Name: The Sleeping Doll
ISBN: 9781416584148

Jeffery Deaver

When Special Agent Kathryn Dance - a brilliant interrogator and kinesics expert with the California Bureau of Investigation - is sent to question the convicted killer Daniel 'Son of Manson' Pell as a suspect in a newly unearthed crime, she feels both trepidation and electrifying intrigue. Pell is serving a life sentence for the brutal murders of the wealthy Croyton family in Carmel years earlier - a crime mirroring those perpetrated by Charles Manson in the 1960s. But Pell and his cult members were sloppy - Not only were they apprehended, they even left behind a survivor - the youngest of the Croyton daughters, who, because she was in bed hidden by her toys that terrible night, was dubbed the 'Sleeping Doll'.

The Sleeping Doll

Daniel Pell is a contemporary Charles Manson. A petty criminal with a history of antisocial behavior and obsession with controlling other people, he had a group of women living with him in a quasi cult in central California. Eight years ago, he and another man viciously slaughtered a family for no apparent reason, though the three women in his "Family" were absolved of any part in the deaths. Now, present day, Pell has escaped and Kathryn Dance, the famed interrogator and kinesic analyst (body language) and her team, must find out where he is and why he's staying near the prison he escaped from. She brings together the three women, now leading normal lives, to help her find out where Pell is and what he's up to. Pell, for his part, and a young woman he has manipulated to help him, tries to outguess the police and fulfill his mission, as he learns that Kathryn Dance is perhaps his most dangerous opponent. This is a typical cat and mouse Deaver novel, in which conflicts abound--finding the killer, as well as reconciling the emotions within Pell's three 'Family' members, which have simmered over the years. The 'Sleeping Doll' refers to the one surviving daughter of the original murder eight years ago--a nickname because she was asleep with her toys and not seen by the killer. Dance has to find her and see what she remembers about the night of the killings. Nothing is quite what it seems to be . . .

Meagan Fischer 

It's a thriller, what can I say. The sexism is kept to a minimum, though it is there in the supposedly 'benign' variety. That's typical of the genre. The story was compelling, but if it wasn't, it wouldn't be a thriller. I did want to read the next book in the series.

Aubrey Hicks

Melany Gironelli 

Kathy Rodger 

A vicious killer escapes from a California super-prison and embarks on a mysterious and deadly quest. It's up to Kathryn Dance and her CBI partners to track him down before he can get to the lone survivor of the murders he had committed. Now in a tall Premium Edition.

The Sleeping Doll

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