The Sleeping Doll: Amazon.co.uk: Jeffery Deaver: Books

31 Reviews

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

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3.5 out of 5 stars (31 customer reviews)

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44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Readable, but flawed, 29 Jul 2007

By	G. J. Oxley "Gaz" (Tyne & Wear, England) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Sleeping Doll (Hardcover)

In this, the first of a new series, Deaver brings back Californian Special Agent Kathryn Dance - a kinesics expert (basically she's a walking lie detector and expert in body language) - who had a cameo in his last Lincoln Rhyme novel 'The Cold Moon'

A murderous cult leader named Daniel Pell escapes from prison after years inside and the majority of this book explores his motivations and actions and the efforts of the law enforcement agencies (with Dance to the fore) to re-apprehend him.

Dance plays the Lincoln Rhyme role here, attempting to out-think Pell and predict what he'll do next.

She does this by gaining insights into his psychology from a series of interviews with those who've had previous contact with him. They include three female members of the cult he led before his incarceration and the young girl he overlooked when murdering a moneyed family in their home: the `Sleeping Doll' of the title.

Without wishing to give anything of the subsequent plot away, Deaver challenges your perceptions by turning situation after situation on its head with some skilful (and sometimes not so skilful) misdirection.

Jeff's stock-in-trade is the outrageous twist, and he's capable of delivering these with more aplomb than anyone else operating in the crime thriller field. And his characterisation is usually way above average too.

But some of his famous twists are a bit laboured here. If, like me, you've read everything he's written in both the shorter and longer formats, you'll find some of them a bit obvious. Which doesn't mean to say you still won't admire the way he pulls them off.

Another negative is that although Kathryn Dance emerges as a fully-formed character, she's just not very interesting, and Jeff struggles to breathe life into her. Her particular schtick, although potentially fascinating, doesn't seem 100% credible either, and on the whole she pales in comparison when placed next to his greatest creation, the irascible genius Lincoln Rhyme.

At the book's closure he acknowledges the sources that formed his background reading into Dance's area of expertise. And although the whole body language thing seems a bit unconvincing, he skilfully weaves his research into the narrative with nary a lapse into psychobabble.

And full marks to the writer for trying to create a new type of investigator here; you can't accuse him of lacking ambition!

In summary, despite some tedious moments and the occasional meandering passage, this is solid enough fare with something for both old fans and neophytes alike.

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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Deaver's best, 22 Aug 2008

By	KM (England) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

Jeffery Deaver is best known for his Lincoln Rhyme novels, which - let's be honest - are some of the best books in the world of modern crime fiction today. So when I heard that he had written a new novel with a new lead character, I just couldn't wait to get my hands on it and give it a go.

The story follows CBI agent and kinesic expert, Kathryn Dance who is hot on the trail of a highly dangerous escaped convict who was imprisoned 8 years ago after the murders of a family, leaving only one surviving family member who was asleep in her pile of dolls at the time, dubbing her the nickname "The Sleeping Doll".

When I'd gotten to the end of this book I couldn't help but feel disappointed with it. For me the characters just weren't that interesting with some very basic characteristics and predictable and dull backgrounds. Theresa Croydon (The Sleeping Doll) also wasn't really in it all that much (she doesn't appear in it for about 350 pages then is only in it for a brief time), despite the name of the book being named after her.

The storyline was ok and fairly action packed for the most part but also felt very dragged out and could have easily been a considerable amount of pages shorter. The ending also felt like it went on way too long and I had lost interest in the last 50 pages or so. The twists were all also not all that surprising as I could see them coming from a mile off. Personally, I felt that this very much read like an action film script with not much of a complex plot or twists but a lot of near-miss pursuits, a high amount of killings and high speed action.

I'm not saying I didn't enjoy this book as it was a fairly decent thriller, but it just wasn't up to the high standards that I'd expect from a well established and excellent writer like Deaver. However this is the first in the series for this new character so I will stick with it as the CBI team were all pretty likeable characters and it was quite an easy read.

Overall, if you read this expecting something parallel to the greatness of the Lincoln Rhyme novels I guarantee you will be disappointed, otherwise you should enjoy this and it makes for a perfect Summer read.

