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Sleeping Beauty
by
Phillip Margolin (Goodreads Author),
Suzanne Houston
Author Miles Van Meter is on a book tour to promote his sensational bestseller "Sleeping Beauty," a true-crime account of a deeply personal subject: the attack by a serial killer that left his twin sister, Casey, in a coma. Tonight the audience waits to hear Miles discuss recent developments in his sister's case -- unaware that pieces of this complex puzzle of violence, un...more
Audio, 8 pages
Published
March 23rd 2004
by HarperAudio
(first published 2004)
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Tenth thriller's plot almost too twisty to believe...
We have read and generally enjoyed all nine of Margolin's previous outings, and find that this lawyer turned writer can craft a suspenseful story line along with the best of them. The books that have left us a little cold were ones where the author overpopulates with so many events and characters, doing justice to few of them, that hardly a reader can keep it all straight. Fortunately, in "Beauty", we have a cast of just a few main players to...more
We have read and generally enjoyed all nine of Margolin's previous outings, and find that this lawyer turned writer can craft a suspenseful story line along with the best of them. The books that have left us a little cold were ones where the author overpopulates with so many events and characters, doing justice to few of them, that hardly a reader can keep it all straight. Fortunately, in "Beauty", we have a cast of just a few main players to...more
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This is an average mystery novel. The plot was interesting and certainly kept me turning pages, but it was overall predictable... I liked the characters and found them to be sympathetic as well. The real downside of this novel was the writing style. It has been probably 8 years since I last read a Margolin novel, and I did not remember the style being so simplistic, with errors in verb tense. While the short sentences did set the book at a faster pace, sometimes it completely pulled me out of th...more
A serial killer breaks into a family home in the middle of the night. He kills the father by repeatedly stabbing him, assaults, rapes and kills a girl spending the night with their teen aged daughter who manages to escape from him. This is how the novel opens. The girl who escapes transfers to an elite school after her father's death. There, while running one evening, she hears screams and when investigating, sees her Mother's body and that of the school's Dean in the Boathouse. She also sees a...more
High school junior Ashley Spencer has invited her best friend to sleep over. Neither girl can foresee the horrific events that will take place that night. A masked killer enters the home, viciously murdering Ashley's father and friend, but Ashley herself manages to get away. She and her mother try to pick up the pieces, but her mother is also killed. When a suspect is arrested, Ashley finally feels safe, but upon his escape at his preliminary hearing, she flees to Europe, where she lives for fiv...more
Sleeping Beauty, written by Phillip Margolin, focuses around the devastatingly, traumatic events in teenage Ashley Spencer's life and the rippling effects that follow. While the story is told from a third person’s point of view, it mainly follows the daily life of Ashley. The only other major character introduced first off the bat is Miles Van Meter who helps guide the plot of the book that jumps from action of the past to present. More important characters are woven in as the pages progress. T...more
Jan 23, 2013
t.A
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
home-library,
mystery-suspense
I had never read another book by Phillip Margolin, but after reading Sleeping Beauty, I certainly hope I find more of his work. This managed to stay in my collection despite the fact that it was from a "read it and get rid of it" phase, courtesy of living in a very small apartment.
Maybe I'm not the brightest reader, but I totally did not see the ending coming. It was a really cool surprise to read up to. The layer of mysteries in this book were fantastic and I wanted to keep reading. If I rememb...more
Maybe I'm not the brightest reader, but I totally did not see the ending coming. It was a really cool surprise to read up to. The layer of mysteries in this book were fantastic and I wanted to keep reading. If I rememb...more
This is the first Phillip Margolin book i have ever read, chosen quite randomly from the bookstore shelf. I must say that I was truly impressed by his writing style in this particular book. He jumped back-and-forth from the present to the past without creating any confusion on my part as the reader. You could create a number of endings as you proceed with the book, and I must say that I was pretty pleased with how the story progressed and presented itself. I was easily absorbed in the story line...more
Phillip Margolin wrote us a simplistic murder mystery with a few plot twists as to who-done-it and why who-done-it. Mediocre characters, mediocre clues, mediocre staging, mediocre dialog, mediocre emotions, mediocre situations, am I sounding repetitive and pedestrian? It's all to prove my point. Sleeping Beauty is more like sleeping puddles, someone steps into a muddy puddle and a few seconds later the puddle settles into a lifeless sheen.
