With his sizzling dialogue and drop-dead surprises, Ed McBain has elevated the crime novel into fine art. Mary, Mary is vintage McBain. It is Christmas in Florida. The decorations are only slightly more false than the cheer, and a trial is going on - the kind of trial that grabs headlines and makes people wonder what kind of person could possibly represent the defendant. For in this case, the accused Mary Barton, is charged with the monstrous murder of three innocent young girls. Matthew Hope, the defense attorney who only represents people he believes innocent, believes the eccentric hard-talking Mary Barton would never harm a soul. So does the beautiful, genteel Englishwoman whose life Mary touched years before and who is now footing the bill for her defense. All the money in the world can't buy Matthew Hope a case. As the trial progresses, eyewitnesses place Mary with the victims; one witness even claims to have seen Mary burying the bodies. The evidence for a conviction is overwhelming, and Mary, stubbornly contrary, seems incapable of helping her own case. Could Mary truly be a homicidal maniac? Or could the witnesses be mistaken? Caught up in an illicit love affair with a sexy prosecutor, scrambling to put up some kind of a defense, Hope is running out of tricks. When the real story of Mary Barton surfaces, defense attorney Matthew Hope will discover just how much he has to lose...and unearth a few long-buried secrets that refuse to die.