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Loading... The Sleeping Doll: A Novel (Kathryn Dance Book 1) (original 2007; edition 2007)by Jeffery Deaver (Author)
Work InformationThe Sleeping Doll by Jeffery Deaver (2007)
   Books Read in 2014 (182) No current Talk conversations about this book.  MartyFried | Oct 9, 2022 |  booklover3258 | Apr 7, 2021 | I was really intrigued by the character of Kathryn Dance in "Cold Moon." Having a character that uses kinesics in order to get witnesses and suspects to open up and or confess. In "The Sleeping Doll" we get more information on the character of Kathryn Dance. She works at the California Bureau of Investigation (think of a state office set up like the FBI) and is about to interrogate a man who murdered a family decades earlier (Daniel Pell). Pell is seen as similar to Charles Manson due to having his own family (teenage girls) who he commanded to steal from stores and homes in order to support the family. When new information comes up linking Pell to a murder Dance is set in to break him and get him to confess. Too late Dance realizes that Pell is up to something and then he escapes. This books follows Dance's efforts to track down and stop Pell as well as following Pell as he continues to wreck havoc. There are multiple POVs in this book per usual for a Deaver book. We get Dance, Pell, and some of the teens (now older women) who came under Pell's spell decades earlier. We also get a POV from a writer who is going to write about the family that was murdered and the lone survivor of that murder (the so called Sleeping Doll). Deaver manages to do a good job shifting from each POV. I was honestly surprised since I thought it be too much. I can say I wanted more of Dance though. Deaver was slow to reveal details about Dance, but at least I had questions answered about her from "Cold Moon." Due to Dance being a widow she has a lot of trouble trying to establish a new relationship without dealing with her kids disapproval. And because of Dance's special abilities she does a lot of analysis of her friends and family. It's kind of like being around a human version of a Vulcan. Deaver gets a bit too in depth at times when explaining Dance's methods when interrogating cooperative and uncooperative witnesses. We also get to see how Pell manipulates people around him. And we definitely focus more on people's motivations, thought processes, and even body movements. I found this whole thing pretty fascinating. The flow worked nicely in this one and of course we get typical Deaver twists, though they work in this one. Unlike with the Rhyme books I didn't feel like these were meant to shock. If you're paying attention you realize that Deaver was giving clues all along the way. The setting of this one takes place in California. What I wish we had gotten more details about is the areas near Dance. Deaver provides details on Dance's home and her deck (which features prominently in this book) but I would have liked the same attention of detail regarding the history of the state and town they are in like he does in the Rhyme books. The ending left me with some questions regarding Dance, her romantic relationships, and her family. I can't wait for the next one. (  ) ObsidianBlue | Jul 1, 2020 | another good Deaver thriller - but this time a pleasant break from Lincoln Rhyme when he stars Kathryn Dance, a character introduced in Cold Moon. Plenty of twists and turns as only Deaver can offer - although one I felt unnecessary. Not his best, but still a very solid novel. (  ) ker95tx | May 27, 2020 | This was a very engrossing book. Lots of plot twists and turns, that took me by surprise. An interesting look into a cult leaders mind set too. ( ) readingover50 | Jun 11, 2019 | no reviews | add a review
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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? No library descriptions found. 
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.65)
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Wikipedia in English
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The last one I read, "The Cold Moon," introduced a new character, Kathryn Dance, from the Calif Bureau of Investigation. She came to help, and at first Rhyme had little interest, as she used psychological methods as opposed to his scientific physical evidence, and he's very opinionated and thought his method was the only way.
After she proved to be very helpful, he began to give in a bit. I think that the two of them as a team are better than either one, and I'd like to see more collaboration between them.
When I found out there was a series with Kathryn Dance, I jumped at the chance to read one, and was not disappointed. This book was one I had trouble putting down. When it seemed to be over, there was still more. Then, when it really seemed to be over, there was even more. This is somewhat typical of what I've seen from Deaver; you can never think you know the whole story til it's over. (