The Dollmaker by Amanda Stevens
The Dollmaker
By Amanda Stevens
Mira
March 1, 2007
ISBN-10: 0778324281
ISBN-13: 978-0778324287
Claire Doucett’s life hasn’t been the same since her daughter, Ruby, was abducted seven years earlier in New Orleans. Neither
Claire nor her ex-husband, Dave, ever really got over the kidnapping of their daughter. But without ever knowing for sure what had happened to their child, how could they ever be the same? While Claire spent the intervening years making an attempt to put her life back together by remarrying, Dave tried to numb his pain and guilt in a bottle. Neither was very successful.
At the opening of the story, Claire is once again in the middle of a divorce and attempting to get her own life together. Her soon-to-be-ex-husband believes she’s obsessed with finding her daughter alive and well, but Claire knows she could never walk away from the possibility of finding out what happened to Ruby. When she spies a doll in the window of a New Orleans shop, she
is struck by the uncanny likeness the doll bears to her daughter – down to the pink, frilly dress Ruby was wearing the day she disappeared.
Claire approaches Dave to help her get some answers that she’s certain will give her some closure, and he agrees, even though he’s already been drawn into another investigation tied to the one he was working on when their daughter disappeared. He
sifts through the shattered and sometimes murky world of a post-Katrina New Orleans, disturbing more than a few old ghosts
along the way.
Amanda Stevens takes the reader on a journey that is, at turns, heart-breaking, bone-chilling, and hopeful. The Dollmaker is a psychological thriller that will stay with you long after you finish the book.
- Reviewed by Jennifer Brooks
