Jack and the Beanstalk Author:Ed McBain After making a down payment on a derelict snapbean farm and promising the remaining thirty-six thousand dollars in cash, young Jack McKinney is found dead, his plush condo ransacked, and attorney Matthew Hope has to find the money and the killer. Reprint. NYT.
One of the early Matthew Hopes, a real estate case that turns into multiple murders. Ranching must have been lucrative in Central Florida in the 80s. A well developed mystery relying on logic, not technical evidence.