A detective procedural with a psychopath who prepares his victims as dolls.  The murder rate mounts quickly as both men and woman are killed, bit it’s the women who are captured with the hope that the killer can win them over to be his possessions. It’s small town suburban America in Virginia. Agent Dakota Sharp is the detective, and his estranged wife is Tessa McGowan, a forensic pathologist. Sharp had been a sharp shooter in Iraq when his sister had died of a drug overdose 12 years ago, and he joined the police to solve murders. He and McGowan have a powerful chemistry between then, but their emotional issues make it difficult for a relationship to work. The narrative is in the third person, switching from perspective of different characters, including the killer, the victims, Sharp and McGowan. The writing is efficient and clinical, but none of the characters is particularly believable or deeply characterized. So it’s a tale of violence, sex, failed relationships, betrayals, and occasional connections, plus the search for the truth and a rather predictable ending. The fixation of the killer on dolls is specified but seems entirely artificial as a kind of mental disturbance. The unabridged audiobook is performed by Christina Traister, who gives the task a credible effort. In short, The Dollmaker is a rather routine detective story with psychological dimensions.

© 2017 Christian Perring

Christian Perring lives and teaches in New York.