Oh yeah, there are murders and a rape, arrests and escape...more
Oh yeah, there are murders and a rape, arrests and escape...more
While the plot of Sleeping Beauty was intriguing the writing was flat. I could get lost in the plot but when I stepped back and really looked at the prose, it was just so...simple, I guess. The sentences were short and basic. The character development was bland and narrated instead of demonstrated. Again, the plot was interesting and moved it along. A true crime novel about a solved murder sparks a new investigation and more horrors against the heroine who survived the murders the first time. I...more
Sleeping Beauty is gripping right at the start when, at 17, Ashley Spencer's life is changed. Her home is broken into and her father is brutaly murdered. Her best friend Tanya is raped and murdered also. Her mother who wasn't at home that night convinces Ashley months later to go to a private school where tragedy follows them.
This is not your average murder novel. There are lots of bad guys and disorder but the plot twists are fantastic. As usual, Phillip Margolin came up with a captivating stor...more
This is not your average murder novel. There are lots of bad guys and disorder but the plot twists are fantastic. As usual, Phillip Margolin came up with a captivating stor...more
May 27, 2009
Mary JL
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
mystery fans
Recommended to Mary JL by:
Previous fan of author
Shelves:
mystery-horror
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
A stand-alone thriller from prolific author Phillip Margolin. Unfamiliar with Margolin, I read this 2004 thriller at random. There was sufficient suspense and surprising plot points to make it an enjoyable experience.
Thriller - Ashley Spencer and a friend had just gone to bed when an intruder slaughters Ashley's father and her friend. Ashley escapes. She transfers to a prep school where her mother takes a writing class with best-selling author Joshua Maxfield. His novel appears based on the Spen...more
Thriller - Ashley Spencer and a friend had just gone to bed when an intruder slaughters Ashley's father and her friend. Ashley escapes. She transfers to a prep school where her mother takes a writing class with best-selling author Joshua Maxfield. His novel appears based on the Spen...more
Jan 27, 2008
Dan
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone who enjoys a fast paced, page turning mystery
This is a book review about pleasant surprises, cherished longtime friends, and new genres. See, a couple weeks ago, I got together with one of my oldest good friends, Leah Beil. Leah and I went to high school together and I could write a book, let alone a blog entry, on our friendship and the concept that we’ve known each other for two decades.
After some cheerful catch-up chat, a -great- movie enjoyed together, and a stop at Barnes and Noble, where Leah used to work, she made me an interesting...more
After some cheerful catch-up chat, a -great- movie enjoyed together, and a stop at Barnes and Noble, where Leah used to work, she made me an interesting...more
I am not a fan of serial killer books. They tend to become repetitive and tedious after a while. Or the writer drowns us in gore simply for shock value.
This book, while it is about a serial killer, does not focus on the killer but on a woman who escaped his clutches. It started off slow but picked up as it progressed.
There were several twists throughout the story that kept it interesting, but I saw most of them coming and figured out the real killer about halfway through the book.
This book, while it is about a serial killer, does not focus on the killer but on a woman who escaped his clutches. It started off slow but picked up as it progressed.
There were several twists throughout the story that kept it interesting, but I saw most of them coming and figured out the real killer about halfway through the book.
Maybe I've read too many mystery-thrillers lately because this one just didn't seem that exciting to me. I can usually guess the killer after about half the story, but this time it seemed obvious who the bad guy was almost from the beginning. Still, I kept reading to confirm that my guess was correct. I like the way that Margolin keeps the story going and will continue to read his books even though I wouldn't put Sleeping Beauty on my favorites list.
From a blog post I wrote in 2005:
I got hooked on Phillip Margolin when I read Gone, But Not Forgotten. Spoiler alert - the bad guy actually got away which made me crazy and nervous. I don't do well with serial killer books where the villian isn't dead or locked up at the end of the story. It just creeps me out but that's a problem with my imagination that tends to run wild.
Margolin's latest bad guy is a serial rapist/murderer who attacks a young high school girl and kills her father. Her mother...more
I got hooked on Phillip Margolin when I read Gone, But Not Forgotten. Spoiler alert - the bad guy actually got away which made me crazy and nervous. I don't do well with serial killer books where the villian isn't dead or locked up at the end of the story. It just creeps me out but that's a problem with my imagination that tends to run wild.
