Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780743491587
ISBN: 0743491580
Label: Pocket Star
Manufacturer: Pocket Star
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 608
Publication Date: 2008-05-20
Publisher: Pocket Star
Studio: Pocket Star

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.

But the girl never spoke about that night, nor did the crime's mastermind. Indeed, Pell has long been both reticent and unrepentant about the crime. And so with the murderer transported from the Capitola superprison to an interrogation room in the Monterey County Courthouse, Dance sees an opportunity to pry a confession from him for the recent murder -- and to learn more about the depraved mind of this career criminal who considers himself a master of control, a dark Svengali, forcing people to do what they otherwise would never conceive of doing. In an electrifying psychological jousting match, Dance calls up all her skills as an interrogator and kinesics -- body language -- expert to get to the truth behind Daniel Pell.

But when Dance's plan goes terribly wrong and Pell escapes, leaving behind a trail of dead and injured, she finds herself in charge of her first-ever manhunt. But far from simply fleeing, Pell turns on his pursuers -- and other innocents -- for reasons Dance and her colleagues can't discern. As the idyllic Monterey Peninsula is paralyzed by the elusive killer, Dance turns to the past to find the truth about what Daniel Pell is really up to. She tracks down the now teenage Sleeping Doll to learn what really happened that night, and she arranges a reunion of three women who were in his cult at the time of the killings. The lies of the past and the evasions of the present boil up under the relentless probing of Kathryn Dance, but will the truth about Daniel Pell emerge in time to stop him from killing again?

Customer Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good Thriller
Comment: In The Sleeping Doll, a convicted killer and leader of a cult, Daniel Pell has escaped prison. It is up to the novel's main protagonist, Kathryn Dance, an agent with the California Bureau of Investagation, to track him down. Kathryn is an expert in kinesics - an ability to read body lanuage and behaviour.

I found this book quite a fairly enjoyable read. The cast of characters is quite solid, with the manipulative Daniel Pell, making an interesting, formidable and creepy villian. The character of Kathryn Dance is quite well thought out, also.

I would not cast storyline as a page turner. It is action packed in some parts, slow in others. The story has the usual Jeffery Deaver twists, that you may not see coming if you have not read any of this author's novels before. If you have, they may not come as such of a suprise. Overall, not a bad read, but not as good as the Lincoln Rhyme novels.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Not the Deaver I like
Comment: Could not find the magic Mr Deaver gives to his twisted plots, in the sleeping doll. He keeps doing what he has been doing in his latest books, no twist and turns the way I like and the unveiling of the mystery in the last chapters, the pace was in a way slow, to the point that I could guess that he had an ace under the sleeve with a given character. I was neither thrilled nor enthralled with this story

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Slow Read, No Mystery
Comment: The back of the book sounded very intriguing but I was hugely disappointed when I started reading it. I struggled through the first 100 pages before finally giving up. There is no mystery involved and little action takes place. I didn't want to waste my time on a book where the whole premise was a cat and mouse game and where there was no real mystery. After reading the other reviews here, I'm glad I put it down.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Comment: Full of twist, turns and suprises. It is one of the best books I've read in a long time, though a bit too wordy, otherwise an excellent book. I thought Katherine and Michael were great lead characters. The tension between the two -- romance but can't because he's married -- made the book much more interesting. I can't wait for the second Katherine Dance book.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Sleeping Doll fun & "fictionally real"!
Comment: I just finished listening to "Sleeping Doll" by Jeffrey Deaver. I live in the county where the"Capitola Maximum Security" prison is supposedly located. Now that IS fiction (e.g. Capitola-by-the-Sea is a lovely seaside community with a very small police department and if anything a "holding cell"!) but most of the other locations are real, tho' in some cases renamed. As usual Deaver's novel is exciting,emotional and for me trips to many places I've frequented.

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