The Doll Maker
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4.2 • 18 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Detectives Byrne and Balzano return to the streets of Philadelphia to put an end to a macabre succession of murdered children.
A quiet Philadelphia suburb. A woman cycles past a train depot with her young daughter. There she finds a murdered girl posed on a newly painted bench. Beside her is a formal invitation to a tea dance in a week's time.
Seven days later, two more young victims are discovered in an abandoned house, posed on painted swings. At the scene is an identical invitation. This time, though, there is something extra waiting for Detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano: a delicate porcelain doll.
It's a message. And a threat. With the killers at large, Detectives Byrne and Balzano have just seven more days to find the link between the murders before another innocent child is snatched from the streets.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Montanari's compelling eighth crime novel featuring Philadelphia police detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano (after 2014's The Stolen Ones) opens with the particularly gruesome murder of a prostitute that some readers may find off-putting. After this scene, the book turns into a detailed police procedural, as Byrne and Balzano's investigation leads them from one killing to an ever more complex series of grotesque crimes and a baffling array of questions. Why is a doll left at the scene of each execution? What is the connection among the victims? The plot goes down an astonishing number of byways, including the history and technology of doll making, the psychology of collectors, and the covert meanings of popular songs. Montanari creates a large cast of believable, moving characters, men and women with families, needs, and histories. The workings of the Philadelphia PD are as detailed and convincing as those of Isola in an Ed McBain novel, in which the city itself becomes a virtual character.
