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: Enjoyable Suspense
Review: This wasn't the best I've read from Mr Margolin, but it was entertaining nonetheless. The ending was well written, though not surprising for me. I'd pretty much figured out who the killer was before the reveal, including the twist. That being said, I'm really looking forward to what comes next from Mr Margolin.
Rating:
Summary: Tenth thriller's plot almost too twisty to believe
Review: 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 consider: Ashley Spencer, a teenager who witnesses the brutal murder of her girlfriend and her father, and just narrowly escapes herself; Joshua Maxfield, the alleged murderer who for much of the book is either a fugitive from the crime or in prison for it; Miles Van Meter, best-selling author of a true-life account of the Spencer murders and the impact on his comatose sister; Casey Van Meter, yet another victim who after Terri Spencer (Ashley's mother, who was away during the first attack) is killed in her sight, is struck on the head and spends years in a coma (ergo, the sleeping beauty!); Randy Coleman, Casey's soon to be ex-husband from a mistaken quickie marriage; and Jerry Philips, Ashley's attorney, who for a while takes almost too much personal interest in this whole matter. Which one of these is really the killer? We're lead down many a path before all becomes clearer toward the end. Even with the big twist that gets to be a little foreseeable, a further twist right at the very end is good for a pretty shocking climax. Interesting courtroom drama helps break up the more violent action of much of the novel. Most will find Margolin's latest a pleasing puzzler. We were not totally enamored by the telling of the story through flashbacks alternating with current time scenes where Miles is entertaining a crowd at a book signing. But the plot proceeds at a good pace, the characters are portrayed well enough, and the ending will catch many off guard. Guess that's what a thriller is all about!
Rating: 
Summary: I Don't Think So !!!!!!!!
Review: WELL, I must say that this book is on my list of books I say were painful to read, heck PAINFUL to finish. The writing did seem adolescent and didn't have solid findings as it went on . There were too many discrepancis and so it seemed, not logical research had been used.
I am an avid reader and I am firm on not going to the back of the book nor do I stop it the middle, because the book, well,... sucks. This was the second book that I had to cheat on, due to it's unrealistic and very predictable plot. It was the first book by P.M. that I have read, I am a bit disappointed. Would I rate this higher the 1, I don't think so!
Rating:
Summary: This is not literature
Review: While the plot intrigued me somewhat (enough to finish it), I couldn't stop screaming at the pages about how far-fetched it was. The author didn't seem to have his own voice, making a stereotype out of every character, whether it was a jolly black female, goodie two shoes attorney, innocent maiden or an ice-queen mother. I am reluctant to believe that this writer had written better books before, if he did, he must have had a really bad writer's block to plagiarize someone else's work this time!
Rating: 
Summary: 3 1/2 stars - well worth your time
Review: With Sleepy Beauty, Margolin presents another quick read. It starts fast with a grisly double murder during a home invasion. Margolin is very effective is his use of movement between the present and the past to tell the story. As the story unfolds, Margolin keeps a quick pace and, as usual, presents multiple potential suspects. Although my early guess ultimately was proven to be correct, the work was still very entertaining as Margolin brought everything together for a strong closing to the book.
Rating:
Summary: exciting suspense thriller
Review: Writer Miles van Meter is on tour promoting his best selling true crime story Sleeping Beauty. The successful book fascinates the public as it provides an account of convicted killer Joshua Maxfield's murders and collateral damage that includes the author's sister. Miles states that in Portland, Oregon, Joshua killed Norman Spencer in the latter's home and raped and murdered high school student Tanya Jones, a friend of Spencer's daughter Ashley, who managed to escape safely. Ashley's mother, reporter Terri fortunately was away at the time of the crime. The killer also got away. Terri encourages her daughter to move on by coaxing her into going to the Oregon Academy where she takes a creative writing workshop taught by Joshua Maxfield. When the instructor reads a murder tale to the class, Ashley recognizes what she hears as too close to home and informs the Dean, who happens to be Mile's sister Casey van Meter. Not long afterward, Ashley finds Miles holding a bloody knife over Terri's still body with an unconscious Casey nearby. Joshua is arrested, but escapes, putting the fear for her life in Ashley. As other revelations are revealed that connect Casey, Terri, and Ashley, Miles writes SLEEPING BEAUTY, but that makes Ashley wonder why the case against Joshua rings false. SLEEPING BEAUTY is an exciting suspense thriller with several major twists that add tension yet seem unnecessarily contrived. The story line is at its best when it keeps a straight forward path mindful of Helter Skelter as the link between author Miles and killer Joshua makes the former's true crime tale very personal and intriguing to readers as it unfolds. The cast is quite interesting as the audience gets to see up close more than just the killer and the teen heroine, but two extra turns make the novel seem off kilter even as fans of Phillip Margolin will want to continue to see what spin he provides next. This is a solid serial killer book that readers will enjoy. Harriet Klausner
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