells her that she'd been adopted and that she's an heiress, soon to be worth millions if that woman in a coma dies, because she's her biological mother. Ashley, it turns out, has been adopted.
And I'll leave it here, however I'd be remiss if I were to let you think that Ashley's troubles are over, they're just beginning in this book that has more twists and turns than there are stars in the sky. Well, not that many twists, but a lot, I was fooled, then fooled again. The red herrings were perfect, the characters believable and Mr. Margolin, as usual, has written just an outstanding mystery/thriller. I just loved it.
Review Submitted by Captain Katie Osborne
Rating:
Summary: Huge Shocker!
Review: This is my first book of Phillip Margolin that ive read but i LOVED it. I love books that really make you think about who it "really" is and then *BAM* in your face shows you that you were wrong all along. It's an awesome ride!
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