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Sleeping Beauty  By  cover art

Sleeping Beauty

By: Phillip Margolin
Narrated by: Houston Suzanne
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Publisher's summary

Author Miles Van Meter is on a book tour to promote his sensational best seller 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, unknown even to the author, are about to be revealed.

Six years earlier, life was much simpler for everyone involved, especially 17-year-old Ashley Spencer, a popular high school soccer star. Then one night an intruder entered Ashley's home and murdered her father and her best friend. Traumatized and suffering from a crippling sense of survivor guilt, Ashley is ready to give up on both soccer and life until help comes from an unexpected source, a scholarship to an elite private school is extended to her by school dean Casey Van Meter. The school quickly becomes a haven for both Ashley and her mother, Terri. As Ashley regains her sense of self through the school's soccer program, Terri joins a writing group for adults led by Joshua Maxfield, a former literary wunderkind who has disappeared from the best seller lists since his second book was panned by both critics and fans.

Then tragedy strikes again and Ashley has to run for her life, unaware that the key to her survival is in the one book she's afraid to read, Sleeping Beauty.

©2004 Phillip Margolin (P)2004 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Margolin knows how to put together a high-concept thriller, piling plot twist upon plot twist and keeping the narrative pounding ever forward." (Booklist)

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What listeners say about Sleeping Beauty

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

I loved this book

I have been looking for a new author, and I found one. Margolin does an excellent job of keeping the reader in suspense, without making the plot twists seem wild or unbelievable. The charchter development was uncharachteristiclly good for this genre. I'm looking forward to listenting to more of his novels.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Serial Killer on the loose

Sleeping Beauty is full of blood and gore primarily at the begining,
with small amounts later. This was my first book of this style and I was impressed. Character development was done well and there were several interesting plot twists and turns.-- worth reading

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Sleeping Beauty

Someone reviewing (not very favorably) Grisham's "The Last Juror" recomended Phillip Margolin, so I tried "The Undertaker's Widow". It was great, kept me guessing up to the last chapter. "Sleeping Beauty" was even better. The narrator, Suzanne Houston, was excellent. Right up there with Michael Beck, one of my favorites. Suzanne did such a good job bringing the characters to life for me, especially DDA Delilah Wallace. Her voice characterizations were not overdone. There was a subtle difference in each character that was just enough to identify them without distracting me from the story.
Margolin's story kept me interested from beginning to end. I've learned to suspect the obvious, so doubted the key suspect from the beginning. But that did not help me see around corners to see what was coming. And Margolin kept heaping it on so I began to doubt my conclusions. The story was full of surprises for me. I liked his characters, they were all pretty believeable and, again, not overdone. I'm back for more.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Predictable, but good.

Despite seeing the end of this novel coming a mile away, I still enjoyed listening to see how it played out. Hard core mystery fans might find Margolin's Sleeping Beauty cliche at times, but it's entertaining none the less.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Another winner

Phillip Margolin does it again with this latest work of suspense. This one is a little slower than his usual style and only peripherally involves the legal system, but is quite entertaining none the less. This audiobook was particularly enjoyable due to the vocal talents of the reader, Suzanne Houston, who is able to convincingly modulate her voice to mimic everyone from a 16 year old girl to a sassy black prosecutor.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Not his best!

I have been a fan of Phillip Margolin for several years. Sleeping Beauty is certainly NOT his best. I knew the identity of the killer early on. The book started out strong, but the suspense died early.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

The Titanic Sinks

Very early on, you are told exactly who the creepy stalker murderer is. The rest of the story is the bloody, sociopath route to the end, told from the beginning. That's where I gave up the book. It was too horrible for me. We already knew the end, so I didn't want to suffer through the ordeal.
The narration is okay but not great.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Bored and Frustrated

The narration on this book sounds like a child is performing at times- a poor choice for this book. It may be one that is best read and not listened to. The "plot" was also weak, and didn't seem to move along very smoothly. When you find your mind wandering while listening, it is a sure sign it won't get better!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Childish narrator

This is an interesting story but the narrator makes it seem trivial. This one would be better read in print form.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Frustrating read.

I thought this book was slow and exceptionally repetitious. Not a thinking person’s read. I was looking forward to a legal thriller.

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