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booklover

Emotional Crime Thriller

Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2017

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Many thanks to the author for the digital copy of this crime thriller. Opinions expressed here are unsolicited, unbiased, and entirely my own.

Two men have been repeatedly stabbed and thrown in the canal. Dr. Kate Pearson is called in to help police investigate. One was a very rich man, one was a vagrant. What's their connection?

Adrian Hamilton drowned 35 years ago. Accident or suicide? His daughter Clogagh has holes in her memory. She's always felt that her mother hated her and her older brother always kept secrets from her.

Clodaugh is now visiting a hypnotherapist to help her regain the bits of memory she has forgotten. Disturbing childhood memories float to the surface and another tragedy is revealed.

Someone is watching Clodagh. The more she remembers, the closer she gets to becoming the latest victim.

This is a well-written mystery. Lots of emotions from the characters keep the suspense on the upper side of edgy. Fright, fearfulness, panic, agitation bounce around like ping pong balls. The story ricochets from 35 years ago and it is mainly Clodagh's voice we hear as a child.

Then we see and hear today's grown-up Clodagh trying to put the pieces together while Dr. Pearson and O'Connor, the investigating officer desperately hunt a serial killer before he takes another vicitm.

Worduser

Great "Who Done it" from page one

Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2014

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The way the author weaves in and out is love at first sight. Hard to put the book down and when you have it all figured out there is more and you are quite wrong. Thus another reason to love the book and the writing. I get into character development and Louise takes her time informing us of how screwed up human emotions can be. Kate is so smooth you feel like she's an old friend talking about something that happened in her life. Her life is as messed as some of the characters and yet she manages to preform as expected even when things are crumbling around her. Cloddish is a lost sole in search of self, Dominic is surprising and ... well I can't disclose what Dominic does or doesn't do. Martin is also one who may be, could be a prime suspect or n to have anything to do with the mess, and then you have the cop - O'Connor and his troubles and budding romance mixed with other police business and mistakes, but this just opens more doors for the reader to grasp with both hands and want more. Fact is we want more or all these wonderful characters - the good and evil ones. What a fun escapade from page one all the way to the ending. You run out of guesses along the way as Louise teases us the readers into believing we have it all figured out. Oh you gotta love a good mystery that's well written. This author takes me back to my school days when reading writers from the UK or surrounding areas sucked my heart and soul into stories and ignited my youthful imagination. I loved The Doll's House - gave it 5-Stars and each one is well deserved. Can't wait to read her next book.

M. Sutherland

Pretty good but choppy

Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2014

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The story was exciting but very distracting with all the 2 page chapters. You barely understand who've you jumped to and the chapter ends so you're off to another thread. I stuck with it so can say the story was good. I can only imagine how gripping it would have been if each chapter went a little deeper and each character was filled out a little more. The multiple short chapters were really agonizing as we came to the end. There was one location yet a chapter for each character as we closed in on the conclusion.
Mild recommendation.

Lovetoread

Finally, a real book!

Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2014

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I was very impressed with the suspense and the amount of research that must have gone into this book. It is a unique psychological thriller about Kate who is psychologist working as a criminal profiler. Kate has a young son and a shattered marriage. She works closely with Detective O'Connor on a case of serial murders. It was very interesting but I wished for more romance between the two of them. Would definitely recommend!

mary

Read it

Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2014

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I've read so many books since reading The Doll's House that most of what I remember is that I thought it was terrific. I was intrigued by the author's method of getting to the bottom of all the deaths/murders. There were periods of excitement, fear, pity for Clodaugh. Her history of alcoholism was sad in the way it treated her life. This psychological thriller was just that! Many advertised that way are not.

BJ

Who done it, why, where, when and how?

Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2014

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Good book, kept me reading, not an edge of the seat mystery though. A bit too many characters to keep track of on my Kindle. Well written, though, and characters were well defined/described. Not too much blood and guts and the language was interspersed with the F word but not enough to make me say: Doesn't the author know any other word?

helen hamilton

The dolls house

Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2019

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Good book, very well written, about a young girl and her family who has put her at risk but with the help of Kate she is able to survive.

tothemoonz

Storyline was Good

Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2018

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The character Kate, comes across as arrogant; not a good personality trait for professional. Her talking to the negotiator was irritating, as if the trained professional negotiator was incapable of doing her job.

Top reviews from other countries

Cleopatra

An Intriguing mystery with themes of lost memories

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 19, 2013

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Louise Phillips n demonstrates her ability to weave a cracking good tale in the second book in the series. Following on from Red Ribbons we catch up with Kate Pearson, who is a criminal psychologist who again called in to work with Detective Inspector O'Connor.

Set in Ireland this tale, like her debut, is told from multiple viewpoints of Kate Pearson, Clodagh McKay and the shadowy figure of the murderer himself. Personally I found Clodagh's story by far the most interesting and engaging of the book. Clodagh is the mother of a teenage daughter, has a marriage which has all that dissolved and a drink problem and crucially is the owner of the Doll's House.

The story begins with the murder of the presenter of a TV show which allows members of the public to air their dirty laundry in exchange for five minutes of fame on daytime TV and it is presumed that he will have made a few enemies along the way. Within pages another body is added to the pile....

One of the aspects of this book which I enjoyed the most was the uncovering of memories. Clodagh visits a hypnotist to try and remember key events in her childhood while Kate, as if she wasn't busy enough, is trying to help an anorexic girl in her practice who suffers from memory gaps. This added another dimension to the puzzle of the motive and perpetrator of the murders as I willed Clodagh to remember what had really happened all those years before. Themes of memories and the effects childhood trauma run throughout the book as Clodagh fights to find out what is being kept from her along with the reasons for the truth being withheld.

In conclusion an absorbing read although I found it a little off-putting that Clodagh appeared to believe that the dolls knew the answers despite realising that this was the device used to uncover those shadowy events of childhood.

Merlin O'Donnell

Disappointed

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 29, 2018

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After reading her first in the series, Red Ribbons, I was expecting another riveting read. The main storyline about the murders became muddled to me by all the business dealing. These characters were vague and uninteresting.. The other central characters didn't convince me apart from the sister. what was fascinating were the regression scenes and the ongoing going somewhere relationship between Kate and O'Connell .. Not sure now whether to risk The Kiss .

G. M. Banks

Memories are made of this?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 1, 2015

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This is the second of Louise Phillips' books I have read - and I've loved both of them. I like the emerging characters of Kate Pearson, and DI O'Connor - and the battles they are each fighting within themselves. The other main characters in this book - Clodagh, Dominic and Martin - are fascinating in their own right - and Clodagh's story in particular is gripping as it unfolds from the shadows of her memory. Part of the appeal for me is that the locations of the book are my own - Ranelagh, Leeson Street, the Grand Canal, Sandymount - all places I know - even if many street names are fictional (to protect the innocent perhaps?!). I am already looking forward to reading the next book in the series 'Last Kiss' - and I hope there'll be more to come after that.

Kindle Customer

Gripping and Believable

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 26, 2017

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Told over a period of time, this a family keeping secrets from themselves and each other. Set in Ireland, in an old house on the coast, a wife's suspicions about her husband's business and his links with a murdered man put her whole family in danger. she tries to revert back to her childhood, often playing with her dolls house when she felt safe talking with her dolls. Unfortunately, the memories she

Sam

A great read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 15, 2017

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I must say I enjoyed this immensely an unusual plot with so many twists and turns I couldn't figure the baddie til almost the end the characters are engaging with even the goodies having there own problems read it you won't regret it.

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