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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but far from the best., 14 Feb 2008

By	Sam Anders (Scotland) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Sleeping Doll (Hardcover)

I have to confess to being a huge Jeffery Deaver fan, I love his books and I've read most of them so when this came out I got my hands on it as soon as possible. It's a real shame to say it but I was really underwhelmed by this initially promising book.
First off, this is a spin-off from the Lincoln Rhyme series centered around Kathryn Dance, a kinesics expert who featured in 'The Cold Moon'. Dance is a strong central character at first and this book being based around kinesics rather than forensics makes a nice change not unreminiscent of 'The Devil's Teardrop'. Sadly the kinesics angle simply becomes repetitive as Dance interviews key person after key person with the same techniques and outcome which though relatively accurate to fact is not always very engaging since the whole process takes on a severe inevitability later on in the book. Dance herself is explored a fair bit in the book and shows a fair chunk of potential, however she's simply not as good a protagonist as Rhyme and she lacks enough individual charm to carry a book off on her own like Kincaid or Gillette could in 'The Devil's Teardrop' and 'The Blue Nowhere' respectively. Dance shows promise, but she would have probably been better kept as a continuing Rhyme character then a book's focus in and of herself.
The villain of 'The Sleeping Doll' is by far it's strongest point. Daniel Pell is a creepy and threatening force who oozes pure menace throughout the characteristically twisted plot, he stays unsettling and genuinely frightening to the very end but Deaver was never going to be able to make a whole book work purely on the basis of a really good villain.
The plot has all the trademark Deaver twists you'd expect, though seasoned fans may spot a few coming there's so many in there towards the end you'll definitely be surprised at least a few times and that's always good. I don't want to give too much away here so I'll stop just in case.
There's a further issue with the book that really damaged my enjoyment of it, which had not happened before with Deaver and isn't his fault, and that is the proof reading. I have no idea who proof read this thing but they did an appalling job since there are sentences and words repeated all over the place that are clearly Deaver just getting too caught up in what he's writing and that shouldn't be a problem since a half decent proof reader would pick up on and change them immediately but for some reason that didn't happen here and it really pulls you out of the book and gets pretty confusing in a few places.
'The Sleeping Doll' is an effective psychological thriller with an excellent villain and an adequate if underwhelming heroine, it's fun to read and still manages to surprise it's reader. But it's not all that great, Deaver's not given himself the best tools to work with and he's not used them as well as you'd expect from him. The novel's also badly proof read which is a major fault you wouldn't expect and can really hamper your enjoyment of the book. An OK installment for fans looking for something to tide them over till the next Lincoln Rhyme book, but that's really all it is - OK.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars fab
The first Jeffrey Deaver book I read [the cold moon] featured Kathryn Dance and I loved the character. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Suze

3.0 out of 5 stars Not a satisfying Deaver read
I've read a number of Jeffrey Deaver books. They typically focus on a lone investigator (or department head) as he (or she in this case) investigates a crime. Read more

Published 3 months ago by J. Bowen

3.0 out of 5 stars Reasonable, but not great
First in the Kathryn Dance series (an agent with the California Bureau of Investigation and an expert in 'kinesics' - body language). Read more

Published 3 months ago by Moo

3.0 out of 5 stars Creepy cover isn't it?!
I've not read any of his work before so I had no expectations from this.

Not a bad thriller and I liked his female heroine. Read more

Published 4 months ago by Yorkshire Lass

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good read
This is my first read of Jeffery Deaver outside of the "Rhyme" series which i had started to find a little "same as". Read more

Published 4 months ago by Barry F. Cheverst

4.0 out of 5 stars Exciting chase to catch an escaped killer
This is the first book I've read by Jeffrey Deaver so I cannot compare it to his others but I certainly enjoyed this one. Read more

Published 5 months ago by crime reader

4.0 out of 5 stars Below par for Deaver
An alleged cult leader and murderer (Daniel Pell) escapes from jail after being interviewed by an agent (Kathyrn Dance) in respect of a new unsolved crime. Read more

Published 6 months ago by johnverp

4.0 out of 5 stars Cult Fiction
First I must complement G.J.Oxley and Sam Anders for their reviews of this novel, I read both and wondered what I can do to add anything of real use to anybody, but I'll have a... Read more

Published 6 months ago by OEJ

4.0 out of 5 stars An enjoyable read, but over-research gets in the way.
I enjoy Jeffery Deaver books, and have read most of them. There is one thing that has started to irk me slightly about his writing and it is the fact that he has Done His... Read more

Published 8 months ago by K. Street

3.0 out of 5 stars Fairly Good Thriller
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... Read more

Published 8 months ago by J.Flood

› See all 31 customer reviews...

	67% buy the item featured on this page: The Sleeping Doll 3.5 out of 5 stars (31) �4.79
	9% buy The Cold Moon 3.7 out of 5 stars (42) �5.99
	8% buy The Coffin Dancer 4.6 out of 5 stars (28) �6.29
	8% buy Broken Window 4.3 out of 5 stars (6)


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The Sleeping Doll (Paperback)

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