Margolin's latest bad guy is a serial rapist/murderer who attacks a young high school girl and kills her father. Her mother...more
Jul 31, 2009
Karen
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
mystery-thriller,
read-in-09
Just like his other books. I felt like I was always one nibble away from the whole truth being revealed. And just like his other books, I was suspecting everyone...and was dismissing everyone all the time. This tale was started in the present, then went back into the past, then to the present, then back into the past...seamlessly. It's like he was giving me tidbits on a need-to-know basis...and I ate it all up.
I thought Sleeping Beauty was quite good with a diabolical plot
The book centers around Ashley Spencer, a highschool soccer student. Ashleys parents and a friend are murdered and Ashley flees to Europe to escape the killer. When Ashley returns 5 years later the drama starts all over again. The ending was really surprising. I know this rewiew is very vague but I do not wish to spoil the suspense for another reader.
The book centers around Ashley Spencer, a highschool soccer student. Ashleys parents and a friend are murdered and Ashley flees to Europe to escape the killer. When Ashley returns 5 years later the drama starts all over again. The ending was really surprising. I know this rewiew is very vague but I do not wish to spoil the suspense for another reader.
I appreciated the cuts to the present-day book tour. It was a nice vehicle for the introduction of the plot twists, and guided the story to ideas that may have seemed disjointed if they were presented by other characters out of the blue. The story itself was very well-written and kept my interest well; a very good psychological thriller that has some legal thriller overtones too.
This is my first book by Phillip Margolin. I enjoyed the plot with the many twists. I do, however, have to agree with a couple other reviews when they mentioned how simplistic the writing was. I'd like to try another of his books before I make any final decisions about whether I'll continue with more or not.
I really liked the twists and turns. It seems so straight forward from the beginning but then it changes completely. I was quite shocked by the end. This book had a little bit of everything. Mystery, secrets, romance, with a psycho path or two thrown in. Very good book.
This book kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time, such a puzzle; I felt as if I was living this story when I was reading it, I could feel the emotions that the people were feeling. All the twists and turns were perfect. Would definitely recommend and read again.
Jun 16, 2011
Smitha
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
mystery buffs
was a quick-paced exciting read like many other mysteries I have read so far. Proud to say that I picked out the winner by the first half of the book. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes mysteries involving young women trying to overcome killers of their parents, with a few twists and turns thrown in between.
A Brillant Book!
I couldn't sleep, I couldn't put this book down. It was riveting right from the beginning!!
Ashley's life is horribly changed when at 17 her home is broken into her father is brutaly murdered. Her best friend Tanya is raped and murdered. And Ashley barely escapes with her life after climbing out a window and running to a neighbor. Her mother who wasn't at home that night but was at work convinces Ashley months later to go to a elite private school where tragedy follows them.
The De...more
I couldn't sleep, I couldn't put this book down. It was riveting right from the beginning!!
Ashley's life is horribly changed when at 17 her home is broken into her father is brutaly murdered. Her best friend Tanya is raped and murdered. And Ashley barely escapes with her life after climbing out a window and running to a neighbor. Her mother who wasn't at home that night but was at work convinces Ashley months later to go to a elite private school where tragedy follows them.
The De...more
I am sure I have read some of Margolin's books before and thought he was a pretty good author. I was disappointed in this book, his writing style seemed immature...I doubt I will read any more of his books.
I listened to this on CD in the car. This was a really good book right from the start. This is a murder mystery book about a serial killer. I sometimes sat in my car just to hear the end of a chapter.
17 year old Ashley has lived through a horrible crime to only relive it again later. Just who did murder her father and friend and why do they want her? Awesome book with many twists and turns!
I made it to page 200 before quitting this book, after almost quitting a time or two earlier on. It wasn't horrible - I pushed through it because the plot was good, I liked the settings, and there were a handful of creepy/suspenseful moments that I enjoyed. The writing style, however, really annoyed me from the beginning. Many of the words, thoughts, and actions of the characters felt unrealistic to me... definitely not behavior you would expect after losing loved ones to the hands of a serial k...more
Took me a while to finish this book mostly because I was wry of a non sci-fi book. The beginning campured me right away but than the next few chapters we're slow up until about page 150. The ending was a complete shocker! The last 200 pages were absolutely terrific! I would reccommend this to anybody, even sci-fi junkies.
Wow! I read this book in one day (a true feat since I have four small children). I seriously couldn't put it down. Margolin keeps you hooked the entire time!
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