The Sleeping Doll (Kathryn Dance Series #1)

This was my first Deaver novel and I was hooked from the very be

This was my first Deaver novel and I was hooked from the very beginning. An excellent, great page turner with a twisting plot. You think you've figured it out when he hits you with another twist! Highly recommend!!

My new favorite series!

I am a big fan of Deaver and I love the first book in this series. Very entertaining. Kathryn Dance is as brillant as Kay Scarpetta. Great plot and surprise ending. I highly recommend.

Inconsistent and Disappointing

This is a poor effort from a pretty talented author of the Lincoln Rhyme series. Too many contrived pieces of the plot and Kathryn Dance is a one-dimensional character who is particularly tedious by the end.

It is What it is.

I believe this book has a lot of inconsistencies in the story. For the most part it was a good plot which included the two-dimensional Kathryn Dance, a Private Detective, her children, Daniel Pell (the bad guy), and Daniel Pell's accomplice. Daniel Pell was a supposed Manson worshipper, who is a cold-blooded killer. In the beginning he and a mysterious accomplice organize a jail break where many policemen and killed. Pell then goes on the lam and the whole book is about the chase. Slightly disappointing.

about the Sleeping Doll

I just finished the Sleeping Doll and in some parts of the story, I didn't want to stop reading! I like the new character of Kathryn Dance, along with the other law enforcers.
Suspense was high in this story and also the psychological baseline with the twisted ending was great and very unexpected.
I admire Jeffery Deaver as a writer that can go from Lincoln Rhyme on the forensic science kind of law enforcement to Kathrn Dance who is on the typical leg/field work side of law enforement.
I really liked how all characters in this story came with a vivid description. The story line was edgy and very real to actual police work.
It takes a very talented author to invent and tell this story!

A good first start to a new series...

The are pluses to this one, I like Katheryn Dance, I like what she does and she is believable. The plot is good and kinistetics (sp?) is a ew way to go with books. However, if Deaver tells me one more time how it works within this book, I am going to have to bury it in the back yard. He goes into the mothods more than once and repeats himself constantly. I wanted to explain to him that I am not an indiot and I got it. Once you learn to skip these parts, the book was a good read.

Reviewed for Midwest Book Review

California Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Kathryn Dance is a renowned interrogator with an expertise in kinesics. Kathryn is sent to question prisoner Daniel Pell, known as the "son of Manson" due to his cult activities and the brutal slaying of the wealthy Croyton family in Carmel, mimicking the murders committed by the Manson family years earlier. Pell has recently been linked to another murder and Kathryn hopes to learn more about Pell and his reasons behind the murders. After the interview, Pell manages to escape and begins a murderous rampage, targeting those he feels have maligned him in the past in some way. Kathryn leads the investigation, aided by her good friend Michael O'Neil, chief deputy with the Monterey County Sheriff's Office, and Winston Kellogg, a cult expert from the FBI. Kathryn turns to the three women who were part of Pell's family years before, as well as the one victim he left behind when he murdered the Croytons, in hopes they can offer clues as to where Pell may be hiding.

This series is a refreshing addition to the mystery genre; exploring the intriguing world of kinesics and the role it plays in criminal investigations as well as everyday life. Kathryn Dance is captivating, an intelligent woman who is now widowed and whose priority is keeping her small family together. As always, Deaver offers his reader plenty of forensics information packed within a suspenseful plot.

Another great story, from a truly great writer!

This is a book you simply can't put down. Just when you begin to believe you know where the story is going, Mr. Deaver shifts gears, reverses direction, and heads down another lane.

Good start and end with some slow places thru-out.

Again, I learned someting new by reading one of Mr. Deaver's books. His research [see Author's Notes at back of book] add much to the interrogation sceens. Story could have moved a little faster.

Finally another strong woman character

I want to start with I am a HUGE Kay Scarpetta fan. Thank you Mr. Deaver for creating another character in this vein. I'm hooked. Keep writing. And if you haven't read this yet, dear reader friends, buy it!

The Sleeping Doll (Kathryn Dance Series #1)

IT WAS A GIFT

A great read

A real pager-turner, all the way to the end.

An Interesting Twist On The Series

Readers of Deaver's The Cold Moon will be familiar with the heroine in this story, Katherine Dance, a kinesics expert who assisted Lincoln Rhymes. Her area of expertise is the interpretation of human body language, and its application to criminal investigation. I enjoyed her character in The Cold Moon and found this area of kinesics to be fascinating, and I was excited to read a story that featured her as the heroine.

