Gladly the Cross-Eyed Bear

by Ed McBain

Overview

Lainie Commins, a freelance designer of children's toys, hires attorney Matthew Hope for a lawsuit against her old employers, Brett and Etta Toland. At stake are the lucrative rights to Gladly, a teddy bear with crossed eyes and corrective lenses. It's a straightforward case — until Brett Toland is shot in the throat aboard his luxury yacht and Lainie becomes the chief suspect. From elegant canals to sunbaked ghettos, McBain has done for Florida's Gulf Coast what he did for the 87th Precinct — created a teeming world where justice is elusive and where the saints and sinners are often one and the same.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780446604949
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	07/01/1998
Series:	Matthew Hope Series , #12
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.38(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

With a writing career that spanned five decades, Ed McBain (1926-2005), the nom de plume of Evan Hunter, was the author of over 100 books, including his 87th Precinct series set in a fictional borough of New York City. He also wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. He was the first American writer to receive the Diamond Dagger, the British Crime Writer Association’s most prestigious award, and he was also the recipient of the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master award.

What People are Saying About This

Elmore Leonard

McBain has a great approach, great attitude, terrific style, strong plot, excellent dialogue, sense of pace, and sense of reality.

Robert B. Parker

It is hard to think of anyone better at what he does -- in fact, it's impossible.

Editorial Reviews

Hero/narrator Matthew Hope, recovered from gunshots and a coma (There Was a Little Girl, 1994) and, true to his earlier resolve, practicing only civil law in (fictional) Calusa, Fla., represents the plaintiff in a suit involving the eponymous teddy bear, named after a mis-heard line in a hymn ("Gladly the cross I'd bear"). Young toy designer Lainie Commins is suing her ex-boss, toy manufacturer Brett Toland, for copyright and patent infringement, contending that his cross-eyed bear is a direct steal from hers. When Brett is found shot to death on his yacht, Lainie is arrested and charged with murder. She persuades Hope to represent her even as, we later learn, she commits the first legal sin, lying to her lawyer. From mansions to shacks and yacht club to sleazy venues for lingerie "models," McBain gives us a tour of Gulf Coast Florida that's seldom grand. Unable to reach his usual investigators (the main subplot has PI Warren Chambers urging his colleague Toots Kiley to kick her crack cocaine habit cold turkey), Hope hires 60-something Guthrie Lamb, an old-style PI with major male chauvinist traits. McBain, as he has for more than 40 years, keeps his readers riveted through this entire, satisfying tale. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Lainie Commins is a cross-eyed toy designer who appears to have struck it rich with a cross-eyed teddy bear she calls Gladly. Two major toy companies are bidding big bucks for the bear, but Commins' former employer, Toyland, is suing the designer, claiming she designed Gladly while on their payroll. Commins hires Florida lawyer Matthew Hope, recently recovered from a bullet-induced coma ("There Was a Little Girl", 1994), to plead her case. Meanwhile, someone murders Toyland honcho Brett Toland, and Commins becomes the top suspect. Soon Hope has a murder case on his hands and is forced to construct an elaborate, Simpson-like timeline defense. Though the Matthew Hope novels still play second fiddle in most readers' minds to the author's more-celebrated 87th Precinct tales, this "other" McBain series has developed a devoted audience. Fans will be ecstatic to see that Hope survived his coma--it wasn't a sure thing at the conclusion of "Little Girl"but they may find themselves a bit disappointed with this slightly tepid effort. There's nothing wrong with the book exactly, but it lacks the emotional intensity of its predecessor. Still, even McBain can't hit a grand slam every time, so fans should just be glad that Hope springs eternal.

Wes Lukowsky

Matthew Hope has sufficiently recovered from his near-fatal shooting (There Was a Little Girl, 1994, etc.) to take on a copyright-infringement case for Elaine Commins, who swears that Gladly, the cross-eyed bear she's designed for her brand-new firm, Just Kidding, wasn't developed while she was working for Brett and Etta Toland of Toyland. They say she's lying; she says they're lying. Despite some nifty drawings showing how Gladly's eyeglasses apparently cure her strabismus, the case would be pretty dull if Brett Toland didn't get himself fatally shot shortly after the defense closes. Against his own advice, Lainie demands that Hope defend her on the Murder One charge (four eyewitnesses place her on Brett's yacht shortly before the shooting), and it's off to the races for Hope and Guthrie Lamb—the new investigator he calls when Warren Chambers and Toots Kiley don't answer the phone because Warren's forcing handcuffed Toots to go cold turkey on a borrowed boat 30 miles offshore.

McBain plays out every sweet spin—Hope's client has more cover stories than Brigid O'Shaughnessy—with a master's effortless delight in his craft. Irresistible.

Kirkus Reviews

Skillful stuff, as ever…with a steamy little subplot to boost the action and an agreeably sardonic view of the Florida scene.” —Literary Review

“Vivid settings, fast action.” —Time Out

From the Publisher