The Dollmaker

Amanda Stevens
MIRA Books (2007)
ISBN 0778324281
Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson for Reader Views (3/07)

You can bet that a book which includes references to my favorite city, New Orleans; my favorite flowers, orchids; and my favorite collectibles, dolls; will pique my interests and I will expect a lot from it. More often than not such a variety of subjects in one book would end in a nearly disastrous hodge-podge and I’ll be hard pressed to even finish it.

Amanda Stevens’ “The Dollmaker” was not one of those. I picked it up in the early afternoon and immediately got totally engrossed in the creepy world she so masterfully describes. The dinner did not get cooked that night and I finally got to bed around three a.m. Needless to say I slept with my nightlight on.

What makes Ms. Stevens’ book so creepy is that it is so utterly believable. Her descriptions of the bayou country as well as of the wickedly beautiful city of New Orleans are among the best I’ve ever read. Take a look at this:

“Twilight always fell anxiously over the Big Easy, especially when it rained. That’s when the ghosts came out. A wisp of steam rising from the wet pavement. The murmur of voices from a hidden courtyard. Something dark and stealthy moving in the shadows, and suddenly you were reminded of a past that would not stay buried. New Orleans was like that. A city of memories, Dave Creasy always called it. A city of secrets and whispers and the kind of regret that could eat a man up inside. Like the wrong woman, she’d get in a man’s blood, destroy his soul, make him feel alive and dead at the same time. And on a hot, rainy night – when the ghosts came out – it could be the loneliest place on earth.”

Corrupt cops, talented artists, con men, drunkards, beautiful Creoles, desperate mothers, bayou dwellers, exotic dancers, abused children, abducted children… The characters in the book are just like New Orleans – very believable and never quite what they seem at the first glance. They are believable and convincing.

The story is gripping and once you get into it, you will be very hard pressed to put the book down. Ms. Stevens writing keeps pulling you in. The reader wants to find out more; not just more of the story, but more of the motivation behind the acts committed in it.

Claire Doucett’s child vanished seven years ago without a trace. Shopping in the French Quarter one day she sees this incredibly lifelike doll that looks just like her daughter. Before she could find out more about it, the doll disappears. Then the shop owner ends up murdered. Her ex-husband might be the only person who could help her with her quest. Will he help? Could he help?

This was one of the most mesmerizing, chilling thrillers I’ve read in a long time and I would highly recommend “The Dollmaker” to anybody who enjoys a nerve-racking, hair-raising book.

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