The story itself was pretty good, and had the usual plots twists one expects from a Deaver novel. But in this story, I felt Deaver was struggling a bit with Katherine as the lead. Different aspects of her character were very disjointed, and dry. I felt like the author would be telling a story and then it would be time to tell the reader a whole lot about kinesics, so he would have Katherine interview a suspect. But then it was like he felt it was time to show some "girly" stuff, so he would include random bits about her shoes. Then back to the regular plot. It felt like Deaver was giving us pieces of how he felt a female heroine should be portrayed, rather than the complex, insightful character she could have been.

This is a great read if your looking for something light that you can loose yourself in for a little while, but don't expect more than that.

Mixed Emotions

This was my first book by Deaver. I picked up the hardcover edition at a bargain price. I have to say that I have some mixed emotions. Would I say it was great? No. Would I say it was bad? No. The storyline was good, a Charles Manson type killer escapes from prison & agent Katherine Dance must find him before more people die & he disappears forever. The basis of Dance is an interesting one, a human lie detector who can interrogate criminals & know by body language & speech if they are being truthful or not. When she's not working she is the mother of 2 children. I liked Dance with a few exceptions. This woman is hunting down a killer but there are many comments on the shoes she is wearing with big flowers on them. Apparantly she keeps spare sandals in her closet in her office too. When she interrogates people she slips on a pair of black glasses that shows she means business. These are just a few of the small details that started to annoy me & caused me to take her a little less seriously. She is a widow, yet she still has the same last name as her parents, did she not change her name when she was married? Why? This is never touched on. Aside from the main character, the character of the killer, Daniel Pell, is an intriguing one. 95% of the book was interesting enough to keep me reading but no real suspense. The end got a little better, some unexpected twists. I think the main reason I liked the book was because of the "bad guy", Daniel Pell. I'm giving it 4 stars because in the end, overall, I would have to say I enjoyed it. I'm not sure I enjoyed it enough to follow Katherine Dance through future books though.

Even though you know who they are looking for, the chase is on!

I would buy the next Kathryn Dance book. The characters are interesting and even though you know who they are looking for, the story-line holds your attention. A couple of good twists and turns.

Great Read

I absolutely love this new character, Kathryn Dance. I couldn't read fast enough to find out what happened and I can't wait until the next novel featuring her comes out.

the sleeping doll

I really liked this book. I look forward to more books with Kathryn Dance. For someone who has yet to read anything by Jeffery Deaver, however, I would suggest they start out with the first in the Lincoln Rhyme series.

Hopefully not the norm

If this is Deaver's regular writing style, I'll pass on his other books. He needs a strong editor to cut the chaff from the wheat. There's way too much pedantic, smug "let me tell you about kinesics to show you how smart I am" that weighs down the plot, along with so-called character development. The characters are flat and the 'twists' in the plot are so frequent as to call attention to themselves as devices and unnecessary to good story-telling.

Made me wish I was sleeping at times

Deaver as we all know is the king in this genre, well at least in my opinion but this book was actually boring more than it was exciting. I thought the story idea was pretty intense. The lunatic (Pell) was believeable to a point but I just thought the fella was a Harvard grad. He was pretty bright, always knew the perfect trick to escape but hey its fiction, right! Agent Dance was pretty good. Her walking lie detector self was in top form for this one but at times Deaver went back to her personal life taking some enjoyment away from me. I would just get amped up about something good and here would come a reflection about her dead husband or how hot Winston was.............. Ouch! In the end the book was well written but seriously wasnt it a bit long. Dont get me wrong I love the long ones but only if the extra 100 pages is worth the time. This one was not! It was at least 100-120 pages of filler material for what I have no clue. Characters were good, plot, twists and so on were typical Deaver and all great. Nothing he writes comes close to the Rhyme series but I am glad he keeps trying since some of his other books are pretty decent.

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Loved It

This was the first of Deaver's books I have read and I absolutely enjoyed it. I thought it was thrilling and interesting. Deaver did an amazing job intertwining fact and fiction, as well as parallels between the main plot and his characters' lives. The struggle for power and control not just with Pell, but with all the character's throughout the novel really kept you entertained.